George Firican

George Firican George Firican is an influencer

💡 Award Winning Data Governance Leader | DataVenger | Founder of LightsOnData | Podcast Host: Lights On Data Show | LinkedIn Top Voice 2024

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
66K followers 500+ connections

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About

💬 Founder of LightsOnData.com and LightsOnData YouTube Channel
Focused on providing informative content such as ONLINE COURSES, templates, guides, best practices, articles, white papers, and other useful resources to help you with your data governance and data management questions and challenges

💬 Creator of online courses that are engaging, new, and thorough.
Courses: Building an Award-Winning Business Glossary, Data Governance Maturity Models, Data Governance Fundamentals, etc. - check them out here: https://www.lightsondata.com/courses/

💬 Providing LinkedIn content strategy for data-focused companies and products, as well as those with a focus on artificial intelligence (AI), business intelligence (BI, data science, data management, and data governance areas.
Connect with me today and ask how I can help you reach the data audience.

💬 Host of Lights on Data Show - a podcast and LinkedIn Live weekly show that provides insights into the data world and showcases people that help to shape it.

💬 Get some fun data merchandise here: https://shop.spreadshirt.com/lightsondata/all

💬 International key note speaker, conference speaker, and panelist (spoken at over 60 different conferences).

💬 I love being on camera, hiking, surfing, filming, and video editing
Twitter: @georgefirican


🏛 My experience and specialties:
• Expertise in data governance, information quality, business intelligence & data management
• Extensive background in web and application development with experience of the full life-cycle of a project
• Strong leadership capabilities, organizational and communication skills

Specialties:
• Enterprise information management: Information quality, data governance and stewardship, master data management, business intelligence, business process improvement
• Development: Web and application development, relational database design and development
• Planning: Budget and resource planning, agile and waterfall project management, team development and leadership
• Tools and Applications: Collibra, Tableau, MS Visio, MS Project, Premiere, Photoshop

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Contributions

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Activity

Experience

  • The University of British Columbia

    The University of British Columbia

    2 years

    • The University of British Columbia Graphic

      Director, Data Governance & Business Intelligence

      The University of British Columbia

      - Present 8 years

      Vancouver, Canada Area

    • The University of British Columbia Graphic

      Chief Advancement Operations Officer (Interim)

      The University of British Columbia

      - 8 months

      Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

      Led a team of wonderful and highly skilled people in the areas of:
      - Finance
      - Human Resources
      - Information Systems
      - Gift Processing
      - Operations
      - Strategic Projects
      - Prospect Research & Analytics
      - Data Governance & Business Intelligence

      To support the goals of the fundraising and alumni engagement portfolio across the university.

  • LightsOnData Graphic

    Founder

    LightsOnData

    - Present 5 years 9 months

    Vancouver, Canada Area

    - Educational Content Creation: Develop and deliver comprehensive courses, workshops, and webinars on data governance, data management, data quality, AI, and more.
    - Brand Amplification: Collaborate with data companies to enhance their brand visibility and thought leadership in the data community.
    - Engagement and Outreach: Host the Lights On Data Show podcast, featuring industry leaders and experts to share their insights and experiences.

  • Pearson Graphic

    Course Instructor

    Pearson

    - Present 2 years 4 months

    Teaching Data Governance in Practice

  • O'Reilly Graphic

    Course Instructor

    O'Reilly

    - Present 2 years 4 months

    Teaching data governance

  • The University of British Columbia Graphic

    Director of Information Technology (Interim)

    The University of British Columbia

    - 10 months

  • iData Quality Academy Graphic

    Instructor

    iData Quality Academy

    - 6 months

    Developed course content for iData Quality Academy
    - Data Profiling
    - Data Quality Costs

  • Freelance Consultant

    Self employed

    - 16 years 7 months

    • Provided project management and business analysis expertise to various projects across the different industries (BaniPePost.com, JT Business Group, SMAWS, 8p8, Ashenzi, NetPress Consulting, LTS, AHACommunity, etc).
    • Designed and developed unique, highly professional web and print designs, branding and e-learning solutions as well as developing and configuring custom websites (e-stores, online communities, content management systems, blogs, brochure websites, etc.).
    • Accumulated…

    • Provided project management and business analysis expertise to various projects across the different industries (BaniPePost.com, JT Business Group, SMAWS, 8p8, Ashenzi, NetPress Consulting, LTS, AHACommunity, etc).
    • Designed and developed unique, highly professional web and print designs, branding and e-learning solutions as well as developing and configuring custom websites (e-stores, online communities, content management systems, blogs, brochure websites, etc.).
    • Accumulated experience as a web master by installing, upgrading, performing backups, managing migrations and maintaining a series of complex websites.

