Bernard Millet
Data Strategy & Transformation Lead
Data Governance · Architecture · Modelling · Quality · Integration · Metadata · Security

Trusted data by design: governed, modelled, and ready for the decisions that depend on it.

I have spent 20+ years leading data governance and transformation programmes in demanding regulated environments, in finance, insurance and pharma: UBS, Société Générale, AxiomSL, Allianz and Roche. My work covers the full DAMA-DMBOK spectrum, from strategy and governance to architecture, modelling, quality, integration, metadata and security. Everything on this page is real work I delivered, sanitised and organised by theme, so you can judge the thinking as well as the result.

🟢 Available now
Open to Chief Data Officer Head of Data Governance Data Management / DataOps Lead Data Architecture Lead
Bernard Millet, Data Strategy and Transformation Lead
Zurich · Open to hybrid · French (EU), B permit
French (Native), English (Fluent), German (B1)
20+years in enterprise data
7DAMA themes covered
21work samples across 7 domains
12jurisdictions governed (APAC)
Career Roche· Allianz· Société Générale· AxiomSL· UBS· DataEdgePro Clients served Deutsche Bank· Macquarie· Credit Suisse Credentials CIPP/E · CIPP/A · Google Cloud (GCP)· BCBS 239 · GDPR · FADP Tools Collibra · OpenMetadata · PowerDesigner · ER/Studio · AxiomSL · Power BI · Tableau · SAP Business Objects
The full spectrum

Seven data management and governance themes, each with a tool and a track record

For each theme I show something I actually built, and where I built it. Real work, not slideware.

DAMA
DMBOK
Why I organise my work this way

DAMA-DMBOK is the Data Management Body of Knowledge published by DAMA International, the globally recognised professional reference for data management and governance. It defines the disciplines every data organisation needs, from governance and quality to architecture, modeling, integration, metadata and security, and how they fit together.

I structure my work around it because, in my experience, it is the most complete and practical framework for governing and managing enterprise data. This portfolio is organised around seven of its knowledge areas, the ones where I go deepest.

The toolkit

Open any theme: the concept, the proof, the artefact

Open any theme and you'll see the idea, where I delivered it, and the file itself, yours to download. Everything is sanitised: real deliverables with client-specific details removed.

01

Data Governance

DMBOK · Data Governance · accountability that actually runs

Governance fails when it stays on a slide, so I make it operational. I set up the operating model (owners, stewards, custodians and a council) with an activity-level RACI, so every decision has a name against it. The rules live in a data governance policy, and each governing body is chartered with a Terms of Reference that fixes its mandate, membership and authority. Then I make it measurable: a Council KPI scorecard for the strategic enterprise view, and working-group KPIs for the operational data quality that feeds it. A maturity assessment shows where to invest next.

Operating modelRACIPolicyMaturity model
Tools Collibra · OpenMetadata · Excel / SharePoint
Work samples
  • 📘
    Operating ModelWord · four pillars, roles, decision rights, archetypes
    Download
  • 📊
    RACI matrixExcel · activity-level accountabilities + maturity link
    Download
  • 📄
    Data Governance PolicyWord · policy work sample (sanitised)
    Download
  • 📋
    Terms of ReferenceWord · completed example: Data Governance Council (sanitised)
    Download
  • 📈
    Council KPI scorecardWord · strategic KPIs ratified by the Council
    Download
  • Working-group KPI scorecardWord · operational KPIs owned by working groups
    Download
★ Proven in practice

At UBS I built the APAC Wealth Management data governance framework from scratch across 12 markets: the operating model, the accountable roles, and a Data Council I chaired that drove 50+ data-quality and remediation items to closure. At UBS Group Finance I then stood up the Information Security & Records Management function from scratch in 6 months.

DATA GOVERNANCE: three-tier operating model STRATEGIC · OVERSIGHT Data Governance Council Mandate · policy · funding · cross-domain arbitration TACTICAL · MANAGEMENT Data Governance Office · Data Owners CDO / DG Lead: standards, prioritisation, decisions OPERATIONAL · EXECUTION Stewards · Custodians (IT) · Users Day-to-day quality, metadata & access control Federated domains: Customer · Finance · Risk · Product Policy & standards Issues & metrics
📄 data_governance_terms_of_reference.docxEXAMPLE

TERMS OF REFERENCE

Data Governance Council · v1.0 · Approved · Owner: Chief Data Officer
1. Purpose

The Data Governance Council is the enterprise authority for data governance. It sets direction, approves policy and standards, and holds the organisation accountable for the quality, protection and value of its data.

2. Authority & mandate
  • Approve the data governance policy, standards and operating model.
  • Prioritise and fund data initiatives and remediation.
  • Arbitrate cross-domain issues escalated by the working groups.
3. Membership

Chair: Chief Data Officer. Members: Data Owners (Customer, Finance, Risk, Product), Head of Data Quality, Data Protection Officer, Head of Data Architecture and the IT Data Custodian.

