Welcome
I enjoy building data-driven applications which generate added value for organizations and individuals. I like to come up with innovative ideas, build proof of concept cases and assess their potential value in the process. I also enjoy building full-blown scalable, distributed and production-ready applications. To me, the scope of a project should always include the transformation of raw data into meaningful new insights by applying data analytics. It is what I am good at, and it is what I love to do. I am available for new projects as of 01/08/2022.
Technical Skills
Throughout the years I have mastered a variety of technical skills by combining various job roles, from pre-sales and business development roles, to IT solution architecture design, software installation and configuration, technical support and coaching.
The first five years of my career I have worked exclusively with SAS analytics software. I am a certified expert in the core SAS Business Analytics framework and have in-depth knowledge and experience in many domain-specific solutions such as SAS Data Management, SAS Data Governance, SAS Text Analytics, SAS Marketing Automation and more recently SAS Viya's SAS Visual Analytics, SAS Visual Statistics and SAS Visual Data Mining & Machine Learning.
Since 2016, as introduced in this blog post, I have also gained expertise in Hadoop, a major Big Data storage and processing platform. I am a certified Hadoop administrator for Cloudera and Hortonworks.
Most recently I added Microsoft Azure Cloud to my focus area. I will continue to focus and invest in Microsoft Azure’s capabilities for data management (data storage, data transformation techniques, data governance, reporting and analytics).
Personal Characteristics
I am a team player. Sharing experiences with others is valuable to me and working together with talented individuals is a big motivator for me.
Belbin Team Roles Analysis:
- Plant (13%): Tend to be highly creative and good at solving problems in unconventional ways
- Resource investigator (5%): They provide inside knowledge on the opposition and made sure that the team’s idea will carry to the outside world
- Co-ordinator (7%): Needed to focus on the team's objectives, draw out team members and delegate work appropriately
- Shaper (4%): Provide the necessary drive to ensure that the team keep moving and do not lose focus or momentum
- Monitor (10%): Provides a logical eye, making impartial judgements where required and weighs up the team's options in a dispassionate way
- Team worker (15%): Help the team to gel, using their versatility to identify the work required and complete it on behalf of the team
- Implementor (17%): Needed to plan a workable strategy and carry it out as efficiently as possible
- Completer (14%): Most effectively used at the end of tasks to polish and scrutinise the work for errors, subjecting it to the highest standards of quality control
- Specialist (15%): Provides a logical eye, making impartial judgements where required and weighs up the team's options in a dispassionate way
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator: Introvert, iNtuitive, Feeling, Judging
big data & analytics
Learning and development lab
In order to accelerate my personal development in a number of technologies, I have set up my Big Data learning and development lab in 2016. I started with acquiring and configuring a number of hardware components to represent a small datacenter (optimized for distributed processing). After installing and configuring the operating system layer, I deployed several Big Data data management & data analysis technologies such as Hadoop, Spark, SAS and Qlik. Finally I worked out a number of small business cases on top of the platform. In 2018 I have expanded my focus to include IoT applications.
resume
Work experience, education and training
Work experience
Freelance consultant as of September 2014
July 2022 – Ongoing, Sciensano
TBC
January 2021 – December 2021, Belfius Bank
As data engineer and data visualization expert I have helped with the creation of several dashboards for the risk and finance departments at Belfius Bank. The underlying technologies were primarily SAS Visual Analytics (SAS Viya), SAS Studio and SAS Data Integration Studio. I also took up the role as community lead for the data engineering community and I had a supporting role within the data visualization community.
November 2019 – October 2020, NN Insurance Belgium
At NN Insurance Belgium I have set up a modern Data Warehouse leveraging Microsoft Azure Cloud components (Azure Data Factory, Azure SQL, Azure Storage Accounts, Power BI,..). As platform administrator I was responsible for provisioning cloud resources, setting up connections with data providers & data consumers (including internal/legacy applications and external providers/consumers), platform monitoring, security, integration with Power BI and various other related activities.
December 2017 – July 2019, Belfius Bank & Insurance
At Belfius Bank I was responsible for installing and configuring the new SAS Analytics platform and supporting the initial business cases.
