My CV / Portfolio
Experience
Founder & Chief Instructor
FERVENT | October 2012 – Present
- Established Fervent (formerly “VB Excellence”) to deliver exceptional learning experiences to a global audience of over 23,000+ students from 164 countries (as of 31 Jul 2022) while being run semi-automatically
- Leveraged insights from large panel consumer datasets to drive content decisions that help consistently achieve unrivalled engagement on highly-technical concepts (
48 hours of engagement per day)
- Conceptualised, designed, developed, and published 10 finance and investing courses on highly-technical concepts totalling
70 hours of HD video content and a large arsenal of learning resources, with average course ratings of 4.5 out of 5 (based on
3,500+ reviews) without influencing ratings
Courses include (but aren’t limited to): Data Driven Investing, Investment Analysis & Portfolio Management (with Python, and with Excel / Google Sheets), Stock Valuation, Bond Valuation, and Investment Appraisal. - Led small teams of freelancers on ad-hoc and continuous projects and earned a reputation for clear and thorough business requirements and prompt feedback in keeping with agile philosophies
- Consistently made data-driven decisions across business areas including course topic selection, updates vs. new course decisions, landing page copywriting, optimising PPC campaigns, etc
- Created a barrage of systems (e.g., SOPs, checklists, guides, internal training) to ensure the business runs sustainably on “auto-pilot” whilst minimising reliance on myself and reducing the impact of staff turnover
Independent Assessor, SME (Data Analyst, Data Science / AI Track)
ACCELERATE PEOPLE | February 2022 – Present
- Act as a Subject Matter Expert (SME) on Data Analytics, Data Science, Statistics, and AI within the Data Assessors Team of Accelerate People (a VC-backed, Ofqual Accredited, End Point Assessment (EPA) organisation)
- Assessing and evaluating Data Apprentices across the UK in a fair and unbiased manner whilst delivering assessments in a learner-centric, customised, flexible manner
- Designed and developed bespoke technical solutions to aid the organisation in taking a data-driven approach to capacity planning, forecasting, and management
- Actively participate in the design and development of standardizing best practices for service delivery, including interpretation of Assessment Plans that inform assessment design
- Co-wrote and co-developed assessment methods for the Level 7 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Data Specialist Apprenticeship Standard
- Mentor assessors and aid with their operational readiness and ongoing professional development
Research Fellow, Finance and Econometrics
WARWICK BUSINESS SCHOOL, UK | October 2017 – October 2020
- Managed large scale research projects working independently and collaboratively, building “full stack” data pipelines and research workflows from scratch, leveraging the power of automation, machine learning, and open-source data
- Created scalable “long-short” trading strategies utilising Big Data (N
15m) in both structured (numeric) and unstructured (text) forms
- Performed rigorous statistical analysis while drawing on theories and synthesising existing literature with own core hypotheses and underlying research questions
- Developed a custom measure of “trust” at the company and aggregate (macro) levels from scratch by applying Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques
- Statistically validated the underlying hypotheses by relying on a battery of robust statistical and econometric techniques including machine learning applications in supervised (regression) and unsupervised (LDA / Topic Modelling) settings
- Developed compelling student-centric learning experiences and delivering outstanding educational outcomes for students by creating engaging lesson content, challenging and empowering students to think critically
- Realised that “formal” academia wouldn’t make a good fit with my core values
Freelance Consultant
Various Clients | January 2012 – Present
- Empirically evaluated the validity and feasibility of portfolio strategies involving the Altman Z-score bankruptcy prediction model for a London based equity research firm.
- Delivered SEO optimised web copy and blog articles for a variety of businesses within Financial Services, e-Commerce, and Services (legal, consulting) industries.
- Modelled financial forecasts (P&L, Balance Sheet, CFS) for early stage startups.
- Implemented robust PPC campaigns on Google Ads (formerly Adwords), earning up to 30x RoAS.
Technical Skills
Languages
- Python
- R
- HTML / CSS
- Markdown
Software
- STATA
- Camtasia (video editing)
Operating Systems
- macOS
- Windows
- Linux
Dev Environments
- VisualStudio (current)
- Sublime Text
- Atom
- Jupyter