Mariette van Niekerk

I lead the Data Science & AI practice of Deloitte New Zealand's Risk Advisory team, using a variety of machine learning / AI technologies to detect and manage fraud and operational risks. Examples of the work I and my team do include:

• Automated document analysis (e.g. employing natural language processing in contract analytics),
• Model risk management (e.g. model validation, bias detection)
• Outlier detection (e.g. using unsupervised machine learning to identify fraudulent transactions),
• Predictive modelling (e.g. using supervised machine learning to model employee churn)

I am an experienced data scientist and project lead, with a 12 year track record delivering operations research and artificial intelligence solutions cross-industry (Financial Services, Public Sector, Energy, Retail, CPG, TMT).

I am a registered Project Management Professional, and have published postgraduate research on the application of machine learning in the project management domain. Before joining Deloitte in 2014, I gained six years' experience managing business improvement projects in the public sector. My current focus is on the Financial Services industry.