Carlos Soares

Senior Vice President of Data and Analytics Brenntag

Carlos Soares has 25 years of experience in in Digital, Data, Analytics and Artificial Intelligence. Carlos leads Data, Analytics & AI at Brenntag, accelerating the company’s value-to-market in the DiDex (Digital Data Excellence) transformation. His extensive global leadership includes serving as the Chief Data & Analytics Officer at Diageo, where he crafted a pioneering data strategy and analytics capabilities. Prior roles include being VP BI & Advanced Analytics at Liberty Global and Senior Director Marketplace Analytics at Nike.

Key Achievements at Brenntag

1. Building a Robust Data & Analytics Organization: Established the Data & Analytics team from scratch, transforming it into a mature entity that significantly exceeded value expectations for our DiDex transformation.

2. Driving EBITA Impact through Advanced Analytics

 • Customer Growth Engine: Tackled volatile and inconsistent order patterns to determine optimal selling times and product positioning. By integrating machine learning with human insights, we personalized interactions beyond human capabilities, creating smarter growth opportunities while preventing down-trading and churn. This initiative accelerated growth and retention across 25 markets (covering 60% of our Gross Profit footprint) within 18 months, despite a fragmented data landscape. Collaboration with the commercial team was crucial.

 • Demand Planning: Focused on reducing purchase and operational costs while optimizing inventory placement to boost sell-through rates. Implemented a demand sensing approach to enhance sourcing decisions and logistical efficiencies, positively impacting both EBITA and working capital.

 3. Supercharging Formulation Generation

 • Aimed to reduce Brenntag Nutrition’s initial recipe response time from weeks to seconds by leveraging Generative AI (GenAI). This technology suggests recipe options, allowing lab technicians to start testing formulas immediately, significantly speeding up the research process.

 4. Unlocking Growth Opportunities with Strategic Analytics

 • Utilized strategic analytics to transform the operations of our Essentials division, aligning with our ‘Triple’ strategy to drive growth and innovation.

These achievements also highlight Brenntag’s commitment to leveraging data and advanced analytics to drive business value and operational excellence