Joost Van Heusden

Head of Database & Analytics EMEA at AWS | Building & Scaling Multi-Billion-Dollar Data & AI Revenue Organizations Across Europe | GTM Strategy • Executive Advisory • Thought Leadership

Amsterdam, North Holland, Netherlands

About

I build and scale Data & AI organizations across Europe, where deep technical conviction meets commercial execution. Over 25 years I've worked three sides of the table: technology vendor (AWS), Fortune 500 enterprise customer (Heineken), and strategic consultant (Accenture). I've architected data platforms, defined enterprise data strategies, and built the commercial organizations to bring them to market. That hands-on technical foundation, from data warehousing and governance through to generative AI and agentic architectures, is what lets me set credible vision, earn trust in the room with CTOs and CDOs, and turn that trust into long-term partnerships. At AWS, I lead the EMEA Database & Analytics GTM organization. 77 specialists across 9 regions, responsible for a multi-billion-dollar portfolio spanning databases, analytics, ML, generative AI, and ISV partner solutions. We more than doubled the business in four years, consistently exceeding quota. My approach: set the vision and strategy, design repeatable sales motions, build partner ecosystems (ISV co-sell, SI alliances), then empower the team to own execution. I stay close to the technology, shaping our point of view on data architectures and generative AI, feeding customer needs back into engineering to influence product priorities, advising customers on platform strategy, and personally holding CDO/CIO/CTO relationships at our most strategic accounts. Before AWS, I ran Heineken's global data & analytics capability. Set the data strategy, built the platform (cloud migration, data governance, self-service BI), delivered global analytics initiatives for Commerce, Supply Chain, R&D, HR, and Finance, and onboarded 11 country-specific data warehouse environments. Grew the portfolio from €2M to €12M and sat on the IT steering committee. At Accenture and Atos, I spent a decade hands-on: IT cost management at Shell, CRM analytics at Amgen, operational performance at ING, loan management at Nordea, and supply chain at Philips. I'm regularly on stage and run executive meetings at AWS Executive Summits, IDC, and Formula 1 executive briefings. I chair CDO Roundtables that bring 30+ C-level data leaders together quarterly to debate where the industry is heading. Always happy to connect and exchange perspectives on building Data & AI revenue in Europe.

Experience

  • Amazon Web Services (AWS) (7 yrs 1 mo)
    • Head of Database & Analytics - EMEA
      Jan 2026 - Present · 6 mos

    • Head of Data & AI GTM - Europe North, Germany & Europe Central
      Jan 2024 - Jan 2026 · 2 yrs 1 mo

      Defining, leading and driving the go-to-market strategy on Data & AI including storage, database, analytics, AI/ML and generative AI for the Benelux, Nordics, Germany, Alps, Central Europe and the Baltics.

    • Sr. Manager Analytics Customer Experience Team - EMEA
      Nov 2021 - Jan 2024 · 2 yrs 3 mos

      My team works with our largest Analytics customers in EMEA, support them in their growth and delivering value to their business partners.

  • CoE lead MDM/BI at The HEINEKEN Company
    Apr 2017 - Mar 2019 · 2 yrs

    • Revitalized the Business Intelligence capability by improving the trust of my stakeholders on the delivery capability and optimizing the costs. My portfolio grew from 2M€ to 12M€ responsible for delivering 30+ solutions and every new analytics global initiative uses my team. • Significantly improved the BI platform (including Data hub, Data Warehouses and reporting capabilities) which is now used by 12 large global initiatives and 11 local instances with a turn-over of 3M€ and being cost neutral. o Moved the whole infrastructure to the AWS cloud reducing the infrastructure and support costs o Worked together with procurement to renegotiate the SAP licenses to an all-you-can eat concept fixing the license costs o Changed the architecture to utilize hot and cold storage of data reducing the costs of infrastructure o Created a service cost model that allowed us to charge per functionality while we took on the costs of the platform o Significantly increased the number of solutions using this platform to get more paying customers by aggressively advertise the benefits, get support from architecture and have a specific sales team to support the interest and close the deal • Implemented a self-service framework enabling the business to create and maintain their own dashboards while getting training on the job and have a PowerBI Friends network to support them. The solution is recognized by Microsoft and their partners as unique as it puts the business in the driving seat. • Rationalized the MDM landscape to one single MDM tool and migrating and decommissioning similar tools • As Line Manager, developed and coached Line manager of a team of 8 internal architects. • Grew the team from 12 externals to 100 people by aggressively expanding the core with independent contractors and extended the number of developers from System Integrators (IBM, Macaw, Lemongrass, Accenture) • Managed the relationship with AWS, SAP, Microsoft, Mendix and Microstrategy

  • Accenture (10 yrs 5 mos)
    • Manager Business Intelligence
      Mar 2010 - Mar 2017 · 7 yrs 1 mo

      Main Clients: Shell, Nordea, Alliander, Amgen, ING • Led the Next Generation Business Intelligence team within Accenture NL, defining the vision, setting up goals and measuring the progress. The strategy focused on visualizations and self-service reporting in tools like Qlik, big data and handling a variety of source data, new platforms (including SaaS) and BI team transformations • Alliances responsibility for the Accenture NL relationships with tool vendors Informatica and Oracle BI. This included pursuing joint sales opportunities, exchanging knowledge and developing joint offerings • Managed the application development, technical architecture and operations teams at Shell, Nordea and Amgen with on- and offshore teams up to 20 FTE from both Accenture as well as third party contractors and vendor resources. Both waterfall and agile delivery methodologies were used. • Worked in both Agile and Waterfall delivery methods, and built extensive experience with leading offshore & multi location teams • Implemented Business Intelligence Solutions in the business areas of IT, Finance, Sales, Operations and Manufacturing. Defined Data Management and Governance processes at Shell, Alliander and Amgen • Consulted at several client engagements in a Subject Matter Expert role

    • Business Intelligence Consultant
      Nov 2006 - Feb 2010 · 3 yrs 4 mos

  • BI Consultant at Atos Origin
    Sep 2001 - Oct 2006 · 5 yrs 2 mos

    Main Clients: Philips, Allshare, Rabobank, SNS • EPM & BI Developer and Technical lead in various tools like Business Objects, Kalido, Comshare FPC & MPC.