Meet the team

Alexander Bij solves difficult issues by listening and analyzing. Alexander has strong skills in listening and analyzing issues and working out the best solution. He aims to deliver business value that at minimum fulfils the clients needs. However, due to Alexander’s strong software development and deployment skills, he might just over-deliver. Alexander is a positive, enthusiastic team player.

Alexander has solid experience with the following technologies:

• Backend: JEE and Spring (Core, Batch, Security, Integration,…), Hadoop
• Testing: Fitnesse, Xebium, Selenium, JUnit, Mockito, Easymock, JMeter
• Frontend: SpringMVC, Struts2, JSP, Freemarker, Velocity, JSTL, HTML(5), JQuery, DataTables, Flex
• Communication: Soap, WSDL, JSON, REST, Sockets
• Databases: JPA 2, Hibernate, JDBC, Postgres, MySQL, Oracle10g (RAC)
• Server: Apache, Tomcat, Jetty, Glassfish
• Building: Maven, Ant, shell scrips
• CI: Jenkins with pipeline, promotion, quality-tools and 1-click deployment
• Tools: IntelliJ, Eclipse, Linux, Subversion, Git

Andrew is a Big Data Hacker at GoDataDriven. He is an experienced software engineer with a deep understanding of numerous technologies and languages.

Andrew is a certified Cloudera, Databricks, and Cassandra instructor, and also enjoys sharing his experiences on stage, for example at Goto Conference.

Arjan has over 10 years of experience in consultancy, data and analytics from a variety of roles and industries. Before joining GoDataDriven, Arjan was involved in establishing and extending data science teams. He helped organizations growing the data science teams in terms of size, quality, maturity and impact. Empowering organizations to become data-powered and information-driven.

Barend taught himself object-oriented and functional programming along the way, studying it in college and eventually turning the hobby into a profession.

He has a broad expertise and has worked successfully on everything from mobile apps to enterprise servers and the cloud. Barend enjoys chipping away at complex programming problems, prodding at them from all sides until an elegant solution clicks into place. He is meticulous about writing clean, clear and well-documented software.

Aside from being a great consultant he is a trainer as well because he enjoys sharing knowledge and helping others improve their software craftsmanship. Like he did at ING as the lead developer on the mobile banking app for Android and as a data engineer at Quby

Bas has a MSc degree in Computer Science and has been gaining experience in software consultancy since early 2011, having worked at Capgemini and Xebia Software Development before joining GoDataDriven.

He is passionate about building maintainable high-quality data products. He helped to optimize timetables and employee scheduling for the public transport of Amsterdam, built distributed data-pipeline systems for Wehkamp ecommerce platform with Scala, Akka and Kafka and processed large amounts of data with Spark to help Nuon make better informed decisions.

Bas is a Data Engineer at GoDataDriven. Before joining the team he finished a Master’s in Computer Science cum laude. His goal is to build zero maintenance data-driven products for real-world solutions. His current interests lie in the cloud and containerised world as he believes it brings the fastest end user value and best software. He has an open source and start-up mentality and is always looking for challenging ways to learn and improve.

Clients include: Booking.com, Unilever Food Solutions, Knab, Yolt (by ING), ANWB, and the Dutch Police

Bas has years of experience with Data warehouses, ETL jobs and Reports, but the most fun he has had was building a Security platform which was used for ingesting security related log data from different customers to discover in real-time security threats in their network. After being the only Big Data Engineer at an earlier job, he decided to continue his career at a company which has Big Data as its core business with many enthusiastic people to share knowledge, work together on awesome projects and enjoy discussing related topics. And here we are at GDD!

At GoDataDriven, he is always on the lookout for the best solutions as Big Data Engineer. In his free time he plays soccer, trains at the gym, goes on adventure holidays, and watches movies and tv series’.

Cor improves business processes with data.

With a background in physics and a MSc in data science, he is well-versed in a wide variety of tools and practices. Cor understands on a fundamental level the techniques that he applies. He converts questions into automated and optimized processes. Simply put: Cor believes that actions lead to insights more often than insights lead to actions.

After laying out a solid data engineering foundation, Cor applies AI techniques to give every project or product an unrivalled edge. He just loves to automate solutions to turn your most daunting business challenges into a walk in the park.

Daniel is a data engineer at GoDataDriven. He enjoys working on high performance distributed computation with Spark, empowering data scientists by helping them to run their models on very large datasets with high performance. He is an Apache Spark and Apache Airflow contributor and speaker at conferences and meetups. In his spare time, he enjoys video games and reading (both fiction and non-fiction) and can sometimes be found trying out new tech on his home-built server.

