About Alan

Who I am. permalink

My name is Alan Hylands and I am a data analyst and writer from Northern Ireland.

What I'm doing now. permalink

Zapier logo image

In early 2020, I joined Zapier and am currently a Staff Data Scientist. (We're on a mission to Make Automation Work For Everyone. Interested in joining us?)

Cura Fitness Logo

I am also Technical Director at Cura Fitness, our family boutique fitness studio based in County Down, Northern Ireland.

What I've done. permalink

I've worked in tech, data and analytics for the past 20+ years - building, reporting, analysing, managing and mentoring.

I have: permalink

  • Helped nurses provide better care for their patients by more accurately recording and reporting their treatments.
  • Allowed small local businesses to successfully sell their goods to all four corners of the globe from the comfort of their own homes.
  • Kept the savings of hundreds of thousands of ordinary people safe when the dark clouds of the financial crash loomed over us all.
  • Built Customer Lifetime Value models to segment customer bases and get to know the best customers better.
  • And much, much more (that I'm not allowed to tell about. Good old corporate NDAs.)

A little more background. permalink

I studied Accounting at university and planned for a future in finance.

Then I found the internet, programming and databases.

I started my first e-commerce development agency in 2003. Since then I have worked on a number of small business start-ups in e-commerce, analytics, marketing, online research and content marketing.

I started a successful football website which gave me the opportunity to write professionally for the New York Times Company. (Want to find out how that came about, check out my I Want To Be A Football Writer When I Grow Up article.)

Quite unexpectedly, I was seduced into the corporate world of banking and financial services in the boom-time mid-noughties.

I spent over twelve years running Data and Analytics projects for a large UK and Ireland banking group. I worked my way up through the ranks from senior data analyst to senior analytics manager to Head of Retail Commercial Excellence.

Then I decided that I'd had enough of management and wanted to get back into doing what I love best - digging into data and telling stories about what I find. And that's what brought me to Zapier.

Where you can find me. permalink

You can contact by email (alan AT alanhylands DOT com) or on this contact form or take a chance on social media where I (very) occasionally post on Twitter or LinkedIn.