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What's TJ doing now?
This is a Now page. It's less volatile than my social media feeds, but more updated than my professional profile or my about page.
Family
I have a 2-year-old daughter, and she’s started going to occasional playgroups. Every weekend is a great time with her and my wife, Pam.
Pam, Luna, and I at a recent family vacation.
I’m loving this age — she’s started developing preferences and forming complete sentences, and having real feelings. I can see hints of a personality as she figures out how she wants to be in the world.
Titanium Birch
Earlier this year, I started working at Titanium Birch, a single family office started by the founder of ExpressVPN.
I’m enjoying diving into the accounting and automation opportunities. Going through accounting standards is such a blast from the past.
One exciting part about this role is how I can focus data work at a specific domain, rather than being a “generalist” data person who has to rely on other stakeholders for execution.
Rediscovering R
R was my first programming language, thanks to the influence of an early colleague at EY. I’ve slowly drifted away from it due to the skyrocketing popularity of Python and Rust for data engineering and data science.
I realise, however, that there are some fields that still actively use R, namely finance and healthcare, and they are fields in which careful, insightful analysis is extremely valuable, so I’ve decided to give it another look!
Writing
I’m pretty settled into my new writing setup, and I’ve been trying to keep up the habit of writing 300 words a day to start putting hands on keys and just coalescing my thoughts.
I’ve been making steady progress so far, and I’m happy with the stuff I’ve produced, but I’m going to start trying to improve my newsletter this time, and be more deliberate about the value I deliver to my list. Presently, it’s a random mix of things, but maybe for a personal newsletter, that’s what it should be.
Reading
See my reading page to see what I’ve been reading, whether books, articles, or other sources.
Consulting
I help fast-growing organizations in Asia-Pacific use data for decisions and deploy those decisions at scale.
My approach is to identify the business problems that matter and address those issues using data. I don’t consider myself just a data person, but a problem solver with data and technology as a core capability.
See my professional profile on LinkedIn.
What I offer
I take into account the maturity of your data team and infrastructure, deliver immediate slices of value, and set you up for continuity.
Data Engineering
You first have to get useful data into a central location, so that you can create consistent and repeatable analyses and models. Wherever your data is stored, I create pipelines that extract, load, and transform the data in a data warehouse for everyone in your company.
Decision Science
I build fit-for-purpose decision support systems, whether it’s a bespoke analysis for a key strategic decision or a business intelligence solution to support data-driven decisions across the company. I partner with stakeholders to ensure that analyses are not done in a vacuum.
Algorithms
At some point, every business will want to automate critical decisions with algorithms. I build fault-tolerant, precise, and innovative algorithmic systems that blend domain expertise with the power of data science. These systems are ready to plug into production engineering systems.
Companies I’ve helped
I’ve helped many companies make more, better, and faster decisions in both a full-time or consultant capacity.
Uber was able to deploy a driver incentive delivery engine that is up to 3 times more efficient than competition. I also built global analytics tools for driver funnel tracking that enabled teams to optimize their driver onboarding.
GrabFood was able to deploy a human-in-the-loop incentive design mechanism that allowed local operations teams to optimize incentive spend and structures while also objectively taking into consideration market specific factors.
First Circle was able to build a profitable emerging market small and medium business (SMB) loan portfolio using a continuously improving system for setting personalized credit limits and pricing. I also built a talented data team of strategists and engineers in the company.
ExpressVPN is a global digital privacy brand that boasts a best-in-class VPN. I worked to build their data platform by upgrading platforms, improving the process of collaboration between data engineering, data analysts, and the rest of the business, all while maintaining data security and business continuity.
The Department of Finance was able to create striking visual infographics for its anti-tax evasion campaign, as well as an import fraud risk assessment tool for the Fiscal Intelligence Unit responsible for auditing customs duties on imports.
At EY Philippines, I was able to help the largest banks and insurance companies with custom analytics solutions, incorporating location analytics, strategic portfolio allocation, credit risk modelling, and customer analytics.
Expedock is an artificial intelligence startup for which we planted the seeds of initial data infrastructure, accelerating crucial revenue reporting for investors and customers.
About
I’m a data person working across Asia Pacific, and I love building data products that play a role in people’s daily lives, whether in products that people use, content that they consume, and the science and art they produce.
I’m currently at Titanium Birch building a data platform team and a privacy-centered data stack. Before that, I was at ExpressVPN, First Circle, Uber, Grab, and EY.
You’ll find my thoughts, work, personal and professional interests here. If you’re interested in solving a data problem, please see my Consulting page.
Contact
I’d most prefer that you send me an e-mail, but you can also find me on:
Copyright Policy
If you would like to use some part of the content on this site for your own work, I will provide permission under the following conditions:
Contributions Policy
I would be thrilled for an interested reader to contribute to this blog, or connect with me through his own data blog. I am looking for posts that use data to shed light on various issues - they don’t have to be serious issues; even the trivial can be interesting at times. Posts that react to my articles or use the underlying data to generate insight are also welcome.
If you contribute, you provide me with a perpetual, non-exclusive right to publish the article on the site with attribution.
You may send these contributions to [email protected] with subject line “Blog Contribution”. Please feel free to contact me even if you haven’t written the article yet!
Content Policy
I try to adhere to some level of quality whenever I write articles. I will, clearly state that when I venture into my opinion and not a direct implication of the data presented. For corrections, please inform me at [email protected].
If you would like to access the underlying data or computations, I’d generally allow it as long as you adhere to the Copyright policy. There are some cases where the terms under which I procured the data do not allow me to re-share it, and in those cases I will let you know.
Comments Policy
This policy applies to any discussion on the content, whether directly on the site, related social media pages, or code repositories.
Generally, I welcome comments that generate discussion, provide new ideas, corrections, or constructive criticism, and engage others in the conversation.
We want to create an atmosphere of intellectual discipline in the comments. Facts and opinions should be clearly delineated.
Discussion of a political nature should adhere to facts and logical reasoning. Excessive partisanship is discouraged.
We do not encourage comments that only serve to insult and defame, or are otherwise off-topic. Offenders will be banned.
For appeals on bans and comment removals, please reach out at [email protected]. All decisions are final and no longer appealable.