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 · Group Executive
First-ever Group Executive for Data and AI at ANZ. Leading the group-wide data and AI agenda: capability, governance, and the responsible acceleration of AI across the bank.
Aug 2025 – Jun 2026
HSBC · Hong Kong
Chief Data Analytics Officer, Asia & Middle East
  • Led enterprise data strategy across Asia and the Middle East; USD $75m+ portfolio.
  • Primary regulatory contact with HKMA, APRA and other supervisors.
  • Championed the data marketplace and producer–consumer model.
  • Led 500+ data and analytics professionals; ran the global Data Literacy & Culture programme.
Feb 2022 – Jul 2025
HSBC · Hong Kong
CIO, Group Data Technology
  • USD $500m+ annual portfolio; owned the Group's 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
HSBC · Hong Kong
Asia Pacific CIO (concurrent)
Enhanced platform resilience across 20 Asian markets.
Jan 2020 – Feb 2022
HSBC · Hong Kong
MD, Chief Data Officer — Asia Pacific
Data strategy, architecture and governance for 20 Asian markets.
2018 – 2019
Commonwealth Bank of Australia · Sydney
Group Chief Data Officer
Built and scaled enterprise data platforms; delivered Customer 360, regulatory reporting and privacy controls.
2017 – 2018
Commonwealth Bank of Australia · Sydney
General Manager, Analytics Strategy & Advisory
2016 – 2017
Commonwealth Bank of Australia · Sydney
Chief Risk Officer, CommInsure
2010 – 2016
Commonwealth Bank of Australia · Sydney
General Manager, Balance Sheet & Specialist Advisory
2007 – 2010
Commonwealth Bank of Australia · Sydney
Executive Manager, Economic Capital — Group Treasury
2004 – 2007
Commonwealth Bank of Australia · Sydney
Head of Medium Term Note Pricing
2003 – 2004
Commonwealth Bank of Australia · Sydney
Manager, Group Market Risk
2001 – 2003
Trowbridge / Deloitte · Sydney
Actuarial Analyst
Early career
Unity International (Kaieva) · Sydney
Retail Sales Owner
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 the last of Australia's major banks to formalise a dedicated AI leadership role at the executive level. That isn't a disadvantage; it's a chance to draw on everything the industry has learned in the last five years and design for the next ten.

The mandate is clear: build capability, strengthen governance and controls, and accelerate the responsible use of data and AI across the group.

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.