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About Me
I am a strategic data science and artificial intelligence leader with a track record of delivering multimillion dollar business impact for Fortune 500 companies and an expert in building and leading high-performing analytics teams to optimize global supply chains, drive business growth, and foster data-driven cultures.
I am a data science and machine learning expert with a strong background in strategy consulting. I specialize in providing best possible solutions to business decision-makers using big data analytics. My technical experience across the entire data and analytics pipeline – from data engineering to machine learning to results presentation to stakeholders – covers a wide range of industries from telecommunications to marketing and advertising to supply chain management.
As Global Head of Supply Chain Analytics at Maersk Contract Logistics, I lead a global team in optimizing logistics operations by developing data-driven solutions and introducing self-service machine learning-based tools and processes that help promote the company’s competitive advantage and drive strategic business growth.
In my previous role as Analytics Technology Manager for a leading media conglomerate, I pioneered its global predictive modeling hub and was responsible for optimizing the media portfolios of global brands, i.e., helping clients effectively meet sales targets with customized media portfolio optimization solutions.
An experienced strategy consultant for Fortune 500 companies, I have worked with C-level clients across a variety of industries to formulate innovative data-driven solutions for their businesses, leading high-performance teams that deliver their advanced analytics requirements.
Work Experience
Maersk Contract Logistics
A.P. Moller - Maersk is one of the world’s leading shipping and integrated logistics companies, committed to connecting and simplifying global trade for a growing world.
Global Head of Supply Chain Analytics (Apr 2023 – Present)
- Lead a global analytics organization spanning Generative AI, data engineering, business intelligence, supply chain network optimization, and sustainability analytics across five global regions.
- Designed and launched Mimir, a production Generative AI agent (LLM + RAG + tool calling) that accelerates RFP response and solution design globally – piloted with all regional solution design leaders; Phase 2 introduces AI-driven recommendations from Maersk Contract Logistics (MCL) best-practice playbooks.
- Co-led the Digital Twin & Warehouse AI project at the 1.2M sq ft Groveport DC: 3D photogrammetry, AnyLogic/FlexSim simulation, AWS QuickSight dashboards, and ML-based wave/task optimization – a first-of-kind deployment for MCL.
- Architected and deployed a global GHG facility-level emissions reporting platform (Power BI + Python + DataLoader) spanning 125+ sites across all five MCL regions, enabling customer-level emissions visibility and supporting Maersk’s energy transition.
- Developed the SCA Toolbox – a self-service Python web application (Akamai-hosted) providing geocoding, Centre-of-Gravity analysis, Travelling Salesman optimization, and map-making to country-level solution design teams globally.
- Built an AI-powered Loopio RFP knowledge base optimization pipeline using NLP deduplication and answer synthesis across 1,524 entries, significantly improving RFP response quality and reducing SME effort.
- Directed 20+ global supply chain network design (SCND) and Centre-of-Gravity studies for flagship clients including Mars, IKEA, Nike, Crocs, ON Running, Levi’s, Lululemon, Carter’s, PUMA, and PASCAL – supporting contract renewals and new business acquisition.
- Delivered global business intelligence (BI) programs: customer-facing KPI dashboards for Levi’s, ON Running, Lululemon, RIMAN Korea, and others via Tableau and Power BI with automated pipelines and real-time refresh.
- Built the Active Pipeline Tracker giving Business Development, Solution Engineering, and Platforms real-time global revenue visibility through Power BI, Salesforce, and SharePoint.
- Led design and development of MCL-wide transportation emissions visibility dashboard, routing transport management system data from country-level instances around the world into a central data lake for cross-regional carbon reporting.
- Grew and mentored the Supply Chain Analytics team through the integration from LF Logistics into Maersk, maintaining productivity and engagement during significant organizational change.
LF Logistics
As the leading supply chain solutions partner for brands and retailers, Li & Fung is committed to building the supply chain of the future.
Senior Manager – Data Science, Global Supply Chain Analytics (Apr 2019 – Apr 2023)
- Built and led the data science function for a global 3PL end-to-end – from data engineering to ML model deployment – across warehouse, transport, and strategic sourcing domains.
- Built the Supply Chain Analytics (SCA) Portal analytics platform from scratch, enabling browser-based AI/ML product delivery.
- Led the development of the data science platform for LF Sourcing’s costing center of excellence, the first of its kind in the industry, built to provide merchandisers with insights for vendor negotiation and strategic sourcing.
- Championed data literacy across the organization by establishing the Tableau Users Community and personally developing and delivering a training program to over 200 management employees.
- Built regional control tower dashboard systems for accounts such as Nike and Colgate Palmolive to improve real-time visibility and control over logistics operations using tools such as Plotly Dash, Tableau, Power BI, and Google Data Studio.
- Grew and mentored the Supply Chain Analytics team through organizational changes and COVID-related disruptions, maintaining high productivity.
- Created a few-shot learning SKU-level demand prediction system for Nike to improve inventory planning especially for new seasonal designs.
- Reduced ML application development cycle from two months to two weeks by implementing MLOps best practices (modular libraries, model retraining scripts, Dash GUIs) across all data science projects.
- Led the multi-temperature supply chain network consolidation of a major regional food and beverage conglomerate, resulting in a 10% logistics cost reduction.
- Led the creation of a chatbot to access and summarize data from LF Logistics’ warehouse management system and transportation management system.
- Developed an inventory replenishment platform used by Li & Fung’s supply chain management teams to manage orders for major North American retailers including The Home Depot.