  • The University of British Columbia

    The University of British Columbia

    5 years

    • The University of British Columbia Graphic

      Associate Director, Data Governance & Business Intelligence

      The University of British Columbia

      - 2 years 5 months

      Vancouver, Canada Area

      • Lead the Data Governance/ Quality program and the strategy development of Development and Alumni Engagement’s (DAE) data acquisition, maintenance and dissemination while fostering innovation and long term strategic vision
      • Lead the efforts to develop a business glossary as well as a business intelligence (BI) framework and program that provides user-friendly access to the right information for the right people at the right time
      • Directed the development and enhancement of standards…

      • Lead the Data Governance/ Quality program and the strategy development of Development and Alumni Engagement’s (DAE) data acquisition, maintenance and dissemination while fostering innovation and long term strategic vision
      • Lead the efforts to develop a business glossary as well as a business intelligence (BI) framework and program that provides user-friendly access to the right information for the right people at the right time
      • Directed the development and enhancement of standards, procedures, processes, policies related to the improvement and/or maintenance of quality of data within the Blackbaud Enterprise CRM database
      • Created and fostered strategic partnerships and influential relationships with DAE senior management, the broader UBC community, campus stakeholders, vendors, and external universities to secure the success of DAE’s data governance, business intelligence and information quality efforts
      • Collaborated with Information Technology to manage the development of automated data validations, data cleanses, data quality issue reports, and deployment of new tools and enhancements to aid in the preservation of data quality
      • Advanced the data governance and business intelligence profession by participating in professional organizations, acquiring or maintaining required accreditations, publishing articles, and giving presentations at professional events

    • The University of British Columbia Graphic

      Data Quality Manager

      The University of British Columbia

      - 2 years 8 months

      Vancouver, Canada Area

      I proudly took part of UBC's "Start an Evolution" campaign (https://startanevolution.ubc.ca/), campaign which raised $1.5 billion dollars for students, research and community engagement and to double the number of alumni involved annually in the life of the university by 2015.

      • Established and led an award winning Data Governance/Quality Program to support the university’s $1.5 billion fundraising campaign and sustainable alumni engagement strategy
      • Provided oversight of the Data…

      I proudly took part of UBC's "Start an Evolution" campaign (https://startanevolution.ubc.ca/), campaign which raised $1.5 billion dollars for students, research and community engagement and to double the number of alumni involved annually in the life of the university by 2015.

      • Established and led an award winning Data Governance/Quality Program to support the university’s $1.5 billion fundraising campaign and sustainable alumni engagement strategy
      • Provided oversight of the Data Governance/Quality Program and kept it on track by managing the development of standards, procedures, processes, policies related to the acquisition, management, and dissemination of enterprise data impacting the Blackbaud Enterprise CRM database while leading the Advisory Council
      • Developed an award winning Tracing Program through which the returned mail percentage of Development and Alumni Engagement’s Portfolio has been reduced to less than 1%
      • Managed the development of business performance metrics and scorecards to monitor and communicate the status and improvement of service of the Records department
      • Achieved a 92% address and phone number accuracy for Canadian records, an improvement from ~64%
      • Communicated to and educated internal and external stakeholders on the results and initiatives of data governance, quality, master data management, information delivery and advised stakeholders about best practices; was the first and only department to achieve 100% on the annual client satisfaction survey on communication delivery and content

  • Sauder School of Business, UBC Graphic

    Project Manager / BA

    Sauder School of Business, UBC

    - 2 years 11 months

    • Served as internal Project Manager for the evaluation, build and deployment phases of a custom-built, scalable web payment gateway (WPG) that complied with the PCI standard requirements and reduced Sauder Finance’s operational time for the allocation and reporting of revenue received via card payments by 75%
    • Managed the deployment of a FIPPA compliant e-newsletter tool (Industry Mailout) selected to achieve a standard for design and operational support while reducing expenses by…

