Meet the team!

As BigData Republic’s marketeer it’s my job to showcase the expertise of our consultants. Their knowledge is our most important asset. I sincerely think it has the potential to change the world, or at least the way we do business. It’s very exciting to be part of a company that has so much promise.

I wanted to become a marketeer because it’s a job with a lot of creativity. It’s (almost) never boring, which I really enjoy. Moreover, it’s a job that allows me to learn many different skills, ranging from technical understanding (HTML, CSS and APIs) to analyzing data, writing the right text or configuring various tools.

What I like about BigData Republic is the challenging environment. We’re a team that always wants to improve. It means that you need a good reason for almost everything you do. If you can’t explain why you’re making a certain choice, chances are that it’s not going to fly. It keeps me on my toes. At the same time, there’s a spirit of always wanting to help and support each other. To me, that combination creates a great company culture.

An important part of always wanting to improve is being open to feedback. Meaning, that if there’s anything I can do better in terms of our website, social media, or anything else I’d really like to hear it. Please email me (annieke.hoekman@bigdatarepublic.nl) or reach out on LinkedIn if there’s something you’d like to share!

The constant developing field of data science is where I thrive. As data maturity differs for each company, I see endless opportunities to create valuable data solutions. To make a lasting impact, I focus on the bigger picture. Are we improving an existing process, solving an actual problem, or just using fancy techniques?

In my day-to-day work, the technical and social combination is what excites me. I love working with people on challenging problems, because creating a solution together is always more fun.

After finishing the Vantage program, I had the opportunity to start working with the great minds of BigData Republic. This is the perfect place to keep learning and discuss interesting new subjects with like-minded people.

Feel free to reach out to me or take a look at my whitepaper “From Big Data to Big Value”!

I’m a software engineer by training with 15 years of experience in the software industry. I have been specializing in data science and engineering for the last 10 years. I built a variety of data products and machine learning platforms. I'm a craftsman with a passion for delivering value through high-quality software, aligning stakeholders, coaching team members, and foster a strong engineering culture.

I’m a polyglot, always interested in figuring out the best tool for the job given the context. These days I mainly work with JVM languages and Python, but if needed I’ll dive into Go or Rust as well. Designing data systems means working with a wide variety of technologies: real-time message busses, distributed compute clusters, search technology, and process isolation. I constantly challenge myself to think about how those pieces fit together in a coherent system, which meets the needs of the business.

What I love about my job is the combination of technical challenges and the complex contexts in which solutions need to be implemented. Solutions can look straightforward from a technological perspective. However, economical, social, or organizational challenges often require a lot of creativity to find solutions fit for purpose.

I’m always in for a chat about engineering challenges in your organization, feel free to reach out.

I have been working at BigData Republic (BDR) for a while now, and it has been a blast so far! In my work I am mostly driven by growth. At BDR I get the opportunity to develop myself at both a technical and personal level, amongst others by receiving and giving trainings. An extra motivation is all the nice colleagues that want to develop themselves just as much as I do.

Besides work I also like to be physically active, so I spend a lot of time on the Padel court. I also like to go on holidays to remote locations, which allows me to completely reset.

I like to seek out challenges in all aspects of life. During my studies I found them in a double BSc program econometrics/economics and BigData Republic is providing me with exciting challenges in my professional career. Through internal and external training and discussions with competent and knowledgeable colleagues the next learning opportunity is always just around the corner.

Sports provide me with another opportunity to continuously challenge myself. I mainly seek those challenges on the rugby pitch in the Dutch Ereklasse. Furthermore, I greatly enjoy snowboarding and like to participate in virtually any sport.

Do you have a Machine Learning challenge that you’d like to take on together? Send me a message at chris.van.yperen@vantage-ai.com.

Gathering knowledge in the broadest sense has always had my interest. As a Machine Learning Engineer I can keep gathering knowledge by solving complex problems in different domains. I enjoy working with and learning from different experts to use models and technologies as tools to make impact. The knowledge sessions and colleagues at BigData Republic (BDR) teach me to use the best "tools for the job" in order to tackle a project the right way. What's more, at BDR people listen to my goals and preferences. That's how I get to focus on the projects that actually give me energy: projects with a positive impact on society. For instance, I worked on projects in the mobility industry, sustainability industry, biotech, and data ethics to make the world a little bit better.

