Yan Du

When I started my first job after PhD as an assistant professor of accounting, I shared an office with a colleague who had recently left the world of consulting. Our daily debates sparked a realization that would eventually change the course of my career: while the industry was drowning in data, it often lacked the rigorous analytical frameworks to truly master it. 

He saw that what we, as academics, brought to the table – deep data analytics and structural rigor – was exactly what the business world needed to bridge the gap between “having data” and “having insights.” 

From that moment on, I became obsessed with the “data journey” in finance. I spent the next seven years exploring this through teaching cost and performance management, conducting related research, and supervising consultingprojects.  

But eventually, the classroom wasn’t enough. I wanted to take those rigorous frameworks and apply them to the “engine room” of industry. I left academia to prove that analytical rigor, when combined with pragmatic execution, is the ultimate lever for financial performance. 

I am passionate about turning finance and operational data into insights that drive performance and long-term value. My strong academic background, combined with many years’ industrial experience, offers clients a blend of deep analytical rigor and pragmatic, results-driven execution. 

Industrial Experience: I spent 7+ years at DEME Group in different roles: Digital Finance Expert, Data Governance Expert, Senior Business Analyst, where I actively worked on internal cross-functional projects to support business transformation in various domains: Dynamics 365 F&O implementation, Data quality project, CAPEX cost control, project cost control, KPI, the selection of finance software for transfer pricing documentation and pillar 2… 

Entrepreneurial Mission: In January 2026, I founded FINNOVIX with the objective of solving real-world business challenges. In cooperation with Hyphen Finance, I had the pleasure to work on an interesting project at DESOTEC, solving the challenge of using Microsoft BI stack to drive high-performance decision-making.