I have just came across a rather illuminating article on the role of Data Scientist in organizations where the need of navigating the “Big Data seas” is one of their strategic priorities:

http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2012-09/harvard-business-review-data-scientist-sexiest-job-21st-century

Although a Data Scientist is expected to be statistically savvy, a science or IT degree is not compulsory to be good at such role. Some of  brightest data scientists hold doctorates or postgraduate certifications in areas apparently distant from the main goals of analyzing and interpreting patterns in data. I personally value cross-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary and I am not surprise to hear that there are great professionals out there who do not specifically come from an IT/Math background. I am a proud Philosophy graduated and that has given me an “elastic” mindset to proceed with my postgraduate studies in Computing and embark in an IT career.