When the world has hopefully improved a bit after a hard day's work I bend some steel doing CrossFit, I'm being a nerd for everything that is Japanese and I enjoy cooking with and for friends.

My name is Daphne Hensbergen and I’m an office manager at BigData Republic. For me BigData Republic feels like a family and I’m proud to be a part of the team. What I like about my job is the interaction between me and my colleagues.

They’re working very hard to satisfy our customers, so I want to support them as much as I can. For example by arranging their equipment but also by listening to them when they need some feedback. Sometimes they visit an international conference. As I used to work in the tourism industry for many years, one of my favorite things is making their travel arrangements and organizing events.

What I do appreciate about BigData Republic is the warm atmosphere and openness. It’s a company that pays a lot of attention to every single employee. A good example are the handwritten postcards I’m sending on birthdays. Not only to our colleagues but also to their partners as they are a part of our success as well. To me it feels great to be able to work in an environment like this, and make the difference by giving everybody just that extra bit of attention.

Data is changing and improving companies and processes rapidly. Data engineering, artificial intelligence and business intelligence are crucial for a company to work effectively and stay in front of their competitors. I like to work in this interesting field and help companies to get the most out of their data. Data has endless possibilities, and every business problem has different challenges.

In the past, I delivered value to companies by building a variety of data products. With a background in mathematics and working experience in machine learning, dashboarding, data engineering and operations research, I can determine the best way possible to solve a problem. I’ve been working in different fields, like finance, advertising, and retail. Besides data scientist, I have been a mathematics teacher for four years. This helps me explaining complex subjects to stakeholders effectively.

Words that describe me are curious, thoughtful, analytical, and creative. In many cases, a business request has underlying aspects, and I want to discover the true question that’s hidden behind it to maximize the value I can deliver.

For me, BigData Republic is a great place to work. It is a network of data experts with a large knowledge base and I can develop myself quickly. Besides this, I can work on difficult projects at interesting clients.

Are you curious to discover data opportunities for your company? Don’t hesitate to contact me!

In my role as commercial manager at BigData Republic, I continuously strive to keep the satisfaction of all parties involved as high as possible. Maintaining a continuous dialogue with our clients about their challenges and ambitions is my top priority. Combining that with accompanying conversations with our consultants about their personal development, plans and the opportunities they see in the market is what makes my job exciting.

I believe in commerce from the heart. Personal, transparent contact with the aim of creating a triangle that benefits everyone involved, including society and our world.

After my first acquaintance with BDR it became clear that we share a lot of our core values. In the meantime, it has only become clearer that our ambition, company vision and outlook on life are a perfect match.

In all my colleagues I find a wonderful combination of knowledge, passion and creativity where there is room for diversity in personalities. This, combined with a great customer portfolio, a wide spectrum of assignments and enough room for solid growth and development, is exactly the environment where I feel completely at home!

I rolled into data engineering from a Physics background. I like to find out how everything works, but nature is very tricky. Software engineering can be interesting in the same way, but because it works according to our rules, we can create much more complicated structures with very little effort. But this complexity soon became a problem as well.

How to then engineer in a way that makes sense and is relatively easy to understand? As a consultant, I am not going to work on a project very long. Luckily there are a lot of tools around nowadays that make data engineering more understandable, whether for machine learning pipelines or infrastructure as code.

At Bigdata Republic I have met a lot of like minded people with whom we can exchange ideas to figure not just the best solution, but one that will keep you going forward long after we are gone!

Like many of us, I am truly blown away by the recent achievements of machine learning. It’s almost magical how technologies that were once considered science fiction, have now become reality due to open source computer algorithms.

Despite the beauty of these innovations, implementing them comes with challenges. A well developed model is actually just one piece of the puzzle. Among others, business goals, team members and processes have to be aligned in order to create a successful data solution. It's this challenge that drives me to complete the puzzle.

I joined BigData Republic through the Vantage AI program, so immediately I felt right at home. This network of data specialists really challenges me to push my boundaries and helps me to broaden my perspective.

Feel free to reach out!