Dennis is GoDataDriven’s Chief Sales, responsible for all customer and sales related activities. For over 10 years Dennis has been privileged to work in the field of CRM, Data Quality, and Master Data Management. He is an experienced sales manager with a proven track-record in enterprise data management solution selling. Engaging with Marketing, IT, and Business Management, Dennis’ drive is to make leading organizations become truly data-driven.

Dennis obtained his Masters degree in Marketing with research focusing on the psychological drivers of loyalty programs and brand awareness.

Diederik Greveling is a data scientist at GoDataDriven. He completed his Computing Science Msc degree cum laude at the University of Groningen where he specialized in machine learning and intelligent systems. He focussed his research on applying Reinforcement Learning in the automotive industry.

He is fluent in Python and Java, has a theoretical background in machine learning, and tries to tackle any data problem which crosses his path.

Clients include: Heineken, Dynniq, and Webbtraders.

Fokko Driesprong is an enthusiast of functional programming (preferably Scala) and big data processing platforms. Next to his consulting work, he contributes to open source projects. He’s a committer on the Apache {Airflow, Avro, Parquet} projects and contributes to Apache {Spark, Flink, Superset, Druid, ...}. Furthermore, he’s addicted to home automation, electronics, and builds his own amplifiers based on vacuum tubes. Fokko is one of the driving forces behind the Apache Airflow Meetup in Amsterdam.

Clients include: Booking.com, Royal Schiphol Group, NPO, MobPro, and ING.

Read more about a day in the life of Fokko

Giovanni holds a PhD in Theoretical Physics, with research focusing on models describing DNA mechanics. Prior to joining GoDataDriven, Giovanni worked at the Software Quality department at KPMG

As Chief Science Officer Giovanni advices clients on how to extract value from (big) data and how to effectively bring data science models into production.

Data driven products are developed using Giovanni’s excellent understanding of Python (especially Numpy and pandas) and technologies related to the Hadoop ecosystem such as Spark, HDFS, Hive, and Impala. On the database side he can be considered a PostgreSQL aficionado.

On top of that, Giovanni is a certified Cloudera trainer for the Data Analyst, Developer, Spark, Search, and Admin Cloudera courses.

On the training side he also helped kickstart the Data Science Accelerator Program, a year-long in-depth training program for data scientists, and develop the Data Science with Python and Data Science with Spark trainings.

Giovanni regularly shares his knowledge during conferences and other events, such as meetups and expo, including PyData (of which he is chair and meetup organizer) and NoSQL Matters.

Clients include: ING, KPN, Funda, NLE, Randstad, Unilever, Knab, NS, Bakkersland, Ebay, Eneco, KLM, KvK, Nuon, Sanoma, UMCU, Stackstate, FedEx, and Rabobank

Henk builds AI products and AI teams.

He combines an academic background in machine learning with extensive experience in building data products in a variety of industries. Besides building data products, Henk enjoys learning and applying new technologies and teaching people new skills. His goal is to build AI products that deliver value and solve the right problem fast.

Clients include: Costa Cruises, Quby, Nuon, Tele2, and Heineken

Before becoming a consultant at GDD, Janelle obtained a master’s degree in Econometrics at the University of Amsterdam. During her academic years she coached junior students, participated in the world championship of econometrics and gained hands-on experience completing a data science graduation internship in the financial industry.

Clients include: Nuon, Heineken, Ns, and Unilever

Ivo Everts holds a PhD on image processing and machine learning and loves programming in Python, C++, Java, Matlab, and R.

After completing his research, Ivo joined GoDataDriven to apply his skills and solve real problems for industrial and corporate clients. As such, he helped ING and NS develop production-ready data products and grow their team of data scientists.

Ivo is passionate about knowledge sharing, which is reflected by number and diversity of the trainings that he gives on behalf of GoDataDriven. In addition, he is a frequent contributor to various international conferences and journals such as PyData, ECCV, CVPR, NCCV, ICPR, TIP, XebiCon, & Goto Conference.

Clients include: ING, Sonepar, NS, RegioLab, FIOD, UMCG, Catharina Hospital, OLVG, and XebiaLabs

Julian is a data scientist at GoDataDriven, who also enjoys dabbling in data engineering. He previously studied at the Delft University of Technology, where he completed his Bachelor in Computer Science and his Master in Bioinformatics cum laude. After Delft, he spent his PhD exploring breast cancer development and origins of (acquired) treatment resistance at the Netherlands Cancer institute, after which it made sense for Julian to use his skills in a more applied setting at GoDataDriven.