Publicis Worldwide
Publicis Worldwide helps clients lead industry change by combining IT and data analytics with strategic creativity to produce innovative marketing solutions. It is part of the Publicis Groupe, the oldest and one of the largest marketing and communications companies in the world, by revenue.
Data Science & Analytics Lead – Hong Kong & Greater China (Apr 2017 – Apr 2019)
- Led data science, analytics engineering, and data strategy teams across financial services, travel, insurance, and consumer goods clients – building the analytics proposition for Publicis Groupe across Hong Kong, Macau, and Greater China.
- Drove new business development: identified opportunities, led pitches, and established client relationships — playing an active role in growing the Hong Kong analytics practice revenue.
- Applied NLP and machine learning to improve user interactions in a multinational insurer’s chatbot app, resulting in a 73% increase in active users (applying latent Dirichlet allocation on chat logs to identify topics of interest).
- Developed and deployed multi-touch attribution models for travel and tourism clients, replacing legacy last-click models and enabling more accurate budget allocation.
- Created a bag-of-words sentiment scoring model for mixed English and Cantonese text that was used across different social listening and customer feedback analysis projects.
- Spearheaded the data science and data engineering aspect of an analysis of social media user behavior over the Chinese New Year that was published in the South China Morning Post.
- Designed and deployed big data solutions on-premise and in the cloud (Hadoop, Salesforce) for FMCG and financial services clients, enabling real-time personalization and audience segmentation at scale.
- Provided oversight to data projects to ensure compliance with GDPR, PDPA, and other new data privacy regulations emerging at the time.
IPG Mediabrands
IPG Mediabrands is the global media and data management arm of Interpublic Group. An industry-leader in terms of analytics, it manages USD 39 billion of marketing investments on behalf of clients worldwide.
Analytics Technology Manager – Asia-Pacific (Sep 2015 – Apr 2017)
- Owned the data technology framework for Asia-Pacific and led the company’s global predictive modelling hub, serving Fortune 500 clients across FMCG, pharmaceuticals, and consumer electronics.
- Generated client sales lift of up to 13% by engineering a custom large-scale media portfolio optimization algorithm – the only tool capable of handling multi-year, cross-market, cross-portfolio optimization of weekly media assets at that scale in the region.
- Applied Bayesian Markov-chain Monte Carlo methods to build marketing mix models for global brands including Johnson & Johnson and Coca-Cola, attributing ROI to media channels and guiding annual budget decisions.
- Led a team of analysts delivering strategic analytics to C-suite clients on media/marketing mix modelling, customer acquisition, cross-channel attribution, and strategic budgeting – combining statistical rigor with executive-ready storytelling.
- Developed an automated flu-tracker that predicts flu incidence based on variables such as weather and search interest to help schedule marketing campaigns for cold and flu medicine.
- Successfully predicted the winning candidate in the 2016 Philippine national elections months before traditional analysis as part of a competitive analysis for a client political party.
Mitchell Madison Group
Mitchell Madison Group is a management consulting firm that delivers measurable enterprise value to Fortune 500 companies through business analytics, performance improvement and strategic services.
Business Analyst – Strategy Consulting (Jun 2014 – Sep 2015)
- Deployed on-site at Fortune 500 client offices across North America, leading data science and analytics workstreams within C-suite management consulting engagements in telecoms and manufacturing.
- Directed the US$400M network expansion of a North American telecommunications carrier: leveraged a terabyte-scale SQL Server and Neo4j graph database, ran bottom-up predictive simulations for customer-level sales forecasting, and applied graph optimization to determine the optimal network configuration.
- Generated US$9M in cost savings (12% of total cost) for a US manufacturing company through on-site strategic sourcing analysis, vendor benchmarking, and contract renegotiation.
- Led the Data Science Team developing enterprise business intelligence technology and applying operational analytics to streamline client operating costs across multiple industry verticals.
Educational Experience
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
CTL Executive Training on AI/ML in Supply Chain & Logistics (Oct 2025 – Nov 2025)
- Completed specialized executive training on artificial intelligence and machine learning in supply chain and logistics at the MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics.
University of the Philippines-Diliman
Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering (2009-2014)
- Graduated summa cum laude, with a grade point average of 1.11, the third highest in the university graduating class of more than 4,000 graduates (US GPA equivalent is 3.95, certified by World Education Services)
- Oblation Scholarship awardee, placing within the top fifty scorers out of 62,111 test takers in the University of the Philippines College Admissions Test
- National Champion, Operations Research Quiz Competition 2013 and 2014 sponsored by the Operations Research Society of the Philippines
- National Champion, Industrial Engineering Quiz Competition 2013 sponsored by the Philippine Institute of Industrial Engineers
- National Finalist, 2013 Big Data Innovation Programming Contest sponsored by Trend Micro
Publications
- Blancada, V. (2020, September). Logistics Center of Gravity Analysis in Python. Published in Analytics Vidhya.
- Blancada, V. (2019, March). 10,000 Hours, Artificial Intelligence, and the Democratization of Expertise. Published in Data Driven Investor.
- Blancada, V. (2019, January). AI Biases and Independent Variables. Published in Data Driven Investor.
Additional Honors and Awards
- Completed Fung Academy AI in Action Curriculum (Technical Track) training (Nov 2019)
- Resource Person for the 2022 Industry Consultation for the Review and Enhancement of the University of the Philippines - Los Baños BS Industrial Engineering Program
- 98th percentile ranking on the global Bloomberg Aptitude Test
- National Finalist, Indie Eng’g Engineering Competition 2012 sponsored by Tanging Yaman Foundation
- Awardee, Ten Outstanding Students of Makati City for 2009
Visit my LinkedIn page here.