Daniel Leonardo Cruz Castro — Data Governance & Analytics Leader

Daniel Leonardo Cruz Castro — Data Governance & Analytics COE Manager at Avianca

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Location

Bogotá, Colombia

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Languages

Spanish · English B2 · Portuguese

✉️

Email

lecruk@gmail.com

💼

linkedin.com/in/dlcruzc

About

Data-first. Always in service
of the business.

Executive with 15+ years leading complete business verticals in Financial Services — combining expertise in digital transformation, analytics, AI, and operations with sharp commercial and strategic vision.

I specialize in uniting analytical and AI capabilities with broad business perspective to make the most challenging transformation projects a reality. I have led teams of up to 1,600 people. I lead by teaching.

"I unite data skills, technology knowledge, and operational expertise with business and strategic vision — making good decisions and influencing people at every level."

Technical Skills

Data Governance · DAMA Databricks · Teradata Python · R · SAS Power BI · Tableau · SAP BO MLOps · DataOps Data Lake / Warehouse Google Analytics · GTM Agile · N8N · Claude Code

Education

MBA

MBA, Business Administration

Universidade de São Paulo — #1 Brazil · 2020–2022

MSc

MSc Business Intelligence

Universitat de Barcelona — #1 Spain · 2012–2013 · Academic Excellence Grant

MSc

MSc Marketing

Universidad de Manizales · 2015–2017

BSc

BSc Statistics

Universidad Nacional de Colombia · 2007–2012

ML

ML Specialization

Stanford University (Online) · Oct 2023–Jan 2024

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Premio Platino

Fintech Americas 2020 · Movicuenta

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Asobancaria Award

Economics Excellence 2021 & 2022

🎓

20+ Theses Directed

5 scientific publications

🎤

International Speaker

Statistics, Data Mining, Marketing

Projects

Selected Work

Real problems. Real solutions. Measurable impact — across banking, fintech and aviation.

Featured · 2025 – Present Avianca Current role

Enterprise Data Governance Program & AI Council Leadership

Problem

Decentralized analytics teams in silos — no unified data ownership, quality standards, or governance accountability.

Solution

Federated governance model with data domains, stewardship roles, a Data Council (DAMA DMBOK), and an AI Council for GenAI.

Impact

Enterprise data governance foundation enabling scalable self-service analytics and responsible GenAI adoption across Avianca.

Data GovernanceDAMA DMBOK Federated ModelAI Council GenAI EthicsData Products

Banco Agrario · 2020–2022

Movicuenta — Digital Banking at Scale

Led product launch from scratch: 300K+ accounts opened via mobile. Colombia's first fully digital account for agricultural populations.

🏆 Premio Platino · Fintech Americas 2020

Digital BankingFintechMobileProduct Launch

Banco Agrario · 2020–2022

Self-Service Digital Credit & Referral Platform

Eliminated branch dependency for credit. Launched Solicita tu Crédito Digital (COP $15B+) and Portal de Referidos (COP $20B+). Grew campaign analytics 10% → 50% of production in 6 months.

Digital CreditAnalyticsCRMAgTech

Itaú Colombia · 2017–2019

Lead Management & Analytics-Driven Sales Transformation

Analytics contribution was <10% of commercial production. Built scoring models and data culture — grew to 70% in two years. Exceeded 200% of digital product sales budget.

Lead ManagementML ModelsCRMData Culture

Banco Agrario · 2023–2024

National Digital Transformation Program

Led bank-wide digital transformation — process dematerialization, credit & deposit redesign. Built a 30+ person dedicated team spanning tech, business, process and risk.

TransformationProcess DesignTeam BuildingOperations

Banco Agrario · 2022–2023

Agricultural & SME Banking — COP $11T Portfolio

Owned full P&L strategy for Colombia's core agricultural banking business — COP $11T loan portfolio + $3T deposit base. Also managed the National Strategic Alliances division driving partnership-based growth across the country.

Commercial BankingP&L Ownership SME BankingStrategic AlliancesAgricultural Finance

Experience

Career Timeline

15+ years across aviation, banking, fintech and academia — always at the intersection of data, technology and business.

Aug 2025 – Present

Data Governance & Analytics COE Manager

Avianca

Current

→Stood up enterprise data governance with a federated operating model across decentralized analytics teams.
→Redesigned analytics operating model with data product approach, enabling scalable self-service analytics.
→Leads the AI Council: GenAI adoption roadmaps, AI ethics frameworks, and ML use-case governance.

Data GovernanceAI CouncilGenAIDatabricks

Mar 2026 – Present

Associate — Chief Data Officer Network

CDO LATAM

Leading non-profit network of CDOs and Data & AI leaders across Latin America. Contributing to best practices, data culture, and digital transformation acceleration in the region.

Dec 2024 – Aug 2025

Productivity & Commercial Development Manager

Bancamía — Banco de las Microfinanzas (Fundación BBVA)

→Led data-driven commercial productivity strategy, incentive design, and channel performance using BI/ML.
→Unified commercial tracking and standardized executive dashboards, accelerating strategic decisions.

Commercial StrategyBI/MLMicrofinance

May 2020 – Dec 2024 · 4 yrs 8 mos

Banco Agrario de Colombia

Colombia's largest public bank — 3 executive roles

Nov 2023 – Dec 2024 · National Operations & Digital Transformation Manager

Led bank-wide digital transformation. Built 30+ person team. Simultaneously oversaw national operations for all asset product processes.

Nov 2022 – Nov 2023 · National Sales & Commercial Development Manager

Full P&L ownership — COP $11T loan portfolio + $3T deposits. Managed National Strategic Alliances division.

