Robert Chiu

I am currently the Chief Data Officer at the Commerce Commission.

Due to the growth in the responsibilities and size of the organisation, I was brought in to develop the data and analytics strategy as the commission transitions from a small to a medium size organisation. This will require the development of enterprise business practices to lift capability and reduce inefficiencies, developing data governance and management practices, and creating a team to operationalise these new functions.

Previously I was the Head of Data at Data Ventures.

Data Ventures is the consultancy arm of Stats NZ. It brings together confidentialised datasets from the private sector that others haven’t been able to access to solve problems. Most noteworthy is the population density and spend density products that was critical to New Zealand’s response to COVID-19 as it enabled the government to make decisions using near real-time data.

I lead the strategic engagement with large private commercial entities from the telecommunications, payments, and banking sector to negotiate the exchange of data through a value exchange model, a government first. This required the development and implementation of data governance that address risks to privacy, confidentiality, commercial sensitivity of data.

I lead a team of data scientist that transforms the data into actionable insights and products for our customers.

The expertise I have gained from the Data Ventures operating model is now being used to consult international organisations as a valid use case for their data sourcing strategy. I am also providing internal expertise to Stats NZ to operationalise this business model.

I previously led Stats NZ on how to incrementally change their business models in becoming an adaptive organisation, taking on concepts and ideas from the lean start up, design thinking, and agile to help put together a framework that works for the specific business. I helped increase awareness and impact of disruptive changes to businesses.

I also co-developed the people and culture strategy on how to incorporate behavioural economics and psychological theory to improve the performance of the organisation.

I have a keen interest and in depth knowledge in financial markets and the global macro economics and understand how to leverage off the indicators in the global markets to anticipate it’s impact on New Zealand. I am well versed in emerging technologies and apply this knowledge to inform strategic changes in organisations through presentations in a number of conferences.