Anthony Brew

Summary

Seasoned product and technology leader with a 20-year trajectory in machine learning, overseeing cross-functional software delivery teams in diverse organizational settings. Proven track record in driving innovation, team leadership, and strategic execution, with a portfolio of published works and patented technologies.

Skills

Machine Learning, Software Development, Product Management, Team Leadership, Systems Design, Strategic Planning, Agile Methodologies

Education

University College Dublin, Post Doc, Machine Learning Industrialization, 2010 - 2011
University College Dublin, Ph.D., Machine Learning, 2006 - 2010
Trinity College Dublin, M.Sc., High Performance Computing, 2002 - 2003
Trinity College Dublin, B.A., Mathematics, 1998 - 2002

Experience

Senior Manager, Generative AI

Shutterstock - Dublin, Ireland July 2023 - Present

Leads the full-stack generative AI team to deliver Shutterstock’s AI-powered image creation tools, making the platform’s extensive catalogue infinite. This involves the development of a text-to-image offering, available both as a standalone service and integrated into a chat-based design assistant, leveraging multiple internal and external Text-To-Image models to optimize user experience. Oversees AI image editing capabilities, including background removal, upscaling, and segmentation, utilized across Shutterstock’s suite of products.

VP of AI & Engineering

Streetbees - London & Lisbon (Remote) Oct 2021 - July 2023

Expanded management scope to oversee a 50+ member technology organization encompassing engineering, science, DevOps, QA, and analytics. Restructured the team into three mission-oriented tribes, driving product, technical, and scientific strategy to enable autonomous operation. Achievements include reducing manual coding costs by 60%, increasing automated code discovery by 365%, and cutting QA time on fraudulent image submission by 75%. Pioneered the development and release of Streetbees-X, an automated survey and report generation product.

Head of NLP Centre of Excellence

Zalando - Berlin (Remote) Jul 2020 - Oct 2021

Established and led Zalando’s inaugural NLP Centre of Excellence, assembling and guiding a cross-functional team of researchers, product managers, engineers, and analysts. Focused on transitioning near-term research innovations into practical applications, fostering the creation of new teams and foundational NLP platform products. Notably, developed “classlytics”, a GDPR-compliant customer feedback analysis tool, and facilitated the formation of new customer review and semantic search teams.

Board Member

Zalando May 2018 - Jun 2020 (2 years 2 months)

Served as an employee representative on Zalando’s 8-seat supervisory board, participating in quarterly meetings and strategic decision-making processes. Oversaw significant policy changes, investments, and executive appointments, contributing to the divestment of several business units and the expansion of the board.

Head of Customer Data Platform

Zalando Jan 2016 - Jul 2020 (4 years 7 months)

As a founding member and later head of the customer data platform, led a team of 25 in developing services integrated across four Zalando business units. Innovations included fashion attribute prediction services and audience generation tools, leading to a 40% increase in attributed sales and integration into Zalando’s A/B testing platform.

Lead Applied Scientist

IBM Apr 2012 - Jan 2016 (3 years 10 months)

Invented and developed a patented suite of event analytics algorithms, resulting in a 30% reduction in client workloads and a 10% decrease in Mean Time to Repair. Led software and analytics engineering redesigns, achieving a 1000X improvement in disk IO and a 40X speedup in processing times.

Data Scientist / Software Engineer

Swrve June 2011 - Mar 2012

Developed Swrve’s SaaS A/B testing engine and tracking metrics. Implemented full-stack solutions using Ruby, Java, and various databases, deployed on Amazon EC2.