Clive Humby
Clive Humby is a British data scientist and mathematician best known for his quote "Data is the new oil." He co-founded the data science company, The Proximity, which was later acquired by Acxiom. Despite popular belief, he didn't originate this phrase in a formal statement or paper; it was reportedly mentioned during an interview with The Guardian in 2006.
The analogy likens data to oil because just as oil fuels the industrial economy, data drives the information economy. It's a valuable resource that can be refined and transformed into useful products or insights. However, like oil, data must be extracted, cleaned, analyzed, and processed to become valuable—a process often referred to as 'data refining.'
It's important to note that while Humby is the one most commonly associated with this metaphor, he didn't trademark the phrase, and its exact origin might not be definitively traceable. The quote has since been widely used and popularized in discussions about data's role in today's digital age.