4. Quorum & cadence

The Council meets monthly. Quorum is the Chair plus at least half of the members. Decisions are taken by consensus; where consensus is not reached, the Chair holds the deciding vote…

Illustrative excerpt with sample content, not a client document.Download full example
02

Metadata & Reference Data

DMBOK · Metadata + Reference & Master Data · one trusted, discoverable version

Trustworthy data starts with one agreed version of the truth, and that is where I focus most here: master and reference data. I build the golden record for core entities such as customer, clean and match duplicates so the business gets a single trusted view, and standardise reference data (at Société Générale, on the FpML standard) so codes and products mean the same thing everywhere. Around that I set up the business glossary and a data catalog, so every critical term has an agreed definition and a named owner. Done well, this is what lets regulatory and finance reporting rely on the numbers.

Golden recordReference dataBusiness glossaryData catalog
Tools Collibra · OpenMetadata · Excel / SharePoint
Work samples
  • 📚
    Business Glossary & Data CatalogExcel · definitions linked to physical data, owners, classification, lineage
    Download
  • 🧩
    MDM Approach & Operating ModelWord · single client view: sources, matching, survivorship, stewardship
    Download
  • 🔖
    Reference Data RegisterExcel · code lists with one golden source (ISO, FpML)
    Download
★ Proven in practice

At Société Générale I standardised reference data on the FpML standard across investment-banking silos. At UBS I built client master data across 12 APAC markets: one golden record per client, fewer duplicates and a single trusted view, with the governed business glossary and data catalog behind it, so regulatory and finance reporting could trust the numbers.

MASTER & REFERENCE DATA: one golden record CRM ERP Web forms Match & merge standardise, keep best value Golden record one trusted version METADATA: discoverable & traceable Glossary agreed definitions Data Catalog business · technical · governance Lineage source → target
03

Data Quality

DMBOK · Data Quality · measured against the six dimensions

My approach to data quality is end to end, and I own the framework rather than the code. I start by profiling the data to understand what is really in it (volumes, gaps, ranges), then define the rules in a rules library: each business rule, across the six dimensions (completeness, uniqueness, validity, consistency, timeliness, accuracy), is paired with a technical check that carries a severity and a threshold. Those checks run in a data quality tool (Collibra Data Quality), which holds the failing rows for the stewards to fix and rolls everything into a weighted DQ scorecard. Finally I publish a dashboard in two views, because the audiences are different: a business view answers "can we trust this data?", while a Data Engineering view shows which checks fail, on which tables, and what is past its freshness SLA. Same numbers, read two ways.

Rules libraryData profilingScorecardDashboard
Tools Collibra Data Quality · SQL · Excel
Work samples
  • 🟦
    DQ Profiler (SQL)SQL · profiling queries with sample output
    View PDF Download
  • 📊
    DQ ScorecardExcel · weighted score by dimension & severity
    Download
  • 📚
    DQ Rules LibraryExcel · business rules linked to technical rules
    Download
  • 🖥️
    DQ DashboardHTML · Business and Data Engineering views, opens in a browser
    Download
★ Proven in practice

Through the UBS APAC WM Data Council I ran the data-quality and client-data remediation programme that lifted client data to audit-ready quality and supported regulatory audits across 12 markets.

DATA QUALITY: six dimensions, weighted score Completeness Consistency Uniqueness Timeliness Validity Accuracy Weighted score (×3/×2/×1) Green Amber Red RAG band: Green ≥98% · Amber 95-98% · Red <95%
04

Data Architecture

DMBOK · Data Architecture · principled, layered, decision-traceable

Good data architecture is a small set of principles applied consistently, and decisions you can still explain a year later. I design the target architecture as a layered platform (sources, ingestion, curated, serving, consumption) with governance, security and metadata as cross-cutting concerns, set the standards the delivery teams build to, and record every significant choice as an Architecture Decision Record (ADR). I have also built the warehouse and BI end of that platform, from data warehouse and datamarts through to the reporting layer.

Target architectureData warehouse & BIStandards & ADRsBCBS 239
Tools Power BI · Tableau · SAP Business Objects
Work samples
  • 📄
    Architecture Principles & ADRWord · 7 principles + decision-record template
    Download
★ Proven in practice

At Société Générale I led 6 architects, set the architecture standards and delivered investment-banking data solutions, including FpML normalisation across silos. At UBS my SAP-versus-Oracle assessment informed a major Group Finance platform investment. Earlier, at Roche, I built the enterprise data warehouse, datamarts and Business Objects dashboards.

