Quentin CasaresData and AI leadership for regulated growth

About

Twenty-six years turning data into decisions

Quentin Casares is a London-based data and AI leader with more than 26 years of experience across Tier 1 banking, insurance, public sector, and regulated enterprise environments.

Quentin Casares
Role
Independent board consultant for data and AI governance
Base
London, United Kingdom
Terms
Confidential by default · NDA-ready · GDPR-aligned

01 / Narrative

Where commercial performance, regulation, and decision quality meet.

The City of London seen from above, the Thames and the financial district in one frame.
The City of London - the regulated estate most of this record was built inside.

His work sits where commercial performance, regulatory control, and executive decision quality meet: building data functions, modernising platforms, improving data quality, and creating governance that gives senior leaders confidence in the numbers.

He combines board-level credibility with hands-on technical fluency in Python, SQL, cloud data platforms, applied AI, RAG patterns, knowledge graphs, and agentic systems. That mix matters because the hardest executive data decisions are rarely solved by a platform selection alone.

The consistent thread is pragmatic transformation: turning fragmented data estates into decision infrastructure that can be governed, audited, scaled, and used by commercial teams.

02 / Leadership profile

How the work gets done, not just what it delivers.

An empty boardroom on a high floor, long table and chairs facing a glazed wall.
Where data stops being a platform question and becomes a board question.
Principle 01

Transformational change leadership

High energy and conviction for transforming the business - setting direction, refusing complacency, and challenging the status quo as a change agent. Navigates complexity, ambiguity, and pressure with resilience, composure, and decisive prioritisation.

Principle 02

Compliance, control, and discipline

Builds a culture of compliance and accountability that mitigates financial, operational, and reputational risk - held to a high bar of integrity, ethics, and ESG standards, and balanced by relentless cost and budget discipline.

Principle 03

High-performing teams

Leads, motivates, and delegates to clear accountabilities, building a high-performance culture across functions. Actively manages performance, develops a pipeline of talent, and empowers people at every level to deliver and grow.

Principle 04

Commercial engagement and influence

A role model for client engagement at the C-level - decisive, persuasive, and quick to build trust. Influences with tenacity through complexity, and represents the brand and culture credibly inside and out.

03 / Career record

Senior roles and what changed in them.

A tall office tower rising into low cloud, seen from street level.
Tier 1 banking, insurance, public sector, regulated enterprise.

2026 to present

Independent practice

Independent board consultant

Independent board consultant on data, AI governance, and transformation - advising CEOs, CFOs, boards, and PE operating partners in regulated and commercially demanding environments.

  • Confidential board advisory on data trust, reporting, and AI adoption.
  • Fractional and transformation leadership for regulated and PE-backed businesses.
  • Independent of vendor and platform interests - judgement, not resale.

2024 to 2026

Alpha Bank London

Head of Data

Sole senior data leader for a boutique private bank, accountable for enterprise data strategy, governance, analytics, regulatory reporting data quality, and applied AI adoption.

  • Chaired the Data and AI Governance Working Group.
  • Led BCBS239 remediation across finance and risk reporting data.
  • Deployed Microsoft Purview plans across 500+ Critical Data Elements and 18 finance database views.
  • Designed Salesforce FSC integration and core banking data remediation pipelines.

2022 to 2023

Volante Global

Head of Data Engineering and Analytics

Built the data function for a high-growth specialty insurance technology business with full ownership of engineering, analytics, BI, governance, and commercial data products.

  • Stood up the cloud data platform on Azure and Databricks.
  • Created commercial analytics for underwriting, pricing, exposure, customer, and margin decisions.
  • Recruited and led a multi-disciplinary data team.

2013 to 2018

HSBC

Head of EMEA Data, Reporting and Analytics

Accountable to the HR Executive Committee for data, reporting, analytics, vendor delivery, and governance across a 30+ country EMEA portfolio.

  • Led a blended 40+ person team across employees, contractors, and offshore delivery.
  • Delivered major cost efficiencies through re-engineering, automation, and operating model change.
  • Directed Accenture and Deloitte partnerships and GDPR readiness work.

Earlier leadership

Dufrain, MTC, RBS, Barclays, Walgreens Boots Alliance

Transformation, BI, data quality, and governance roles

Delivered advisory, public sector analytics, enterprise BI, investment banking data management, and healthcare data quality programmes.

  • Improved data quality by up to 40% in transformation contexts.
  • Built reporting estates and governance models for high-stakes decisions.
  • Operated across commercial, risk, operational, workforce, and regulatory datasets.

04 / Domain fluency

  • Enterprise data strategy
  • AI governance
  • Data governance
  • BCBS239 remediation
  • GDPR data controls
  • FCA and PRA regulatory expectations
  • Critical Data Elements
  • Data lineage
  • Microsoft Purview
  • Databricks
  • Azure data platforms
  • Commercial analytics
  • Board reporting
  • Data quality remediation
  • RAG and knowledge graphs
  • Agentic systems governance

Qualified mandate

If data has become a leadership issue, start with a conversation.

Start a confidential conversation

Confidential by default · NDA-ready · GDPR-aligned