Katya has over 15 years’ experience working with clients to improve their assets by quickly interpreting data and optimising for performance. She holds a Ph.D. in predictive modelling and a P.D.Eng. in industrial mathematics, which she applies in the fields of A.I., advanced machine learning, digitalisation, and prescriptive analytics. Her company, DataStories, has been a part of Partners in Performance since 2021.

Katya is a member of Forbes Technology Council, advisor to the European Commission on innovation and material science, a registered industrial designer in the Netherlands, and a guest lecturer at the University of Leuven (BE).

She works mainly primarily in the mining and metals, food and beverage, chemicals, consumer packaged goods, and advanced machinery industries, where she helps clients understand and optimise their KPIs. She uses prescriptive modelling, virtual assistants, yield and profitability improvements, data literacy, emissions reduction, and data and innovation programs to help them streamline their operations and lock in profit improvements.

Katya believes we have long way to go in educating businesses on the substantial operational and environmental benefits that prescriptive analytics offers and says we need to coach data scientists to focus on actionable insights. She describes her mission as modernising and automating operations using advanced analytics solutions and educating and upskilling engineers and integrated teams to drive data‑driven improvements aligned with business goals.

She strives to achieve this by translating business problems into the realm of data science, then applying system analysis and optimisation to identify the weakest links and devise solutions that are easy for clients to apply.