I found my interest in Data Science through Physics and Operations Research. I’m convinced there is always room for improvement and that is what I like about the field. The use of ingenuity and mathematics to solve real-life problems in companies. Because the role of data in day-to-day business keeps growing, it becomes more and more important to know how to best use it and avoid pitfalls. I enjoy diving into the needs of our clients and their people. In this way I ensure my work has the most impact.

At BigData Republic I have found a tight-knit company full of like-minded individuals, who are highly skilled at what they do. There is a large emphasis on knowledge sharing, encouraging us to stay at the top of our field. Consulting allows me to apply my knowledge to unique problems in organizations, continuously learning in the process.

Please feel free to contact me if you want to know more.

I am a physicist turned data specialist, with extensive experience working for a fintech company as it grew from early-stage start-up to scale-up. During that time, I've made big impact in multiple areas of the company, most importantly as an ML Engineer and Backend Developer. Challenges in Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence offer me the perfect mix between solving hard problems and programming. My passion and experience as software engineer has led me to attach much value to implementing my solutions in a maintainable, well-tested way. I enjoy working in diverse teams with multiple disciplines, where I get experience the impact of my work first-hand. People generally describe me as creative, with a strong work ethic and a drive to deliver high-quality results.

After my masters in Applied mathematics I was a bit puzzled by what direction to take my career in. I wanted to keep working with models and statistics, but not be glued to a computer without talking to people. A friend of mine recommended a career as Data Scientist; this turned out to be a great fit. Data Science was the perfect way to keep the analytical problem solving part of my brain in shape, while working on solutions that have value in the real world. Along the way I discovered that it’s very satisfying to get a machine learning application to function from end-to-end. This is why I started to further develop my Data Engineering and cloud development skills. I’m very happy to be able to apply both the science and engineering part in my role as Machine Learning Engineer at BigData Republic.

In my experience the people you work with are just as important as the actual work that you do. Fortunately I felt very much at home at BigData Republic right from the beginning. It’s a group of smart people that are specialized in data and want to stay up to date with the latest techs. Besides being very tech savvy, we are very outgoing and always up for a board game or beer or two; the perfect combination.

I am an ambitious self-starter that likes to work within the intersection of Software Engineering, Data Engineering and Data Science. I am passionate about getting a clear understanding of the current business problems the client is facing, and using data, software and machine learning to solve them. Both within and outside my work I get excited when reaching that light-bulb moment after a period of deep thought. Working within BigData Republic gives me the possibility to challenge myself within different work environments while being supported by my fellow ambitious consultants.

In short, the ideal place to work for an up-and-coming data expert!

With a lot of passion I am leading BigData Republic and our incredible team of talented, critical and conscious individuals. I am proud of our company culture and atmosphere, which I would define more as a friendship than as a business relationship. I also greatly appreciate our particular mix of technical expertise and soft skills. This combination is what drew me to BigData Republic in the first place, and it keeps defining our company throughout the years.

Coming from a technical background myself, I have worked on hands-on data science and big data projects for many years. My biggest fascination lies with problems that can not be solved by standard technologies and principles. These problems require the sophisticated techniques that have been developed in the fields of parallel processing, machine learning and scalable infrastructure over the past decades. It is great to have talented people around me that share this passion for technology and to keep on learning and growing together.

In the end, it always comes down to human beings obtaining value from technology. This value lies not only in the future, when solutions are brought into production and organizations reap the benefits. It also lies in the here and now where people have fun in creating these solutions and feel satisfied about contributing to the world. This is what I always aim to facilitate in my role as managing partner. My days are busier than they have ever been, but looking at my team, it is worth every second.

As a consultant at BigData Republic (BDR), I am fortunate to have fun and ambitious colleagues around me on Fridays. In addition, BDR stimulates continuous development on both personal and professional level which is very important. As a Machine Learning Engineer you will (hopefully) never stop learning, and that’s what I love about my job! The field is very broad, which is why there's always room to improve your statistical knowledge, programming skills, and technical skills by learning new things. 

After a workday I like to spend time in the kitchen. Not because I like cooking, but I do love great food and socializing, and good food brings people together. 

I am a data scientist, driven by passion, and delighted by the great culture at BigData Republic.