    • Served as internal Project Manager for the evaluation, build and deployment phases of a custom-built, scalable web payment gateway (WPG) that complied with the PCI standard requirements and reduced Sauder Finance’s operational time for the allocation and reporting of revenue received via card payments by 75%
    • Managed the deployment of a FIPPA compliant e-newsletter tool (Industry Mailout) selected to achieve a standard for design and operational support while reducing expenses by $15k/year
    • Planned and managed the development and release of a new service for personal/academic blogging through the use of the WordPress MU environment for faculty members and current Sauder students
    • Managed the development of an improved content publishing process to account for 15 digital signs, each with audience specific content & emergency broadcasting capabilities
    • Served as the internal project manager for the development and deployment of the Canaccord Learning Commons web presence comprised of a WordPress based website and a BuddyPress student interaction environment
    • Developed solutions for integrating the business environment with web 2.0 technologies such as WordPress 3 based sites, online communities (Ning, Moodle), and collaboration tools (MediaWiki, Project Spaces, CoMapping) while providing expertise and system support for these platforms
    • Identified customer requirements, analyzed and reviewed product features, integration, security, scalability and performance requirements for projects such as PPM Tool, a collaboration tool to be used between the Center of Health Care Management and BC health care authorities, Desktop Blogging Client Solution, ECM Society Online Presence, Faculty Master Calendar, Form Building Tool, Event Registration, PCI Payment Forms Conversions, and several online presences for different business areas and conferences

  • Project Manager / Lead Web Developer

    Everest iTech

    - 2 years 1 month

    • Promoted to Project Manager for the Showtime Models website and web application and the All Ears accounting software development project due to excellent interpersonal, communication and leadership skills in the relationships with the client and internal development team
    • Led the development of several e-commerce sites (ex: SkyHook Solar, Expressive Designs Florist, JT-Autotech) and dynamic websites (ex: Mailinglist System, Informant Zone) and also helped architect their databases
    •…

    • Promoted to Project Manager for the Showtime Models website and web application and the All Ears accounting software development project due to excellent interpersonal, communication and leadership skills in the relationships with the client and internal development team
    • Led the development of several e-commerce sites (ex: SkyHook Solar, Expressive Designs Florist, JT-Autotech) and dynamic websites (ex: Mailinglist System, Informant Zone) and also helped architect their databases
    • Increased the employees' knowledgebase by developing e-learning modules and user manuals for the use of the company’s payroll and accounting software
    • Enhanced the online awareness of the company’s brand by 40% by creating a new content strategy and redeveloping its website in a WordPress, SEO friendly environment
    • Minimized the cost of online advertising by developing free distributed widgets that increased incoming traffic by 5k visitors/ month

  • IT Consultant

    Event Technologies

    - 5 months

    • Developed customer support standards and procedures for the company’s e-store business and helped transition a staff of 12 to this new environment through training sessions and a knowledgebase wiki.
    • Minimized the installation time of new systems by 80% by creating and managing standard desktop images based on the employees’ job roles.
    • Reduced search time of hardware and software information by 50% by developing a standard for filing all the technical documentation on hardware…

    • Developed customer support standards and procedures for the company’s e-store business and helped transition a staff of 12 to this new environment through training sessions and a knowledgebase wiki.
    • Minimized the installation time of new systems by 80% by creating and managing standard desktop images based on the employees’ job roles.
    • Reduced search time of hardware and software information by 50% by developing a standard for filing all the technical documentation on hardware equipment and software.

  • Software developer

    WGOA

    - 5 months

    • Demonstrated strong leadership skills by acting as the team leader of a software developer group in order to successfully implement and deliver an interactive Go learning application two weeks ahead of deadline and within budget.
    • Coded the backend interaction of a merchandise inventory application with a barcode scanner and also contributed to developing the MySQL database and reporting.
    • Facilitated the team members to work remotely by implementing a VPN solution and integrated the…

    • Demonstrated strong leadership skills by acting as the team leader of a software developer group in order to successfully implement and deliver an interactive Go learning application two weeks ahead of deadline and within budget.
    • Coded the backend interaction of a merchandise inventory application with a barcode scanner and also contributed to developing the MySQL database and reporting.
    • Facilitated the team members to work remotely by implementing a VPN solution and integrated the use of Subversion to enable software versioning and revision control.

Education

  • UBC Sauder School of Business Graphic

    UBC Sauder School of Business

    MM Business Management

    -

    Activities and Societies: President, Early Career Masters Society

    Received a foundation in a broad spectrum of business management disciplines, focusing on practical knowledge and skills that employers are looking for, such as:
    o Strategic Management
    o Finance
    o Managerial Accounting
    o Marketing
    o Entrepreneurship
    o Organizational Behaviour and Human Resources
    o Information Technology
    o Supply Chain Management
    o Operations and Logistics

  • The University of British Columbia Graphic

    The University of British Columbia

    Bachelor Computer Science

    -

    Activities and Societies: Phi Gamma Delta

    Computer science major with exposure to various fields such as:
    o Human-computer interaction
    o Usability/interaction engineering
    o Interface prototyping
    o Software engineering
    o Project management
    o Database design and management
    o Networking
    o E-learning
    o Logic programming
    o Visual systems

