Most organisations are investing in data.
Very few can point to the return.
That gap is what I close. I work with growth-stage and enterprise organisations as a Fractional Head of Data & AI — helping leadership teams understand what their data is actually worth, and build the decisions around it.
A decade building models, pipelines, and data products across Swiss telco, global consumer health, and Fortune 500 supply chain.
The technical work was hands-on. The question behind it was always about business outcomes.
Data investment without commercial return is just cost.
Most organisations have data teams working hard. Dashboards are built. Models are trained. Reports are generated. But when the CFO asks what changed as a result, the answer is rarely clear.
The problem is almost never technical capability. It is the missing link between data work and measurable results: the right questions asked before projects start, clear metrics defined before delivery begins, and real accountability established before budgets are approved.
That is the connection I work to build.
Three ways to engage
The conversation usually starts in one of these three places.
Growth-stage and enterprise organisations · Series B and beyond · Switzerland, Germany, Austria
The work is happening. Dashboards exist, models have been built, the team is busy. But when the CFO asks what it has actually changed, what decision was made differently or what revenue moved, the answer is not there.
Whether your Head of Data has recently left or you have not yet made that hire, no one is accountable for connecting the data work to business outcomes. That gap tends to cost more the longer it stays open.
A model, a pipeline, an analytics product. Something that matters enough that getting the framing wrong at the start would cost more to fix than the build itself.
One example from the work that shaped how I approach every engagement.
A B2C telco was carrying operational cost from customers on legacy products. The right offers existed. The challenge was identifying which customers to move, when, and with what.
As analytics lead, I worked across commercial, product, and operations to build a targeting and offer-matching model. The approach was deliberate: test on a defined segment, validate the outcome, then scale.
I presented the results to the CMO and made the case for scaling. The go-ahead followed. The outcome was measurable yearly revenue growth and reduced operational cost through targeted customer migration.
How I think about this work
If your data investments are not generating a return you can point to, that is a useful conversation to have.
I work with a small number of organisations at a time so every engagement gets my full attention. If the timing is right, I would be glad to talk.
The ROI Specialist behind Visthena.
A decade of delivering measurable commercial outcomes from data, across Swiss telco, global consumer health, and Fortune 500 supply chain environments.
Across every role I held before founding Visthena, the same moment came around eventually. At year-end leadership reviews, someone would ask what the data function had actually delivered that year. The honest answer was harder to give than it should have been. The technical results were real. The business results were unquantified.
This was not a capability problem. The teams were strong, the work was serious, and the investment was real. The missing piece was always the same. Nobody had agreed, at the start, what the work was actually supposed to change. So when the question came, the answer was not there.
That is what Visthena is for.
At Johnson & Johnson and Kenvue, I was the forecasting lead for demand sensing solutions across 11 EMEA markets, contributing to double-digit improvements in forecast accuracy across thousands of SKUs.
At Sunrise Communications, I was lead data scientist in the commercial function, leading a B2C migration strategy that grew revenue and running the B2B analytics function as Product Owner.
At UPC Switzerland, I built churn and propensity models that reduced retention costs across a customer base of over one million.
I hold a PhD in Informatics from the University of Lugano (USI) and have completed leadership development programmes at IMD Lausanne and SGMI St. Gallen.
If something here resonates, I would be glad to talk.
I work with a small number of organisations at a time to make sure every engagement gets the attention it deserves.
Three ways to work together.
Every engagement starts with a commercial question, not a technical one.
Fractional Head of Data & AI
My core engagement. I work alongside your leadership team as a part-time Head of Data & AI. In practice, that means being the person who keeps connecting the data work back to what the business is actually trying to decide.
Whether the work involves a data pipeline, a predictive model, or an AI capability the business is considering — the business question always comes first.
- Review the current data roadmap and align priorities to business goals
- Support and unblock the data team, hands-on where it is useful
- Evaluate AI and analytics opportunities against business return, not just technical feasibility
- Represent the data function at leadership level, translating work into language the business can act on
- Build internal capability so the work outlasts the engagement
Well suited to organisations with a data team in place that want senior perspective without a full-time hire. Structured around a defined number of days per month, with scope and terms agreed at the start.
Data ROI Audit
A structured diagnostic for organisations that want an honest picture of where their data investment is working and where it is not. The output is a prioritised roadmap with a measurable success metric attached to each recommendation.
- A clear picture of which data initiatives are generating return and which are not
- The two or three opportunities most worth acting on, ranked by likely impact, including any AI capabilities worth pursuing
- A roadmap the leadership team can act on, with a success metric attached to each initiative
- A report you can take to your board without translation
Many ongoing engagements begin here. It is a contained piece of work that gives both sides a clear view of what is actually needed. Structured as a fixed fee, scoped after an initial conversation. Designed for organisations that have already invested in data and want to understand what it is returning.
Focused Delivery
For organisations with a specific initiative they want built and delivered to a clear deadline. We agree on what success looks like before work begins. Delivery is structured around that outcome, not just getting the code shipped.
- Agreeing upfront what decision or business outcome the work should enable
- Hands-on delivery across data, modelling, pipeline, and production deployment
- Technical execution handled end to end, from data to deployed solution
- Stakeholder communication and progress reporting throughout
- Knowledge transfer so the team can maintain and extend what was built
Suits organisations that have a clear initiative in mind and want the business framing built in from the start. Priced on a fixed scope and fixed fee basis, agreed before work begins. The fee depends on the initiative and is discussed once the scope is defined.
Not sure which engagement is the right fit?
Many organisations find the Data ROI Audit a useful starting point. It is a contained piece of work with a fixed fee that gives both sides a clearer picture before committing to anything further. But the right place to start is wherever your most pressing question is.
Let's find out if there's a fit.
I work with a small number of organisations at any one time to ensure every engagement receives full attention. The first step is a short conversation — no agenda, no pitch — to understand what you are trying to solve.
What to expect.
The first conversation is usually 30 minutes. No agenda, no pitch. Just a chance to understand what you are trying to solve and whether there is something useful I can help with.