Installation and configuration of:
- SAS Viya (incl. SAS Visual Analytics, SAS Visual Statistics, SAS Visual Data Mining & Machine Learning, SAS Viya Data Prep)
- SAS 9.4M5 (incl. SAS Data Management, SAS Data Governance, SAS Office Analytics, SAS Enterprise Miner, SAS Model Manager)
- SAS Data Loader for Hadoop (incl. Integration with the Hadoop data lake)
Technical lead & support initial business cases on:
- Data Preparation & Data Visualization (incl. SAS Visual Analytics, SAS Data Loader for Hadoop)
- Data Governance (incl. SAS Business Data Network, SAS Lineage, Data Quality)
- Business Analytics (incl. SAS Enterprise Miner, SAS Visual Data Mining & Machine Learning)
April 2017 – October 2017, Eandis
At Eandis I provided functional and technical support on SAS Office Analytics and SAS Visual Analytics.
January 2017 – March 2017, Various
During the first three months of 2017 I worked on various small projects including SAS Visual Analytics support for Belfius Bank, and big data value propositions with SAS & Hadoop for Keyrus.
July 2016 – December 2016, FedEx
At FedEx I helped the European Marketing & Strategic Planning division to utilize SAS Visual Analytics for performance management reporting and planning optimization.
April 2016 – June 2016, P&V Insurance
P&V Insurance requested an audit of their Business Intelligence architecture and processes. I have provided recommendations and practical examples on how to better utilize their existing investment in SAS EBI and SAS Visual Analytics. Practical examples included workflow management, commenting system and validation module.
April 2015 – December 2015, Belfius Insurance
At Belfius Insurance I primarily developed data integration processes and data visualization dashboards. I also provided technical support and end-user coaching for SAS Enterprise Guide, SAS Data Integration Studio and SAS Visual Analytics.
September 2014 – March 2015, Santander Consumer Finance
At Santander Consumer Finance I took the role of project manager and lead developer for the SAS Visual Analytics data visualization environment. I also supported the marketing team to leverage SAS Marketing Automation and SAS Enterprise Miner capabilities for more efficient and better targeted marketing communications.
February 2011 - May 2014, SAS Institute
In February 2011 I was recruited by SAS Institute to strengthen the customer intelligence team. My responsibilities covered a large part of the software sales cycle.
Business development activities (or pre-sales activities) included defining go-to-market strategies together with the account management team, supporting marketing activities (e.g. delivering presentations and software demos), understanding customer requirements and responding to inquiries (from basic RFI/RFP responses to all-inclusive software licensing and project delivery proposals). Post-sales activities included project management, software installation and configuration, technical support and end-user coaching.
Business development and post-sales activities were situated in various industries (government, banking, consumer goods, telecommunication, life sciences, etc..), mostly in a national context and occasionally in an international context.
October 2008 - December 2010, Business & decision
After my graduation in 2008 as master in Information Technology management, I followed a one month training in Business Intelligence at SAS Institute. I then joined Business & Decision, a SAS alliance partner, as a Business Intelligence consultant. My main tasks consisted of developing and maintaining analytical reporting capabilities within the area of risk management, corporate performance management and human resource management.
Certifications
- Microsoft Azure Fundamentals
- Collibra Data Governance Expert Level 3
- Certified Hadoop Administrator (Hortonworks)
- Certified Hadoop Administrator (Cloudera)
- SAS Base Programmer for SAS 9
- SAS Advanced Programmer for SAS 9
Training
- Microsoft Azure Fundamentals, Administration and Data Engineering (2019)
- Collibra University for Data Governance (2019)
- Designing, Operating and Managing an Enterprise Data Lake (2019)
- SAS Viya Administration (2018)
- Hadoop Essentials: An introduction to all Hadoop building blocks (YARN, HDFS, MapReduce, Hive, HBase, Spark and many more..) (2016)
- Hadoop Administration: Install and configure Hadoop (2016)
- SAS Platform Administration
SAS Programming 1 & 2 (SAS Base)
SAS Advanced Programming
SAS Data Integration Studio
SAS Visual Analytics
SAS Visual Data Mining & Machine Learning
SAS Text Analytics
SAS Enterprise Miner
SAS Real-Time Decision Manager
SAS Social Media Analytics
SAS Financial Management
(2008-2018)
- Master in Information Technology Management (2004-2008)