Diederik van Krieken
Principal at Metyis, Amsterdam
I work where business strategy meets data and AI. As a Principal at Metyis I lead data, AI and strategy programmes for clients across Europe, the United States and the Middle East, with teams in Amsterdam, Porto, New York, Riyadh and India. The work spans the full range, from data platforms, reporting and dashboards to advanced analytics, machine learning and AI.
A lot of my time goes into getting business and technical teams to agree on what to build, and then making sure people actually use it. My background in artificial intelligence, combined with business school and years of consulting, lets me act as the bridge between engineering, product and the business.
Background
I studied Artificial Intelligence at the University of Groningen, a degree that combined mathematics and computing science with psychology, linguistics and philosophy. During my master's I spent a year at Osaka University researching fuzzy inference methods, which led to a published paper. My bachelor's thesis, written at ING, predicted payment arrears with random forests, and my master's thesis, written at Accenture, built a multi-agent negotiation model for industrial resource allocation.
When I graduated, most of my classmates went into data science. I expected much of that work to become automated, and saw more lasting value in understanding the business and anticipating what models could do for it. I joined Metyis in 2017 because it was one of the few firms where strategy consulting and data science were not separate tracks. It had around 30 people then and has more than 1,200 now, and I have grown with it from analyst to Principal.
In 2022 I completed an MBA at INSEAD, in Singapore and Fontainebleau, and graduated with distinction (Dean's List, top 10%).
A selection of engagements
| Client | My role | What we delivered |
|---|---|---|
| US fashion and apparel group, $4B | Head of Data | Central data platform, replacement of the reporting landscape with self-service dashboards, the data and AI roadmap and the AI governance framework |
| Global commodities business, $17B | Project lead | Scoping of a GenAI insights programme: aligning business, data and technology, and selecting the highest-value use cases |
| Government body, Middle East | Co-lead | National data platform, from proposal to delivery, with a team across Riyadh, India, Porto and Amsterdam |
| European fashion company, €4B | Analytics lead | Omnichannel analytics |
| Global foodservice company, $40B | Data strategy and build | Data strategy, followed by the first demand forecasting model to put it into practice |
| US fashion company, $8B | Advanced analytics | Churn prediction, customer lifetime value and multi-touch attribution; input to the ecommerce strategy and to which team owns which KPI |
| European brewer, €10B | Analytics and strategy | Profitability and churn models across nine EU markets |
Data and privacy
Working with AI every day, I also keep a critical eye on it. I care about privacy, and I have run my own server for email, calendar and this website for years. I keep my online footprint small.
Outside work
I grew up in Sweden, Pakistan, France, Switzerland, the United States, Laos and the Netherlands. Moving often taught me to settle quickly and connect with people from very different backgrounds. Today I live in Amsterdam with my girlfriend.
Since 2016 I have taught programming to primary school children with Stichting CodeUur, and I have taught Python to refugees through the Refugee Talent Hub. Endurance sport and travel take up most of the rest: a full Ironman, the Vasaloppet, mountains up to 6,088 metres, the Trans-Mongolian railway, a journey overland along the Silk Road, and six months in Peru chasing the ambition of becoming a surf instructor.