Alex Dean

Senior Data and AI Advisor | Manufacturing Practice Lead at Unit8

Zurich, Switzerland

About

๐— ๐—ผ๐˜€๐˜ ๐—ฑ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ฎ & ๐—”๐—œ ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ถ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐˜€ ๐—ฑ๐—ผ๐—ป'๐˜ ๐—ณ๐—ฎ๐—ถ๐—น ๐—ผ๐—ป ๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฐ๐—ต๐—ป๐—ผ๐—น๐—ผ๐—ด๐˜†. ๐—ง๐—ต๐—ฒ๐˜† ๐—ณ๐—ฎ๐—ถ๐—น ๐—ผ๐—ป ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—ด๐—ฎ๐—ฝ ๐—ฏ๐—ฒ๐˜๐˜„๐—ฒ๐—ฒ๐—ป ๐˜€๐˜๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ด๐˜† ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—ฒ๐˜…๐—ฒ๐—ฐ๐˜‚๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป. That gap is where I work. I partner with manufacturing and industrial leaders to turn data and AI ambition into measurable business outcomes โ€” identifying the highest-value use cases, building credible roadmaps, and guiding organisations from first idea to full adoption. Recent results for clients: โ€ข ๐˜Š๐˜๐˜ 30๐˜” ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ๐˜ฏ๐˜ถ๐˜ข๐˜ญ ๐˜ต๐˜ฐ๐˜ฑ-๐˜ญ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ช๐˜ฎ๐˜ฑ๐˜ข๐˜ค๐˜ต ๐˜ง๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ ๐˜ข ๐˜ค๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฎ๐˜ช๐˜ค๐˜ข๐˜ญ๐˜ด ๐˜ฎ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ๐˜ถ๐˜ง๐˜ข๐˜ค๐˜ต๐˜ถ๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ๐˜ณ ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ณ๐˜ฐ๐˜ถ๐˜จ๐˜ฉ ๐˜”๐˜“-๐˜ฅ๐˜ณ๐˜ช๐˜ท๐˜ฆ๐˜ฏ ๐˜ฑ๐˜ณ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฅ๐˜ถ๐˜ค๐˜ต๐˜ช๐˜ฐ๐˜ฏ ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฑ๐˜ต๐˜ช๐˜ฎ๐˜ช๐˜ด๐˜ข๐˜ต๐˜ช๐˜ฐ๐˜ฏ โ€ข ๐˜Š๐˜ฐ๐˜ฏ๐˜ค๐˜ฆ๐˜ฑ๐˜ต ๐˜ต๐˜ฐ ๐˜ญ๐˜ช๐˜ท๐˜ฆ ๐˜ˆ๐˜ ๐˜ฑ๐˜ญ๐˜ข๐˜ต๐˜ง๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ๐˜ฎ ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ ๐˜ถ๐˜ฏ๐˜ฅ๐˜ฆ๐˜ณ 12 ๐˜ฎ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฏ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ด ๐˜ง๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ ๐˜ข ๐˜ฃ๐˜ช๐˜ฐ๐˜ต๐˜ฆ๐˜ค๐˜ฉ ๐˜ด๐˜ต๐˜ข๐˜ณ๐˜ต๐˜ถ๐˜ฑ ๐˜ด๐˜ค๐˜ข๐˜ญ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ๐˜จ ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ๐˜ช๐˜ณ ๐˜ˆ๐˜ ๐˜ข๐˜ฅ๐˜ท๐˜ช๐˜ด๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ ๐˜ฑ๐˜ณ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฅ๐˜ถ๐˜ค๐˜ต What makes this possible is a combination most people don't have in one place: 30 years in technology, 20 years as a solutions architect and CTO, and the commercial instincts of a serial entrepreneur with an MBA. I don't just advise โ€” I co-design innovation programs alongside your team, with the technical depth to make them real and the business acumen to make them matter. Today, I drive the go-to-market strategy for the manufacturing practice at Unit8, where I work closely with manufacturing leaders navigating their next wave of AI transformation. I also speak at industry events on Data & AI strategy, Data and AI architectures, and closing the gap between vision and execution. Based in Switzerland. Fluent in English and German. ๐—œ๐—ณ ๐˜†๐—ผ๐˜‚'๐—ฟ๐—ฒ ๐—ฎ ๐—บ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐˜‚๐—ณ๐—ฎ๐—ฐ๐˜๐˜‚๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—ผ๐—ฟ ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฑ๐˜‚๐˜€๐˜๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ฎ๐—น ๐—น๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ ๐—ฒ๐˜…๐—ฝ๐—น๐—ผ๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐˜„๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ ๐—”๐—œ ๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐—ป ๐—บ๐—ผ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—ป๐—ฒ๐—ฒ๐—ฑ๐—น๐—ฒ โ€” ๐—œ'๐—ฑ ๐—น๐—ผ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ ๐˜๐—ผ ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ป๐—ฒ๐—ฐ๐˜.