May 2020 – Nov 2022 · National Commercial Development & Digital Business Manager

Led Movicuenta (300K+ accounts · 🏆 Premio Platino), digital credit ($15B+ COP), referral platform ($20B+). Campaign analytics 10% → 50% in 6 months.

Digital TransformationCommercial BankingDigital Products

Aug 2016 – May 2020 · 3 yrs 10 mos

Itaú Colombia

3 progressive roles

May 2019 – May 2020 · National Hub Data & Digital Manager

+20% digital client penetration · >200% digital product sales budget achieved.

Aug 2017 – May 2019 · Commercial Development & CRM Manager

Lead Management strategy — analytics production <10% → 70% in 2 years.

Aug 2016 – Aug 2017 · Commercial Intelligence & Development Lead

Commercial BI, intelligence tools and executive reporting.

Advanced AnalyticsDigital MarketingCRM

Earlier Roles · 2009–2016

Apr–Aug 2016

Commercial Intelligence Director

Credivalores

Built enterprise DWH and governance foundations.

Jan 2013–Apr 2016

Customer Intelligence Lead

Banco Agrario

ML models for campaigns; Executive Information System.

Jan 2009–Mar 2016

Founder & CEO

MinerStat Analytics

Consultancy serving Falabella, DNP, Grupo Lowe, Univ. Nacional.

Academic Experience

Part-time · Ongoing

Universidad del Rosario

MSc Business Analytics · Statistical Models, ML

Dec 2021–Present · 6+ theses directed

Universidad El Bosque

Big Data (Hadoop, Spark), Data Visualization

Jan 2023–Dec 2024

Universidad Santo Tomás

ML, Multivariate Statistics, Marketing Analytics

Jun 2013–May 2022 · 9 years

Univ. Surcolombiana

Design of Experiments & Data Mining

Sep 2013–Apr 2020

Universidad Nacional de Colombia

Teaching Assistant · Quantitative Methods

2012–2013

Research & Digital Footprint

Publications, Talks & Media

Academic research, conference talks, industry media and thought leadership — 5 scientific publications, international speaking, and an active presence across data, analytics and fintech.

Academic Publications

Academia.edu

Detección de Fraude en Tarjetas de Crédito mediante técnicas de IA

Peer-reviewed publication applying ML techniques to credit card fraud detection. One of 5 scientific publications with global academic visibility.

Machine Learning Fraud Detection AI

Scribd · Paper

Fraud Detection with AI — Open Access

Extended publicly available version of the fraud detection research, cited across multiple academic and industry contexts.

Statistics Data Mining Open Access

Univ. Manizales

Academic Research Paper — RIDUM Repository

Peer-reviewed academic paper hosted in the Universidad de Manizales institutional repository, related to analytics and data science research.

Analytics Academic Research Repository

Research · NLP

Text Mining & Statistical NLP — DTM Vic

Work referenced in the DTM Vic international academic platform for contributions to text analysis, NLP, and multivariate statistical research.

NLP Text Mining Multivariate

ResearchGate

Co-authored Research — ResearchGate Network

Work co-authored and referenced on ResearchGate, reflecting collaborative academic research in data science and analytics.

Co-authored ResearchGate Data Science

Academic Reference

Analytical Tools Reference — ILICO CERECON

Work listed as a reference in the ILICO CERECON academic tools catalogue — recognizing contributions to analytical methodologies in the field.

Analytics Methodology Reference

Talks, Media & Professional Presence

▶ Video · Talk

Itaú Hackathon — Innovation & Academia

Speaker bridging academic research and real-world data applications in financial services.

🎤 Speaker

Power Talks — Universidad del Rosario

Invited speaker at Colombia's top business school on analytics strategy and data leadership.

📻 Radio UNAL

Finanzas Sostenibles — Sector Agropecuario

Featured on Radio UNAL discussing sustainable finance and data-driven agricultural banking models.

📄 Presentation

Conference Presentation — Shared Materials

Academic or industry conference deck covering data and analytics strategy topics.

💼 LinkedIn

MSc Data Science Program — Academic Leadership

Professional post on academic program socialization, reflecting active role as professor and academic leader.

𝕏 Thought Leadership

Data & AI — Strategic Reflections

Professional content on data, AI, and strategic thinking shared on X/Twitter.

💼 Profile

LinkedIn — Full Professional Profile

Complete professional timeline: Avianca, banking, analytics, academic leadership and data governance expertise.

Insights & Thinking

Data Governance

Why Federated Governance Wins in Large Organizations

Centralized governance creates bottlenecks. Federated models with clear domain ownership empower teams while maintaining enterprise standards.

Data Operating Models

From Data Team to Data Product Team

Analytics teams that treat their outputs as products — with clear ownership, SLAs and feedback loops — outperform traditional BI teams by an order of magnitude.

AI Governance

Building an AI Council: Structure & Ethics at Scale

GenAI adoption without governance is technical debt at machine speed. A well-structured AI Council provides the accountability layer organizations need.

Academic Leadership

Research I've mentored.

Directed theses, co-authored research, and academic contributions across statistics, machine learning, and business analytics.

5+

Theses Directed

3

Universities

10+

Years Teaching

More work being added continuously.

Life in Photos

Behind the work.

Teams, talks, moments in the field — the human side of 15+ years of impact.

More photos coming soon.

Contact

Let's work
together.

Building a data governance program, driving analytics transformation, designing a data operating model, or scaling AI responsibly?

+57 301 756 4078 · Bogotá, Colombia

lecruk@gmail.com LinkedIn GitHub

LinkedIn · GitHub · X / Twitter · Academia.edu · danielleonardocruz.com

I make things happen. Data. Strategy. Real Results.

Data-first. Always in serviceof the business.