Julian enjoys learning new technologies and finding new ways to apply these technologies to effectively solve real-life problems. In his spare time, he also enjoys developing his own python packages and contributing to open-source projects.

Clients include: KNAB and Heineken

For over 15 years Koen has worked in Sales at several companies in e-commerce, e-learning, and IT.

Koen likes to follow the latest developments regarding training for data engineers, data scientists, and business translators and looks forward to keeping your skills updated.

Feel free to give him a call on (+31) 6 13 98 20 99 or email: koenvanriemsdijk@godatadriven.com

Kris is a seasoned and communicative developer with a passion for combining technologies to create new possibilities for the people around him. He started developing with Java and gained vast experience with the development of Geographical Information Systems. Over time, Kris gradually developed a passion for open source solutions.

Over the past years, Kris has been working with distributed systems and graph databases, like Hadoop and Neo4J, for large enterprises.

Clients include: Rabobank, Wehkamp, Dutch National Police, ING, KNAB, Schiphol, ABN AMRO, and Technische Unie

Lukas is a true scientist who likes to discover new things; whether it’s in human psychology, in corporate data or in the breeding habits of owls. Being outdoors has always been a big part of his life. For Lukas, nature is the place where he goes to relax and explore.

I am responsible for all things related to recruitment. Contact me if you’d like to have a chat with us.

Marcel completed a study in theoretical physics, after which he did a PhD in particle physics at CERN. His first non-academic job was for Shell, building a mathematical toolbox for optimisation and data assimilation. After that he joined ASML, working on the design of algorithms that process measurements that have to be accurate to nanometer precision.

Marcel is fluent in programming in Python, C++, and Matlab, knows mathematics relevant for machine learning (probability theory, optimisation, linear algebra) and how to use these in programming.

Outside work Marcel likes to make music (plays electric guitar in his band), or cycle with his racing bike.

Clients include: Bakkersland/Borgesius, Schiphol, and Intergamma.

Mark Schep is an entrepreneurial industrial engineer with a passion for data science. His ambition is to build data driven products that add value to organisations. To get there, he leans on his background and experience as a data scientist which he uses to translate business problems into data solutions.

Mark will help you identify valuable data science applications, as well as how to make them work, make them better, and get them to scale.

Growing up in Siberia, Nelli felt a strong desire to broaden her horizons. It was only a matter of time before she moved away and began exploring. Just like wild animals and sheer heights don’t intimidate her much, she’s not afraid to dive deep into untrodden datasets.

Nelli’s background is in Quantitative Finance and prior to joining GoDataDriven, she spent several years working in banking as a Quantitative Risk Manager where most of her data science experience was with building models for credit and operational risk measurement.

Currently her interests are not limited to financial data, she is interested in all kinds of (big or tiny) data use cases and, in particular, how data science can be applied to solve environmental, sustainability, or social issues.

Nelli will be happy to get in touch with you to discuss how machine learning and data science can be leveraged to improve the world or your organisation!

Niels is Chief of Technology at GoDataDriven and works for a wide range of companies where he engineers features and builds models.

Niels finished his PhD thesis at the Technical University of Delft where he researched into P2P systems, primarily focusing on privacy and cooperation, including applying encryption and anonymization techniques in the P2P domain.

Niels is experienced in various programming languages such as Python, Java, C#, R.

Before joining GoDataDriven, Oleksandra worked as a Data modeler and Information/API modeler. Oleksandra combined a strong knowledge of SQL, database, and data modeling with well-developed understanding of conceptual design principles. Oleksandra has solid experience with ETL processes and data preparation techniques, including data management and data architecture.

Oleksandra has worked extensively with different SQL and NoSQL databases (including Oracle, PostgreSQL, SQL Server, Azure Database, Neo4j, and Elasticsearch), both as developer and DBA, but also with programming languages (Python, Scala) and data modeling tools. Oleksandra has professional knowledge of Agile development processes and the Scrum methodology and is comfortable with gathering requirements and prioritizing backlogs.

Clients include: Knab

Peter is deeply solution-oriented, always thinking a few steps ahead with the end goal or end user in mind. One of his biggest passions is pulling apart tricky problems to deliver simple solutions.

Peter thrives in company environments where he can work with his peers to get projects across the line. Cross-team collaboration is important to him, and his drive to create solutions that support his colleagues, as well as the company, enable him and his team to deliver impact.

