About Experience Speaking Insights Contact
Data & AI Executive

Kai Yang

25 years across global banking — building the data and AI foundations that large institutions run on.

Incoming Chief Data & AI Officer, ANZ  ·  July 2026
Kai Yang
0
Years in banking
0
Years of experience
0
Engineers led globally
0
Annual portfolio managed
0
Asian markets covered

Strategy

Enterprise data and AI strategy at scale, with run-and-change portfolios in the hundreds of millions.

Platforms

Modern data platforms — sourcing, governance, AI/ML, marketplace — built and run by teams of thousands.

Trust

Deep regulatory engagement across APRA, HKMA and global supervisors. Governance that enables, rather than blocks.

What I work on

Turning data into an institutional asset

I help banks move from siloed data production to a centralised producer–consumer model, where data is discoverable, trusted, and reused across the business.

Scaling AI responsibly

Building the platforms, controls and culture that let large, regulated organisations adopt AI/ML without trading away safety, fairness or resilience.

Building the people side

The hardest part of any data transformation is talent and culture. I've led teams from 500 analysts to 3,800+ engineers, and the work I'm proudest of is the leaders those teams went on to become.

I'm a data and AI executive who has spent 25 years in global banking — most of it on the unglamorous, important work of turning data into something an institution can actually trust and use.

The arc

I grew up between Taiwan and Australia. School at Sydney Grammar, then the University of Sydney on a Chancellor's scholarship — a double degree in Chemical Engineering and Commerce, Honours Class 1. I qualified as an actuary at Trowbridge / Deloitte and spent the next sixteen years at Commonwealth Bank of Australia, moving through Group Market Risk, Group Treasury, Wealth Management (where I served as Chief Risk Officer of CommInsure), Group Analytics, and finally as Group Chief Data Officer.

In 2020 I moved to Hong Kong to take on HSBC Asia Pacific as Chief Data Officer. From there I led HSBC's Group Data Technology globally as CIO — 3,800+ engineers, a half-billion-dollar portfolio, and the enterprise data architecture underneath it — before stepping into Chief Data Analytics Officer for Asia & Middle East in 2025.

In July 2026 I return to Sydney as ANZ's first Chief Data & AI Officer.

The work

The work is always the same shape: take a large, regulated organisation that has accumulated data in silos for decades, and turn that data into a usable asset — discoverable, trusted, modelled consistently, governed without friction. Then build the AI and ML capability on top of it, responsibly. Then build the leaders who can keep it going after I've left.

I've been lucky to do this with extraordinary teams across Sydney, Hong Kong, and twenty Asian markets, alongside regulators who have pushed the standard higher every year.

The person

Australian. Husband. Father to a daughter. Born in Taiwan, schooled in Sydney, shaped by Hong Kong. I travel for work and for the pleasure of it, and I think more clearly with a long walk and a strong coffee than I do in most meeting rooms.

"What you think, you become."

— Buddha

Credentials

University of SydneyBachelor of Chemical Engineering / Bachelor of Commerce
Chancellor's scholarship · Honours Class 1
Institute of Actuaries of AustraliaAssociate Actuary
Australian Institute of Company DirectorsGraduate (GAICD)
Cardiff UniversityLean Six Sigma Green Belt (LCS 1b)
BoardObserver, Prophecy
Sydney Grammar SchoolTop 1%

Experience

Twenty-five years across two of the largest banks in the Asia-Pacific region, plus the actuarial and entrepreneurial roots that came before.