Licenses & Certifications

Volunteer Experience

Publications

  • 5 Data Quality Myths

    IQ International Journal

    See publication

  • How business intelligence and data governance support one another

    Information Governance World

    See publication

  • Best Practices for Powerful Dashboards

    Business Intelligence Journal

    In any domain in any organization, great dashboards are valuable not only because they can sum up important information and offer a single view of data but also because they are simple to use and offer a quick, unambiguous way to draw meaningful conclusions from data. Developing and designing such powerful dashboards does not come easily. Organizing data so it can be easily consumed and quickly understood by operational staff or decision makers requires a thorough understanding of the data and…

    In any domain in any organization, great dashboards are valuable not only because they can sum up important information and offer a single view of data but also because they are simple to use and offer a quick, unambiguous way to draw meaningful conclusions from data. Developing and designing such powerful dashboards does not come easily. Organizing data so it can be easily consumed and quickly understood by operational staff or decision makers requires a thorough understanding of the data and the business needs as well as skills, knowledge, and experience. The design, format, annotations, filters, arrangement, visualization type, and the underlying data all help make the difference between just another dashboard and a powerful dashboard. In this article, we will cover the key characteristics of
    such powerful dashboards and the best practices for developing them.

    See publication

Courses

  • A Structured Approach to Information Quality Projects

    -

  • Business Analysis Tools and Techniques

    -

  • Customer Service for Technology and System Services

    -

  • Data Governance Fundamentals

    -

  • Data Governance for Business Leaders

    -

  • Data Quality for Business Intelligence

    -

  • Data Quality for Data Stewards

    -

  • Data Stewardship Fundamentals

    -

  • Essential Skills in the Project Environment

    -

  • Facilitating Adult Learning

    -

  • Influencing Skills

    -

  • Information Management

    -

  • Information Quality

    -

  • Metadata Governance

    -

  • PRACTICAL DATA GOVERNANCE: IMPLEMENTATION COURSE

    -

  • Practical Coaching Tools for Managers

    -

  • Project Management Fundamentals

    -

  • Social Media and Web 2.0

    -

  • TDWI Data Governance Innovations

    -

  • TDWI Data Quality Fundamentals

    -

  • Tableau Advanced

    -

  • Tableau Fundamentals

    -

Honors & Awards

  • CCAE Prix d’Excellence Award on Best Advancement Services Initiative

    The Canadian Council for the Advancement of Education (CCAE)

    Received bronze for the "Geo-Market Statistics Dashboards". These dashboards provide up-to-date information for more than 1M records. They enable the alumni engagement and fundraising teams to confirm their regional strategies, respond to new opportunities and plan a better targeted constituency engagement based on geo-market data.

  • President’s Staff Award for Leadership

    The University of British Columbia

    A passionate advocate for the importance of data, George Firican championed the shift towards a data-driven culture for fundraising and alumni engagement. His foundational work is creating a world-class data governance program with specialties in business intelligence, data analytics, data quality management and data stewardship. His innovations in this area are recognized at UBC and within the data governance industry at large.

    George brings people together and identifies opportunities…

    A passionate advocate for the importance of data, George Firican championed the shift towards a data-driven culture for fundraising and alumni engagement. His foundational work is creating a world-class data governance program with specialties in business intelligence, data analytics, data quality management and data stewardship. His innovations in this area are recognized at UBC and within the data governance industry at large.

    George brings people together and identifies opportunities that lay within our data. For example, his Business Glossary initiative fosters common understanding across teams at DAE, reduces work at cross-purposes, and enables the university to better serve and engage donors and alumni. This award-winning initiative was adopted by others in higher education and fundraising and spotlights UBC as an industry leader. George built upon this foundation to develop opportunities such as Segmentation Models and Geo-Markets Dashboards, which allow fundraisers and alumni engagement officers to explore location-based information and create effective strategies in key markets. His work has resulted in numerous industry awards; including Gold and Platinum awards from the Council for Advancement in Support of Education.

    A calm and empathetic leader, George fosters an open and respectful environment that inspires diversity in opinion. He encourages his team to leverage their lived experiences to consider new ways to understand, analyze and present constituent communities, allowing for deeper engagement with the community but also a more diverse mindset within DAE.

    Outside of work, George founded the Lights On Data YouTube and LinkedIn channels where he provides a forum for sharing knowledge, best practices and experience among industry leaders and peers.

