Nimish Sheth

Making faster payments more secure with smarter monitoring and management of fraud and money laundering risks

• Designing fraud monitoring and transaction surveillance for ACH payments
• Developing strategy for data collection, storage, and use for detecting and mitigating return and fraud risk using rules and machine learning models

Solving data problems -- to explain the complex, find clarity in the opaque, illuminate gleaned information,
and create beneficial impact.

I help clients design and develop strategy and solutions for achieving data-based target outcomes.

• Developed customer risk rating application for a large community bank ($15B in assets) based on business and policy drivers using R (analysis, visualization, and ETL) and proprietary knowledge graph software.
  
• Validated major European bank’s sanctions screening program, Fircosoft, to identify weaknesses and risks. Highlighted limitations and exposed false negatives with data evidence (SQL, R, Python, Excel) to improve screening effectiveness.
  
• Conducted assessment of a large international bank’s regression based model used for predicting customer financial crime risk required by regulatory oversight. Validated conceptual soundness, quality and legitimacy of data inputs (PostgreSQL, R, Excel), implementation, use, and ongoing monitoring. Reported findings, theoretical deficiencies, and mitigation approach to address limitations.
  
• Led model validation for premier European banks’ transaction monitoring programs for detecting money-laundering. Investigated input data model set-up (SQL, Oracle, SAS), and outcome quality (true positives versus false negatives). Identified gaps in governance, business rules, parameter definition, alert generation, and documentation for adherence to OCC Supervisory Guidance on Model Risk Management SR 11-7. Authored final reports detailing findings, remedial strategies and tuning enhancements and presented to executive team.
  
• Provided a premier organization of financial advisors with a framework for monitoring and improving Informatica data ingestion processes feeding compliance models for surveillance of $350B+ in assets.
  
• Cleansed, derived, and analyzed 3 years of leasing data (SQL, Excel) for a supplier of shipping containers for industrial and agricultural applications. Created visualizations such as histograms, scatter plots, bubble and pareto charts for insight into increasing yield, reducing costs, and maximizing potential revenue of $1.1M+.
  
• Derived logistics insights for container shipments using unstructured RFID tag read data. Extracted journeys, estimated arrival times, and container flow times to aid container tracking and resource allocation (Oracle, SQL).

Enabling critical data solutions for U.S. military logistics

I managed complex data pipeline architecture in an Agile environment for acquisition, analysis, transformation, and integration of ocean and freight transportation data into a dimensional data warehouse for the U.S. Dept. of Defense Surface Deployment and Distribution Command (SDDC). This effort was part of a $30M contract. At any time the data infrastructure enabled 1,000+ global users and DoD logisticians to monitor cargo near real-time, track 300+ vessels carrying 60,000+ shipments and supported the deployment and sustainment of U.S. forces worldwide.

• Architected sourcing, cleansing, validation, and integration of data (Informatica mappings & workflows) from 20+ sources (Oracle databases, EDI, flat files, Excel files) for SDDC’s in-transit visibility of cargo moving via road, rail, and ocean. Integrated data helped recover $20M+ in costs for services not delivered.
  
• Designed ingestion and standardization of shipment data provided by commercial transportation carriers moving cargo across the Northern Distribution Network. This gave SDDC a unified operations picture for delivering and withdrawing equipment and supplies to/from troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.
  
• Analyzed transactional data for operational insight from cargo pick-up through disposition. Identified anomalies for correction, enhanced data usage and governance, provided what-if analysis, and continually monitored and improved source-to-target data pipelines to stay synchronized with source data changes.
  
• Led 18-month re-architecture and migration of data integration processes without system downtime.
  
• Recognized for Outstanding Contribution for data integration redesign of a faltering project for detecting waste and abuse in U.S. Dept. of Defense passenger air travel.

Fighting financial crime

Led development and implementation of transaction monitoring solutions for detecting potential money-laundering, terrorist financing, fraud, and broker/trading violations at financial institutions.

• Rolled out product implementations on time and on budget at top-tier US and international firms such as ABN AMRO, Charles Schwab, U.S. Trust, TD Ameritrade, LPL Financial, and others resulting in follow-on sales and meeting revenue targets, all imperative for a start-up.
  
• Conducted workshops with C-level executives, business sponsors, and technology staff for scoping solution, data requirements, implementation strategy, product configuration, testing, and system acceptance.
• Led feature planning, design, and enhancements of major module releases for Mantas’ AML product line.
  
• Trained international implementation staff on product subsystems, business and technical analysis, customer-facing, testing, and troubleshooting, resulting in global implementation successes.
• Co-author of US patent 8543486 “Method and System for the Protection of Broker and Investor Relationships, Accounts, and Transactions.”

• Concentration in Operations Research
  
• Dissertation: “Measuring and Evaluating Efficiency and Effectiveness Using Goal Programming and Data Envelopment Analysis in a Fuzzy Environment”, completed under tutelage of one of the foremost academics in Data Envelopment Analysis
  
• Fully funded Graduate Assistant
  

• Minor in Statistics
  
• Official photographer for JanFest, a nationally renowned Indian Classical music festival hosted by the Indian Music Group