Jul 2026 →
ANZ · Sydney
Chief Data & AI Officer
Leading the group-wide data and AI agenda at ANZ: capability, governance, and the responsible acceleration of AI across the bank.
Jan 2020 – Jun 2026
HSBC · Hong Kong
Chief Data Analytics Officer & CIO Group Data Technology
6 years across Asia Pacific, Middle East and Global roles
Aug 2025 – Jun 2026
Chief Data Analytics Officer, Asia & Middle East
  • Led enterprise data strategy; USD $75m+ portfolio.
  • Primary regulatory contact with HKMA, APRA and other supervisors.
  • Led 500+ professionals; ran the global Data Literacy & Culture programme.
Feb 2022 – Jul 2025
CIO, Group Data Technology
  • USD $500m+ annual portfolio; owned the Group Data and AI/ML technology roadmap.
  • Transformed the Enterprise Data Architecture end-to-end.
  • Built and led 3,800+ data engineering professionals globally.
Sep 2022 – Apr 2023
Asia Pacific CIO (concurrent)
  • Enhanced platform resilience across 20 Asian markets.
Jan 2020 – Feb 2022
MD, Chief Data Officer — Asia Pacific
  • Data strategy, architecture and governance for 20 Asian markets.
2003 – 2019
Commonwealth Bank of Australia · Sydney
Group Chief Data Officer & Senior Executive Roles
16 years across data, risk, treasury and analytics leadership
2018 – 2019
Group Chief Data Officer
  • Built and scaled enterprise data platforms; delivered Customer 360, regulatory reporting and privacy controls.
2017 – 2018
General Manager, Analytics Strategy & Advisory
  • Designed the unified analytics roadmap behind CBA's data-driven customer strategy.
2016 – 2017
Chief Risk Officer, CommInsure
  • Led the independent review of the Life Insurance business at Board request.
2010 – 2016
General Manager, Balance Sheet & Specialist Advisory — Wealth Management
  • Balance sheet and analytics across general insurance, life insurance, funds management and financial advice.
2007 – 2010
Executive Manager, Economic Capital — Group Treasury
2004 – 2007
Head of Medium Term Note Pricing — Global Markets & Group Treasury
2003 – 2004
Manager, Group Market Risk
2001 – 2003
Early Career
Actuarial & Entrepreneurial Roots
Actuarial consulting and first entrepreneurial venture
2001 – 2003
Actuarial Analyst — Trowbridge Consulting / Deloitte
Early career
Retail Sales Owner — Unity International (Kaieva)
  • Where this site's name comes from. An early lesson in running a business end-to-end.

Speaking & Board

I speak and write about the things I've spent a career doing — turning data into an institutional asset, building AI capability responsibly, and leading large technical teams across cultures.

Topics I speak on

  • Enterprise data and AI strategy in regulated industries
  • AI governance — moving from capability to institutional responsibility
  • Building and leading data organisations at scale
  • Cross-border leadership across Asia, Australia and the Middle East
  • Talent and culture in deeply technical functions

Writing

Periodic notes on data, AI, governance, and the leadership work in between.

Why ANZ, why now
In July 2026 I'm joining ANZ as its first Chief Data & AI Officer. It's a homecoming in more than one sense — to Sydney, to the Australian banking system, and to the work of building something new from the ground up.

ANZ is an Australia's iconic bank with 198 years of history. It is an honor and privilege to take on the AI leadership role to share my experience, take what I have learnt in the last five years since the GenAI era, and design for the next ten.

The mandate is clear: build commercial capability at scale, strengthen governance and controls, and accelerate the responsible use of data and AI across the group for our customers.

From siloed data to a marketplace
Most large banks don't have a data problem in the technical sense. They have hundreds of data problems, each owned by a different team, each solved locally, each invisible to everyone else.

The single most valuable shift I've seen in the last decade is the move from siloed data production to a producer–consumer marketplace.

  1. Producers are accountable for quality, not just delivery.
  2. Consumers can find what they need without asking.
  3. Governance is built in, not bolted on.

The bank that gets this right unlocks the AI ambitions that everyone else is still drafting slides about.

"What you think, you become."

— Buddha

Contact

The best way to reach me is through the form. For speaking, board, or media enquiries, please pick the matching purpose so it gets to the right place quickly.

Thank you — message received. I aim to reply within a week.