DATA ARCHITECTURE: source to consumption, governed end to end Source systems: apps · market data · streams ingest Ingestion (ETL/ELT): batch + streaming, staging conform DWH core: conformed, mastered, historised model Data marts: star schema for Finance, Risk, Client publish Semantic layer & consumption: BI · reg reports Governance · Security · Metadata · lineage · BCBS 239
📄 data_architecture_principles_ADR.docxEXAMPLE

DATA ARCHITECTURE PRINCIPLES

Principles & ADR template · v1.0 · Owner: Head of Data Architecture
1. Purpose

This document sets the architecture principles that govern how data solutions are designed, and provides the Architecture Decision Record (ADR) template used to capture significant decisions with their rationale and consequences.

2. Architecture principles (extract)
  • P1 · Data is a managed enterprise asset. Every dataset has an owner, a classification and a catalog entry.
  • P2 · Design for lineage and traceability. Source, transformation and audit columns are mandatory (BCBS 239).
  • P5 · Security and privacy by design. Classification drives controls; least-privilege access; PII minimised.
  • P7 · Quality is gated, not inspected. DQ tests run in CI/CD; failing data blocks promotion…
Sanitised work sample, not a client document.Download full example
05

Data Integration & Interoperability

DMBOK · Data Integration · standards-based interfaces and data contracts

Most of my integration work is the regulatory reporting data supply chain: ingest raw data, transform and enrich it, build the data models, then produce the regulatory returns (Basel and COREP/FINREP, liquidity, and APAC regulators), with traceability from source to submitted return. Where data crosses teams or firms, I make the interface an explicit agreement: a data contract that fixes schema, semantics, quality and ownership, expressed in the Open Data Contract Standard (ODCS), and an open exchange standard like FpML so a product or counterparty means the same thing everywhere. I have also run post-merger integration, reconciling Credit Suisse and UBS data across two legacy environments. More recently I have worked hands-on in OpenMetadata, cataloguing assets, defining a business glossary term and authoring a data contract.

Regulatory reportingData contracts (ODCS)FpMLOpenMetadataPost-merger integration
Tools AxiomSL · OpenMetadata · SQL / ETL
Work samples
  • 📜
    Open Data Contract Standard (ODCS)YAML · interface contract: schema, semantics, quality & SLA
    View PDF Download
  • 🔁
    FpML Exchange SampleXML · ISDA standard, a product & customer standardised for sharing
    View PDF Download
  • 🟢
    OpenMetadata Labs entryHands-on: a catalog asset, glossary term & data contract I filled in
    Open ↗
★ Proven in practice

At AxiomSL (Nasdaq) I delivered 8+ end-to-end regulatory reporting programmes for Deutsche Bank, Macquarie, Credit Suisse and UBS: ingest, transform and enrich, build the data models, and produce the returns for Basel (COREP/FINREP), liquidity and APAC regulators. At UBS Group Finance I then ran the post-merger integration of Credit Suisse data, reconciling across both legacy environments with no continuity gaps.

DATA INTEGRATION: the interface is a contract Producer source system Data Contract schema · semantics quality · SLA · owner versioned & governed Consumer report · risk · app Open standards: ODCS · FpML · ISO 20022 Catalogued & governed in OpenMetadata: discoverable, owned, traceable
customer_master.odcs.yamlODCS v3
# Open Data Contract Standard: the interface, agreed
apiVersion: v3.1.0
kind: DataContract
id: customer-master-apac
schema:
  - name: customer
    properties:
      - { name: customer_id, required: true, unique: true }
quality:
  - { property: customer_id, rule: completeness, mustBe: 100 }
slaProperties:
  - { property: freshness, value: 24, unit: hours }
06

Data Security & Protection

DMBOK · Data Security · classify once, protect proportionately

Protection should match sensitivity, no more and no less. I run a four-level data classification with cumulative controls (access, encryption, masking, logging, retention) and govern access through an RBAC matrix reviewed quarterly against joiner, mover and leaver events. As a statutory Data Protection Officer I have built the privacy operation too: the DPO office, breach notification, privacy impact assessments, data-subject requests, and staff training and guidance, including special-category health data during the COVID period. It is grounded in GDPR, Swiss FADP and APAC privacy law, and in my CIPP/E and CIPP/A certifications.

Data Protection OfficerClassification & controlsGDPR · FADPCIPP/E · CIPP/A
Work samples
  • 📄
    Classification & Protection PolicyWord · 4 levels + control matrix + incident response
    Download
  • 📊
    Access Control MatrixExcel · roles × assets × classification (RBAC)
    Download
★ Proven in practice

As APAC Data Protection Officer I managed data protection across all 12 APAC jurisdictions, and I was the statutory DPO for Singapore, New Zealand and South Korea. I set up the DPO office and ran breach notification, privacy impact assessments, data-subject requests and staff training, including guidance on special-category health data during COVID. At UBS Group Finance I also stood up the Information Security & Records Management function from scratch in 6 months. CIPP/E & CIPP/A certified in GDPR, Swiss FADP and APAC privacy law.

