Work
Data and AI leadership across FMCG, home building, automotive parts and steel. The roles, the responsibilities and the lessons I carry between them.
From investment to everyday use
My experience covers making the investment case, choosing delivery partners, modernising platforms and building the teams that run them. Those decisions belong together. A platform needs clear ownership, useful measures and people who can keep improving it after the project ends.
Make the investment case
At GPC Asia Pacific, I wrote the business case, secured board funding and selected an implementation partner through a four-vendor RFQ.
Build the team behind it
At Patties Foods, I built and ran an offshore BI team working with onshore consultants to deliver an end-to-end service.
Connect platforms with use
My work spans platform modernisation and business adoption. For a public account of the current Patties programme, see Infinite Lambda's published case study.
The record
2024 – present · Patties Food Group · Data & AI Lead
I lead data and AI, connecting business priorities with platform capability, governance and team development.
I work with colleagues across business and technology to make reliable information and practical AI useful in everyday decisions. The role brings together strategy, delivery, adoption and hands-on technical judgement.
For a public account of the company's platform modernisation, see delivery partner Infinite Lambda's Patties Food Group case study.
2021 – 2024 · Carlisle Homes · BI Analytics Manager
Legacy BI → cloud analytics stack, with reliability and access as the measures.
Worked with the team to improve reporting timeliness and pipeline reliability, and supported marketing colleagues in using self-service analytics. Connected the data strategy with business priorities.
2018 – 2021 · Patties Foods · BI Analytics Lead
SSIS and Cognos 10 → ThoughtSpot, Cognos Analytics 11, Planning Analytics (TM1) and an Azure data platform with TimeXtender.
Governance standards established so the numbers could be trusted. Built and ran an offshore BI team paired with onshore consultants for an end-to-end service. Self-service training that cut IT dependency. The Azure work was featured in a published TimeXtender customer story.
2017 – 2018 · GPC Asia Pacific · BI Analytics Solutions Lead
Oracle Discoverer → modern analytics platform, a multi-million-dollar programme.
Wrote the business case and presented it to the board. Secured funding. Ran an RFQ across four vendors, selected and onboarded the implementation partner, and managed the transition and stakeholder adoption.
2013 – 2017 · Simplot Australia · BI Technical Lead
Enterprise Cognos estate made faster and cheaper to run.
Data-culture initiatives that raised analytics awareness across teams, on a platform the business already owned.
2012 – 2013 · InfoReady · Managing Consultant
Cognos and Business Objects programmes for enterprise clients in Queensland.
2005 – 2012 · BlueScope Steel · Business Intelligence Manager, Asia
Built and ran BI as a shared service across BlueScope's Asian businesses with a multinational team.
Data warehousing, Cognos, dashboarding and scorecarding, outsourced development. Country IT Manager for Vietnam along the way. Internal awards. Before that: ERP functional analyst for manufacturing.
2001 – 2005 · Bao Minh CMG · Business Analyst
Business analyst on a core life-insurance system at Bao Minh CMG (now Dai-ichi Life), building reporting in SQL Server and Crystal Reports. Before that, a year in coffee export documentation. The thread through these roles: making information useful to the people who have to act on it.
What I focus on
Useful data work connects reliable foundations with decisions people make every day. These are the themes I carry into it.
- AdoptionHelping people use information confidently in their everyday decisions.
- Team capabilityDeveloping skills and ways of working that support reliable delivery.
- Practical automationUnderstanding where technology can reduce repetitive work, with appropriate human judgement.
- PlanningConnecting data, business context and the decisions people need to make.
How I work
- Player-coach. I lead teams and manage budgets, and I still read the SQL. Staying close to the work helps me support the people doing it.
- Evidence matters. Agree the outcome, establish a baseline and check progress. Be clear about what the evidence does and doesn't show.
- Build for the context. Scope, readiness and resources shape the pace. Make useful progress while building the team's ability to sustain it.
- Diagnosis before prescription. Understand the problem before choosing a tool, including when a simpler process would do.
Credentials
Executive MBA, RMIT · ThoughtSpot Certified Data Expert · IBM Certified Solutions Expert, Cognos BI · FLMI, Life Management Institute · Bachelor of Business Administration, University of Foreign Trade, Ho Chi Minh City
For occasional career conversations and selected SME reviews, see mentoring and advisory. General enquiries: linkedin@congtam.net.