Combining my Engineering curiosity and my data-driven mindset, I enjoy helping companies solve their challenges, and I'm all for embracing innovation along the way. I believe in doing good with data, and I'm a big fan of improvements. Feel free to reach out and let's team up to investigate some data-flows!

Why did I let AI take over my life?

Let me take you back to my time in high school. I started to learn about programming. Making a tic-tac-toe solver sounded like a fun and simple project. My thinking at the time was: it’s easy to teach a human how to not lose this game, so how hard could it be to teach a computer? Turns out, teaching a computer is an entirely different story.

Fast forward to nine years later, I finally solved the big tic-tac-toe challenge and I am still fascinated by projects that balance on the border between solvable and unsolvable. I like to think that my studies in physics, computer science, and AI brought me to a point where I can help push the boundaries of AI. Helping visually impaired people by having a computer vision model reading text or finding objects in their direct environment, is a good example.

What made me join BigData Republic is that I wanted to apply my skills to the real world. I believe there is a lot of opportunity to be gained by transferring academic knowledge to generate business value. At BigData Republic, I find myself in an ideal environment to apply and grow my skills. I am surrounded by colleagues who share my interest in the newest developments in AI and Data Engineering and enjoy learning from each other. 

I am excited to take on the challenges ahead by leveraging the ever-evolving capabilities of AI.

I enjoy working with and thinking about data problems. This combined with my background in Software Engineering led me to discover Data Engineering. With the amount of data generated and stored increasing every year I believe this field will only become more relevant as time goes on.

My ambition to work on more big data related problems led me, naturally, to BigData Republic. Here I have the opportunity to learn from experienced colleagues and work with well-established and generally sizable companies.

Besides Software Engineering I also have a background in Artificial Intelligence which has been a big topic in recent years as well. Before joining BigData Republic I worked at a small Machine Learning startup. Here I was able to work on almost all aspects that go into making a Machine Learning platform from scratch. This was a very valuable experience through which I discovered my interest in Data Engineering and improved my engineering skills considerably.

In the future I aim to not only expand my Data Engineering skills but also transition to more ML Ops oriented roles.
I see ML Ops as the overarching profession incorporating Data Engineering, ML Engineering and DevOps which appeals to me very much. At BigData Republic I will have ample opportunities to develop into this direction which is, of course, an exciting prospect.

Since young age I took nothing for granted and started questioning everything surrounding me. Nature is so fascinating! The more I looked around me, the more I wanted to know how everything works. My interest in human-made systems grew during my PhD, and it has resulted in my engineering career.

My Physics background gives me the ability to look at problems from a systemic perspective, with data revealing the interactions between its parts. I combine in-depth critical thinking with system thinking to come up with my own problem-solving approach for any kind of situation. I love making an impact in every organization by tackling modern scalability and cross-platform challenges for data transport and availability.

I’m a passionately curious person continuously seeking for new things to learn. I like to be challenged to expand the limits of my expertise, for which BigData Republic is the perfect place to be. My greatest satisfaction is to put my skills and competencies at the service of the client. I am a creative person and a proud father, enrolling in new tasks with full commitment and a strong sense of responsibility.

I strive for a deep understanding of the problem to let the team deliver a robust long-term solution. Don’t hesitate to get in touch, I never say no to a chat.

Ever since I was young, I have been driven to approach challenges creatively, and to solve them in an insightful and pragmatic way. From my MSc. Artificial Intelligence and my work experience as a Machine Learning Engineer I understand that combining theory, practice and customer focus are fundamental to reach commercial success. That motivates me to keep developing myself professionally and personally – something that's crucial in this rapidly developing field.

BigData Republic offers me this development through weekly training sessions and team building events with smart and passionate colleagues, and stimulates me to make the most of myself. In my spare time, I like to climb, visit friends, and read books. I'm always available for questions, so feel free to send me a message!

Isn't it exciting to solve a problem by investigating the relevant data on a computer? Can computers help us and learn something from the data?

The whole spectrum of understanding the problem in its purest & simplest form, gathering relevant data, and using mathematics and logic to make an impact, is a fantastic journey. The mix of creativity in tools & methods, people & techniques, never stops to surprise me!