Hello there! My name is

Chris Sweeney.

I transform data into information.

I’m a freelance Data Architect and Developer specialising in Data Analytics, Financial Modelling, Business Intelligence and Machine Learning for the finance industry. Currently I’m focused on working with the Microsoft Intelligent Data Platform at Ten Times Ten.



Know Me Better

About Me


Hello! My name is Chris Sweeney and I am a UK-based Finance & Data Project Specialist with 15+ years’ experience of supporting global Banking, Investments and Insurance organizations with £100m+ mission-critical projects and transformation programmes. I started my career in the finance and investments world before becoming a freelance consultant in 2007 focused on providing technology and data expertise to help finance teams achieve their goals and objectives. I am usually hired by finance organizations that need my combined experience and skills across finance, technology, data, reporting and project-management. I hugely enjoy problem-solving opportunities where I can combine my background in fintech programmes with my love of complex data and coding to help create valuable insights and information that help business leaders make intelligent strategic decisions.



Certifications




Here are some technologies I like to work with:


Power BIC#
SQL ServerPython
SynapseExcel VBA
AzureJavaScript
DatabricksReact JS
PyCharmAnaconda

Where I've worked


Ten Times TenFinance & Data Project consultant.
BarclaysData & Reporting Lead for the £200m global restructure programme.
L&GData & Financial Modelling lead for a pensions investments programme.
Co-OpFinance & Data Lead for the £100m restructure program.
AXAData Analytics & Financial Modelling Lead for the new Investment Platform programme.
BarclaysSolution Architect for the Technology Risk Management and Business Intelligence programme.
Lloyds Data Architect & Financial Modeller for the Liquidity Regulatory programme.
BarclaysBI Architect for a new Business Intelligence Reporting suite.
Ernst & YoungData & BI Architect for a Banking Transformation programme.
BarclaysLead Developer of a database-driven £1bn Financial Modelling solution.
Co-OpLead Developer of Bank of England Regulatory Reporting automation.
AXAData Analytics & Financial Modelling Lead for a Pensions Predictive Modelling project.
BarclaysLead Developer, Data Analytics and Financial Modelling for The War Room project team.

What I do


Transformation Programme Consultancy

Over 15 years’ experience working on £100m+ mission critical Banking, Investments and Insurance Transformation Programmes.


Business Intelligence

Full design and development of Business Intelligence Dashboards and Reporting solutions using Microsoft Power BI and SSRS.


Financial Modelling

20 years’ experience in the development of Financial Models to solve complex problems for wide ranging business scenarios.


Excel Automation

20 years’ experience in the development of Excel VBA Desktop solutions to streamline and automate financial processes.


Data Architecture

15 years’ experience in the full design and technology selection for data storage, consumption, integration and management.


Database Development

20 years’ experience in the full design, development and implementation of Microsoft databases and datawarehouses.


Application Development

15 years’ experience in the design, build and deployment of C# ASP.NET JavaScript database-driven Web Applications.


Software Engineering

15 years’ experience in the design and coding of solutions using Python, JavaScript, PHP, Haskell, React JS and SQL.


Data Engineering

15 years’ experience in the design and build of systems for collecting, storing, transforming and analyzing data at scale.


Data Analytics

20 years’ experience in the analysis of high volume and complex data to derive intelligible and actionable information.


Machine Learning

Over 5 years' experience in developing Machine Learning solutions in Python to solve complex financial problems.


Some things I've built


Financial Projection Application


I designed and built a solution to enable a banking finance team to import financial projection data via webforms. I automated the capture of additionally required data from databases and the datawarehouse, storing everything in a new database. Finally, I updated the master forecasting templates, replacing all manual processing with automation scripts.


  • C#
  • ASP.NET
  • JavaScript
  • Excel
  • VBA
  • SQL Server
  • SSIS
  • SAP

Pension Projection Models


I created a solution to automate an investment team's processes for creating pension projections. I built a new database and automated the loading of required data from multiple source systems. I built a new Financial Modelling template containing the calculations needed for generating forecasts. I then automated the creation of export files for import into the finance system.


  • Python
  • C#
  • VBA
  • Excel
  • SQL Server
  • SSIS
  • SAP

Change Management Application


I designed a new web application to enable worldwide project teams within this global bank to capture project change control information centrally in a new database. With all change control data now stored centrally, this finally created the possibility to develop robust, real-time project reporting via a suite of dashboards designed for project managers and senior executives.


  • C#
  • Power BI
  • Azure
  • Excel
  • Azure SQL
  • ASP.NET
  • JavaScript

Resource Planning Application


I designed a web-based resource planning application to enabled team members to capture resource information via standard forms, storing this in a new database. This solution replaced very manual and time-consuming data import-export tasks with automated extract-transform-load scripts. Finally, I replaced the manual Excel reporting with a suite of new dashboards.


