We build capability,
not dependency.

Data Foundations exists because we kept seeing the same pattern: expensive initiatives that produced dashboards nobody trusted and pipelines nobody could maintain.

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Where our team has built it before

Where our people built and ran data before Data Foundations. Experience, not client logos.

No sugar coating.No overselling.No big bang deliveries.

We recommend what you actually need, not what makes the biggest proposal.

The tools are there. The clarity isn't.

Every organization hits the same wall.

Nobody agrees on the numbers.
Dashboards multiply.
Leadership still asks what happened last quarter.

The fix is never just better tools. It's getting the foundations right.

Aligned definitions
Trusted data models
Teams that actually run what gets built

Three principles that define every engagement.

Meet you where you are

We recommend what you actually need.

Sometimes that's a full platform. Sometimes it's fixing one pipeline.

Built for independence

You choose the model. You're never locked in.

We train your team, help you hire one, or run it for you.

Build the right thing, together

Small iterations, value at every step.

We ship value at each step, so you see what's working and what needs to change.

It started with a month of work that became ten minutes.

Carlos and Malu met at Scotiabank, two of the youngest people in the building. Malu could tell what an executive needed before they'd finished explaining it, and she designed it. Carlos built it, and automated everything he could. One of those systems pulled together files from 16 countries, work that used to take a whole month.

Years later, at Ocado Technology, Carlos hired Nik and watched him take on every problem put in front of him. So when Carlos started Data Foundations, Malu and Nik came with him.

We're from Mexico, Nigeria and Venezuela, and we built our careers here in Canada. What we share is a way of working: figure it out, and don't back down.

Meet the partners.

Carlos Hernandez

Managing Partner · Sales & Strategy

Has built it three times, in three industries.

Eleven years building trusted data in banking, telematics and robotics. Former VP of Data for Advanced Technology at Ocado Technology, built Geotab's data operations department, and has led teams of up to 35. Still an engineer: AWS, GCP and Azure, Airflow and Python, and the AI-native skills behind our squads.

Read Carlos's full story

Carlos started at Scotiabank, where he built an orchestrator before he'd heard of Airflow. Files from 16 countries arrived by email, were processed automatically and landed in a single consolidated dashboard. A month of work became ten minutes, and that's when he knew data was his thing.

At Geotab, working with petabytes of vehicle data on BigQuery and Airflow, he learned that data without organization doesn't work. Teams need to trust their pipelines, know where data lives and who can see it. He built Geotab's data operations department to make that happen.

As VP of Data for Advanced Technology at Ocado Technology, he made sure data from robots (telemetry, video, images and ROS bags) landed reliably in the cloud. Then he built the product metrics that sped up robot development, and cut $1.4M from Ocado's cloud bill.

He has led strategy and teams of up to 35, and he's still hands-on: a DevOps and data engineer across AWS, GCP and Azure, building pipelines in Airflow and Dagster, and writing Python and JavaScript. Today he builds the AI-native skills Data Foundations' squads work with.

Nik Udoma

Managing Partner · Engineering

Put him in a box and he'll find the way out.

Started building BI reports as an analyst at Definity, then moved to Ocado Technology, where he designed solutions, led engineers and handled the client conversations others avoided. He learned dbt well enough to teach it, and has since helped an enterprise data team rebuild its entire dbt setup.

Read Nik's full story

Nik's path into data wasn't a straight line. After moving from Nigeria to Canada, he worked in social media management and on a factory floor before finding his way into data and analytics. [Nik to confirm]

At Definity he built BI reporting in Tableau and Power BI. At Ocado Technology he became the person teams relied on when things got hard: designing solutions, leading engineers, and stepping into the client meetings that needed a steady hand. He learned dbt from scratch and got good enough to teach it, later helping a large real estate investment firm's data team overhaul its dbt setup.

He works AI-first, keeps sharpening his Python, and figures out almost anything he's handed.

Malu Jane Freites

Managing Partner · Customer Enablement

Turns what executives need into what gets built.

Fifteen years in banking at Citi and Scotiabank, rising to director in credit risk and data analytics. Her data products delivered $8.5M for Retail Credit Risk. Known for some of the best executive presentations and dashboards in the business, and today the partner who sits across the table from our clients' leadership.

Read Malu's full story

Malu started in banking, at Citi in Venezuela and then Scotiabank, where she always worked in data and analytics. Her gift was understanding exactly what a director or senior executive wanted, often before they'd finished explaining it, and designing reports and dashboards that gave it to them clearly and quickly. She rose through the ranks to director in credit risk, and her data products delivered $8.5M for Retail Credit Risk.

She studied computer science, so she speaks the technical language, but her real strength is the business. Since joining Data Foundations, she has led the business side of our largest engagement, working directly with the VPs of an enterprise analytics team as it grew into a solid, self-sufficient function.

At Data Foundations, Malu leads customer enablement: shaping solutions from the business side, and making sure what we build is what the business actually needs and can run on its own.

Ready to make your data and AI investment finally pay off?

Book a discovery call. We'll tell you what we see, what we'd do, and whether we're the right fit.

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