Experience

  • Senior Data and AI Advisor - Client Partner Manufacturing Practice at Unit8
    Oct 2024 - Present ยท 1 yr 10 mos

    Helping customers grow through unleashing the power of their data: ๐Ÿ“„ GenAI-Accelerated Analysis of Risk Documents ๐Ÿ”ฎ Developing a forecasting platform for model benchmarking, tuning, and selection, resulting in more accurate and efficient retail sales forecasting as well as empowerment to define new use cases. โš™๏ธ Production Line Optimisation: OEE increased by 8%, speed-up of production by 15%. ๐Ÿ“Š AI Sales Forecasting: 98% accuracy enabling automation and time savings. ๐Ÿงช (Re-)formulation of Formulas: 50% cost reduction at 300x speed increase. ๐Ÿงฌ Extraction of Formulaโ€™s Bases: 30% ingredient cost savings with less than 1% deviation. ๐ŸŒ Centralised Models API: laying the foundation for an AI mesh. ๐Ÿ› ๏ธ Smart Blending: 400K cost savings in rolling stock and lead time reduction p.a. ๐Ÿญ Process Order Optimisation in Manufacturing Line: 3% improvement in manufacturing speed.

  • Microsoft Certified Trainer at Microsoft Certified Trainer - Freelance
    Oct 2007 - May 2025 ยท 17 yrs 8 mos

    Passionate Microsoft Trainer with a wide spectrum of topics covered, from Development, Data Platforms, M365 and Infrastructure.

  • Head of Data Analytics at Allgeier (Schweiz) AG
    Jan 2019 - Sep 2024 ยท 5 yrs 9 mos

    Heading up the Data Analytics and Business Intelligence practice and designing Intelligent workplace solutions for our Swiss and International customers.

  • Data and Intelligence Practice Manager at Clade Solutions
    Oct 2017 - Dec 2018 ยท 1 yr 3 mos

    We help our customers to make sense of the many tools out there โ€“ to determine first what they need and what problems they are looking to solve. The solutions may be a mix of CRM, Business Intelligence, Office 365 and Advanced Analytics such as machine learning. Or, it could be that they need an online portal or mobile app. My responsibilities at Clade include: โ€ข Design the Data & Intelligence business strategy and grow the team โ€ข Grow out our capabilities in Microsoft technologies such as Business Intelligence, Advanced Analytics, Intelligent Workforce and Azure Key Successes include: Achieved Silver Partner status in Application Development and Cloud Platform Development of a Data Driven Bot for self service statistics Growing the D&I practice by more than 150% Designing a Customer Centric business model and increasing customer life time value

  • Fractional CTO at Catholic Schools NSW
    Jan 2017 - Dec 2018 ยท 2 yrs

    What started as a independent IT advisory role for Catholic Education Commission soon became a CTO role involving the design and execution of their IT Strategy, recruitment of developers and infrastructure staff, oversight and management of said staff. Working hard with the team to turn the internal IT processes around we successfully introduced strong DevOps practices, reduced support wait times and standardised the hardware and software landscape, while migrating critical business applications to the cloud and rolling out SSO across critical internal and external applications and solutions.