DATA SECURITY: proportionate controls by sensitivity Restricted Confidential Internal Public more controls ▲ fewer controls ▼
07

Data Modelling & Design

DMBOK · Data Modelling & Design · relational & dimensional, history-aware

A good data model is its own documentation, and I work the full range. I build enterprise and conceptual models for a domain (Risk and Finance, for example), then design relational databases end to end from conceptual to logical to physical, choosing the right shape for the workload: normalised models for OLTP systems and dimensional star schemas for OLAP reporting. I apply strict conventions (surrogate keys, conformed dimensions, explicit grain, SCD Type 2 history, lineage) and embed a data section as a standard in every business and technical specification, so data design is part of delivery, not an afterthought.

Enterprise & conceptualConceptual→Logical→PhysicalOLTP & OLAPModelling standards
Tools SAP PowerDesigner · ER/Studio Data Architect · SQL (Oracle, SQL Server) · UML / ER
Work samples
  • 🟦
    Dimensional Model (DDL)SQL · OLAP star schema with SCD2 & conventions
    View PDF Download
  • 📄
    Modelling & Naming StandardsWord · relational levels, OLTP vs OLAP, conventions
    Download
★ Proven in practice

At Société Générale I built the enterprise data model for Risk & Finance, adopted across teams, and made a data section a standard part of every business and technical specification. I started at Allianz modelling the insurance domain (policy, claims, customer) from logical to physical design, with a maintained data dictionary. Over 20+ years I have modelled across conceptual, logical and physical layers and OLTP and OLAP, in PowerDesigner and ER/Studio.

DATA MODELLING: star schema, SCD2 & lineage fct_transaction amount · amount_chf dim_date date_sk dim_customer customer_sk · SCD2 dim_account account_sk record_source lineage · load_ts
dimensional_model_finance.sql · SCD2 customer dimensionexcerpt
-- Grain: one row per customer per version. History via eff_from / eff_to.
CREATE TABLE dim_customer (
    customer_sk    BIGINT       NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY, -- surrogate key
    customer_id    VARCHAR(20)  NOT NULL,             -- natural key
    legal_name     VARCHAR(200) NOT NULL,
    country_code   CHAR(2)      NOT NULL,             -- ISO-3166
    -- SCD Type 2 control columns
    eff_from       TIMESTAMP    NOT NULL,
    eff_to         TIMESTAMP    NOT NULL DEFAULT '9999-12-31',
    is_current     BOOLEAN      NOT NULL DEFAULT TRUE,
    record_source  VARCHAR(30)  NOT NULL              -- lineage
);
Tools I built

Three interactive data tools, free on dataedgepro.net

Beyond the work samples above, these are live self-assessment tools I designed and published. Try them.

📊

Data Maturity Assessment

Score your organisation's data maturity across governance, quality, architecture and analytics, and see where to focus next.

Open ↗
🤖

AI Readiness Assessment

Check whether your data foundations (infrastructure, governance, quality) are ready for AI, with practical next steps.

Open ↗
🧭

CDO Strategic Positioning Scorecard

For Chief Data Officers: find your leadership archetype, benchmark against peers, and get a 90-day action plan.

Open ↗
Writing & teaching

I also write about data leadership, and teach it hands-on

dataedgepro.net is my site for sharing knowledge on data topics. I publish two things there: articles for data leaders, and labs where you build something real yourself.

✍️

CDO Compass

Articles · Navigating the data leadership journey

My blog for Chief Data Officers and data leaders: data strategy, best practices and what is actually happening in data management. I write from practice, about the same questions I deal with in the field.

Read the articles ↗
🧪

Hands-On Labs

Training · Real tools, real steps

Build-it-yourself tutorials on modern data tools and governance. Each lab takes you from zero to a working deliverable, and shows how to think about governance, not just how to click. First lab: deploy OpenMetadata with Docker, ingest a real database and lay the first bricks of governance. Free.

Beginner → Intermediate · ~2–3h · Docker · OpenMetadata · Postgres
Start the lab ↗
Interactive · try it

Data quality scorecard, weighted by severity

Enter the measured % pass for each rule. The overall score is severity-weighted (critical ×3, high ×2, medium ×1) and banded RAG, exactly as the Excel scorecard computes it.

RuleDimensionSeverityWeight% Pass
0%
Weighted DQ score
·
RAG band: Green ≥ 98% · Amber 95-98% · Red < 95%

Let's talk data

If you're hiring for a senior data leadership role, I'd be glad to connect. The quickest way to reach me is LinkedIn.

Zurich · Open to hybrid · French (EU), B permit · French, English, German