    George’s vision, determination, partnership and creativity are an asset to DAE and UBC as well as peer institutions across Canada and the community at large.

  • Key Geo-Markets Dashboards

    Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE)

    Received the Gold award for a visual self-serve tool that is fed various constituent/customer data as well as geo-location information of more than half a million records that are updated nightly if any changes are detected.
    The tool enables the alumni engagement and fundraising teams to confirm their regional strategies and plan a better targeted constituency engagement within our 21 key geographic zones and their sub-regions.

  • Best Advancement Services Initiative - alumniUBC Segmentation Model

    The Canadian Council for the Advancement of Education (CCAE)

    Received Gold for the innovation and work done by my Data Analytics team in collaboration with alumniUBC on the alumniUBC Segmentation Model.
    The goals were to better understand our alumni interests and needs. This had to be bigger than just anonymous survey results. We wanted to be able to point to an alumnus’ record know that this set of differentiators suggests this person is most likely to participate in a certain activity. This led to better email open rates, lower unsubscribe rates…

    Received Gold for the innovation and work done by my Data Analytics team in collaboration with alumniUBC on the alumniUBC Segmentation Model.
    The goals were to better understand our alumni interests and needs. This had to be bigger than just anonymous survey results. We wanted to be able to point to an alumnus’ record know that this set of differentiators suggests this person is most likely to participate in a certain activity. This led to better email open rates, lower unsubscribe rates and just overall better awareness of UBC's alumni programs and services.

  • Quality & Productivity Award for Business Glossary

    Canadian Association of University Business Officers (CAUBO)

    Received the Bronze award for the Business Glossary and "How to DAE" (an internal Google-like engine for information) implementations and their achievements.

  • Circle of Excellence Award - Platinum & Gold

    Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE)

    Received the Platinum and Gold award for the Best Practices in Advancement Services for the Business Glossary and "How to DAE" (an internal Google-like engine for information) implementations and their achievements.

  • Best Practice in Advancement Services - Tracing Program

    Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE)

    Received the Bronze award for the Best Practices in Advancement Services for the Tracing Program, its best practices, implementation and its achievements from June 2013 to October 2014.

  • Best Practices in Advancement Services - Data Governance & Quality Program

    Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE)

    Received the Bronze award for the Best Practices in Advancement Services for the Data Quality Program, its vision and concept, evolution, strategy, best practices, and its achievements from June 2012 to October 2013.

  • Winston Award on Innovation

    UBC Development and Alumni Engagement (DAE)

    The annual Winston award is to DAE what the Pulitzer is for literature. It is offered for one of the five DAE portfolio values, one of which being innovation.

    "This award is offered to George Firican who has embraced the enormous challenge to improve data quality, successfully implementing numerous innovative ideas through exceptional teamwork and creativity."

Languages

  • English

    Full professional proficiency

  • Romanian

    Native or bilingual proficiency

Organizations

  • International Association for Information and Data Quality

    Member

    - Present

  • Rotary International

    -

    - Present

    Rotary’s main objective is service - in the community, in the workplace, and around the globe. The 1.2 million Rotarians who make up more than 34,000 Rotary clubs in nearly every country in the world share a dedication to the ideal of Service Above Self. Rotary clubs are open to people of all cultures and ethnicities and are not affiliated with any political or religious organizations.

  • UBC Tableau User Group (UBCTUG)

    Co-organizer

    - Present

    The UBC Tableau User Group is not only open to UBC faculty, staff, students, but to anybody who is interested in visualizing and exploring their data and creating dashboards with Tableau. UBCTUG meetings will be held at the Point Grey campus. Specific dates and locations will be announced at the UBCTUG meetup page (http://www.meetup.com/ubctug/) Our goal: Learn. Inspire. Share.

  • DAMA

    -

    - Present

    DAMA International is a non-profit, vendor-independent, global association of technical and business professionals dedicated to advancing the concepts and practices of information and data management.

  • Enterprise Information Management Institute (EIMI)

    -

    - Present

    The Enterprise Information Management Institute provides data management professionals with a comprehensive knowledge portal and access to the industry's most respected thought leaders on managing enterprise information assets.

  • Canadian Association of University Business Officers

    Member

    - Present

  • CASE - Council for Advancement and Support of Education

    -

    - Present

    Education's leading resource for knowledge, standards, advocacy and training in alumni relations, communications, fundraising, marketing and related activities.

  • Data Governance Professionals Organization (DGPO)

    VP Online Services

    - Present

    The DGPO is a non-profit, vendor neutral, association of business, IT and data professionals dedicated to advancing the discipline of data governance.

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