  • C#
  • Power BI
  • VBA
  • Excel
  • SQL Server
  • ASP.NET
  • SSIS

Technology Risk Management Solution


I designed a solution to manage technology risk for a global bank. I created a new database to act as the central hub for all risk data and automated the daily extraction and import of required risk data. I built a new web application to enable managers to capture risk information and developed a suite of dashboards designed specifically for Managers and Senior Exectives.


  • C#
  • SSRS
  • JavaScript
  • SQL Server
  • ASP.NET
  • SSIS

Weekly Programme Reporting Automation


I built an automated solution for Weekly Programme Reporting across over 50 mission-critical programmes for a global bank. I created SQL scripts to extract, transform and load the required data. I then created a data model in Power BI and created a suite of dashboards for project managers and senior executives.


  • Power BI
  • SQL
  • Excel
  • Power Query
  • DAX

Insurance Premium Modelling


I developed a solution to allow the actuarial team at this UK insurer to model insurance premiums. I started by creating SQL scripts to automate the extraction of required data from the source financial systems into a CSV format. Then using the Pandas library, I wrote the required Python scripts to model the data and generate the premium illustrations.


  • Python
  • SQL
  • Excel
  • VBA
  • Pandas

Regulatory Reporting Automation


I created an automated solution for generating the regulatory returns required by the Bank of England for a UK bank. This work required a great deal of business analysis work where I needed to study the regulatory requirements in order to ensure that the correct figures were produced. My final solution completely automated the production of these returns.


  • SQL
  • Excel
  • VBA
  • XBRL

Insurance 5 Year Forecast Model


As part of the transformation programme for a UK insurance company, I developed a 5 year financial model, projecting the P&L, Balance Sheet and Cashflow for the transformed business to support the business case. This required extraction of data from multiple source systems and the development of a complex model to allow us to create scenarios and build forecasts.


  • SQL
  • Excel
  • VBA

Fund Performance Application


I designed and built a new web application to enable an investment company to compare and analyse the performance of global funds. My solution required the extraction and import of both internal and external data and for this to be stored in a new relational database structure. The web front-end enabled the end-users to add multiple criteria for fund selection and analytics.


  • C#
  • ASP.NET
  • SQL Server
  • JavaScript

Pension Illustration Model


I designed and built a financial model for creating pension illustrations for this global investment company. My solution required the extraction and transformation of high volume data with analytics across a large number of parameters and complex actuarial calculations in order to generate pension performance projections.


  • SQL
  • Python
  • XML

Project Time Management Application


I designed and built a web application to help a global investment company manage resources on their projects. My solution replaced work that was being done using Excel spreadsheets. It enabled them to allocate resources to multiple projects and for the resource time to be allocated allowing accurate costings for company wide projects.


  • C#
  • ASP.NET
  • SQL Server
  • JavaScript

Resource Planning Application


As part of a global restructure programme, I designed and developed a web application to enable the finance and HR team at a global bank to manage the process of headcount resource changes and to assess the impact of changes on the budget at a departmental level.


  • C#
  • ASP.NET
  • SQL Server
  • JavaScript

Financial Forecasting Application


I created a solution to enable a global bank's finance teams to create forecasts. I developed a new database and ETL jobs to capture data required for building assumptions. I created webforms to enable the teams to create and store their forecasts in the new database. Finally, my solution enabled the team to import forecast data directly into the finance system.


  • C#
  • ASP.NET
  • SQL Server
  • JavaScript
  • SAP

£1bn Banking Financial Model


I created a database-driven Financial Model for a global bank to enable the build of projections of costs in excess of a billion pounds. Due to it's complexity, the model required financial and non-financial data from multiple sources in order to build the assumptions. My solution enabled us to apply scenarios and parameter values to build forecasts.


  • Excel
  • VBA
  • SQL Server
  • SAP

Project Cost Management Application


I created an application to help a global bank's finance team manage monthly costs of £100m. My solution replaced a lengthy manual data-cleansing process and further additional manual processing to calculate the correct values. My solution completely automated all of the manual processing and produced a fully calculated file ready for import into the finance system.


  • Excel
  • VBA
  • SQL
  • SAP

Building Society Financial Model


I created a new Financial Model for a UK Buiding Society with assets of around £180m. This 3-way Financial Model covering the P&L, Balance Sheet and Cashflow Statement enabled us to build 5 year projections. The build involved modelling of savings, mortgages and loan products and involved complex calculations of derivatives.


  • Excel
  • VBA
  • SQL

Get in touch



I am usually pretty busy but if you have a question or just want to say hi, I will do my best to get back to you.



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