A creative problem solver with strong troubleshooting and analytical skills, Peter stays up to date with new technologies. He likes to understand and implement these technologies as well as help customers adjust their analysis platforms accordingly.

Peter enjoys connecting and harmonizing multiple solutions together, because he finds that that is where he can have fun with data science/engineering, software development, and networks and systems architecture.

Peter has solid experience with the following technologies:

• Backend: Slurm, SGE, Docker, Kubernetes
• Big data: Spark, Oozie, Databricks, Airflow
• Cloud: GCP, Azure
• Programming: Scala, Java, Python, Bash, SQL
• Testing: TestNG, Scalatest, Junit
• Frontend: SpringMVC, Struts2, JSP, Freemarker, Velocity, JSTL, HTML(5), JQuery, DataTables, Flex, Spring
• Databases: JDBC, Postgres, MySQL, H2, sqlite, Neo4j
• Building: Maven, Sbt, shell scrips, Make
• CI: Jenkins, Travis, Gitlab
• Tools: IntelliJ, Linux, OSX, Git

Clients include: Booking.com

Renald is GoDataDriven’s Chief Operations, where he is responsible for the day-to-day running of the company and the continuous improvement of the services offered to GoDataDriven’s clients.

He studied Computer Science at the Twente University, where he focused on Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing. After that, he spent more than a decade as a researcher for the Leiden University, where he got a PhD in the field of the Quantitative Analysis of Science. He has been active in the world of Big Data and Data Science since 2010, when some of the current aspiring Chief Operations were still in high school.

While studying in Twente, his aspirations in building his own computer were squashed when during a Laboratory Class he blew up a transistor in just under a minute and only found out after more than half an hour.

Rens graduated cum laude in Econometrics & Operation Research. He has worked as a researcher at the intersection of Business and Machine Learning. At GoDataDriven, Rens builds products that transform data into insights and turn insights into action.

Clients include: DuPont and ING.

Rob is an experienced director with a proven track-record in technology and data-driven solutions. He has been at the forefront of building the data driven enterprise for years. As a real people’s person, Rob enjoys sharing his experiences with like-minded professionals during conferences, trade-shows, and other events. 

Rob holds a MSc in Marketing

Robert Rodger is a data miner, analyst, visualizer, and scientist at GoDataDriven.

Academically, his background is in mathematics and theoretical physics, having earned a B.Sc. at Stanford University and an M.Sc. cum laude at Universiteit Utrecht. Professionally, though, his background is in risk measurement and management, first at a large American investment bank before he saw the light and moved to a machine learning-based FinTech shop in Amsterdam.

Robert’s interests aren’t limited to the financial world, though! He’s curious about all manner of big data use cases, and in particular he’s eager to hear about what you are doing with big data.

Read more about a day in the life of Robert

Extracting interesting information from data was already the topic of Roel’s PhD on the field of Data Mining. He focused on summarisation and anomaly detection in sequence data using frequent patterns. A pattern can be anything from a change in speed, when collecting data from a cyclist, or a sequence of words, when looking at text data.

At GoDataDriven Roel wants to take an extra step by making this information readily available for each customer so they can enjoy the value of their data.

Clients include: Heineken, KPN, DuPont, Unilever, Tele2, Friesland Campina, Nuon, and ING

Before joining GoDataDriven, Rogier obtained a PhD in particle physics. Rogier gained hands-on experience with handling enormous quantities of data and processing, or ‘charming,’ them into a manageable format before performing complicated analyses. After his PhD he exchanged physical science for data science at GoDataDriven, where he is now putting his skills to use on more business-driven problems. He likes applying data science to anything; be it his daily commute, improving his photography skills or the contents of his lunch box.

Clients include: Bakkersland, App Annie, Costa Cruises, ING, NPO, Ebay, KLM, and RoyalFlora Holland

Ruben is a data scientist at GoDataDriven. He holds a MSc degree in Econometrics and Operations Research and obtained a PhD degree in mathematics on data-driven optimization. Most of his academic work evolves around (dynamic) pricing and data-driven scheduling. Prior to joining GoDataDriven, he gained experience in FinTech, risk management, and health care IT.

You can ask him anything about data-driven optimization!

Clients include: Heineken

Steven likes to combine thorough data analysis with strategic business thinking. Being a data science consultant since 2014, he has demonstrated the added value of analytics in several industries now, often redefining business processes using data-driven insights. To make his point Steven has mastered not only R and Python, but also PowerPoint. This makes him an excellent translator who brings value by bridging the gap between business stakeholders and data scientists.

Before becoming a consultant, Steven studied Econometrics at the University of Amsterdam and worked in the financial industry. He decided to become a data scientist after investigating how sentiment derived from social media text data influences financial markets. His work got published in the Journal of Behavioral Finance. Although the algorithm didn’t make him rich, he gained valuable experience in modelling and programming with R. Something that he now teaches to clients at GoDataDriven.

Steven is a data and travel enthousiast. In his spare time he combines both passions by building a recommendation engine for travel inspiration. Need a suggestion for your next trip? Check out his hobby project here.

Please feel free to contact Steven if you want to know how Data Science or Big Data could be relevant to your organization.

Clients include: KLM, Dynniq, and Randstad

After graduating Cum Laude in Natural Science, Stijn decided to apply his scientific skills to work in a business environment. Before joining GoDataDriven, Stijn worked on data solutions in the mobile app market and secure transaction industry.

As Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer, Stijn is responsible for keeping GoDataDriven on top of its game when it comes to driving innovation through data science and machine learning. To achieve this goal, Stijn heads several programs that are all about learning today what can be done with the technology of tomorrow. An example of this is our GDD Moonshots initiative which focuses on solving high-impact problems by applying new technology, using uncharted data sets and building cutting-edge products.

In the role of Lead Data Scientist, Stijn helps clients with building smarter and more relevant data products that truly create value for both business and customer. To achieve this goal, Stijn guides organizations in rapidly going from business ideas to data applications running production.

Clients include: Randstad, ING, Heineken, Transavia, KLM, Vattenfall, Eneco, Schiphol, NPO, EO, AppAnnie, and Interpolis.

Tünde Alkemade is a Big Data Hacker at GoDataDriven, where she focuses on installing, interconnecting and tuning systems and also on implementing software needed for data driven solutions.

Fascinated by the challenges that distributed systems can pose, she developed her skills by obtaining a MSc in distributed computing and decided to apply her knowledge to production systems. She gained her consulting skills at KPMG, where she acted as an architect for several large corporations.

At GoDataDriven, she finally found the perfect combination of helping clients and hands-on work. She is involved in setting up secure Hadoop clusters, optimizing search results, creating recommendation systems, and giving advice to customers.

Clients include: Booking.com, Knab, NS, ING, Vattenfall (Nuon), RTL, Bakkersland, Schiphol, Wehkamp, Sonepar, KPN, KLM, Kamer van Koophandel, Reed Business, and IMC

Tim is often referred to as machine learning engineer. He has a background in Artificial Intelligence (MSc) and Software Development and as such enjoys building scalable machine learning solutions, feeling comfortable with both data science and data engineering.

His main focus is getting models to production to achieve business value.

Tim is often seen in the gym lifting weights. He also takes the occasional run, bike ride, swim, or crossfit WOD. Ask him anything about food and/or fitness and you’ll likely get a helpful answer.

Vincent taught himself programming four years ago and now he is a founding co-chair of PyData Amsterdam, preferred Rstudio training partner, and organiser of the Applied Machine Learning Meetup in Amsterdam. Things can happen fast if you set your mind to it.

Vincent is Data Scientist and Developer at GoDataDriven. Prior to that he obtained a MSc in Econometrics and Operations Research and worked as an independent data scientist. The world will be a better place if people use data effectively which is why he gives free lectures/sessions to people who want to get started with open source data analysis in Amsterdam. He is fluent in python, R, and javascript and even dabbles with C/C#/C++ and scala from time to time.

He has a blog about less obvious aspects in the world of data science over at koaning.io and he’s known for giving free lectures in data science around Europe. He’s especially keen to give one in Lisbon, Ljubljana, Split or Belfast. Feel free to notify Vincent if you’ve got a venue in any of these places or other awesome place to visit. He’ll most likely show up.

Vincent solves data problems, ask him anything. Read more about a day in the life of Vincent

Clients include: ING, Schiphol, Sonepar, KLM, the Sting, Persgroep, Bakkersland, NPO, Marktplaats/Ebay, Royal Flora Holland, and DuPont

At GoDataDriven, Walter van der Scheer is responsible for all marketing and communications related activities. For over 15 years, Walter has been working at the intersection of marketing, IT, and business management. He is a frequent speaker and trainer at all kinds of events, ranging from in-company sessions, events, seminars, to conferences.

Before joining GoDataDriven, Walter was the head of commercial operations at a leading marketing automation software company. Walter holds a degree in Marketing.