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Antwerp, Belgium · Open to new opportunities

Matthias Mesotten

Data & AI in Finance

I help finance teams turn data and AI into decisions they can act on — from regulatory reporting to the tools and dashboards behind the daily work.

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Open to new opportunities. I'm looking for a role where data and AI meet an economic and financial context — bringing me closer to my roots in economics — within an ambitious, fast-moving organisation.

What I'm looking for →

01 · Profile

Portrait of Matthias Mesotten

I’m an economist who moved into data and AI. At Argenta I’m a data analyst in Finance and co-lead our Tools, Data & AI work, across the full breadth of the department — from regulatory and sustainability reporting to the AI tools, dashboards and automation that colleagues rely on every day. What I enjoy most is pairing hands-on data and AI with an economic and financial perspective, and finding a sharper, more efficient way to get things done. Outside work I’m usually training for an endurance race — in the pool, on the bike or out running — travelling somewhere new, or around a board game with friends.

  • RigorousI hold my work to a high standard and care about getting the details right.
  • DrivenI bring energy and follow-through to everything I take on.
  • InventiveI experiment with new ways of working to make them simpler and faster.
  • CollaborativeI do my best work with and through a team.
  • Data-mindedI'm at my best turning data and AI into clear decisions.
  • OpenI stay curious, approachable and easy to work with.
Data & AIAnalytical SkillsData AnalysisPublic PolicyDutch — native / bilingualEnglish — professional workingFrench — limited working

02 · Experience

Experience & education

  1. Data Analyst & Co-Lead Tools, Data & AI — Finance

    January 2023 – Present

    Argenta · Antwerp, Belgium

    • Data analyst for the Finance department, and co-lead of its Tools, Data & AI work — coordinating around ten people to help colleagues put data and AI to work in their day-to-day processes
    • Work across the full breadth of the department — from regulatory and sustainability reporting to analytics tooling, automation and applied AI
    • Build AI-powered tools that make financial and accounting information easier to explore, connected to the dashboards teams already use
    • Design dashboards and analytics relied on day to day, and automate recurring reporting and reconciliation work (Tableau, Power Automate)
    • Run workshops and inspiration sessions on AI in Finance across the bank, and help modernise how the department works with data
    Data & AILeadershipApplied AIRegulatory & Sustainability ReportingProcess AutomationTableauPower Automate

  2. Senior Revenue Management Data Analyst · Head of Price Elasticity

    February 2022 – January 2023

    StepUp RGM · Leuven, Belgium

    • Headed price elasticity — determining optimal pricing strategies and quantifying their financial impact, right as pricing and inflation dominated the headlines
    • Conducted advanced economic modeling and data analysis to evaluate the financial impact of clients' sales and promotional investments across FMCG categories (food, household products)
    • Delivered actionable insights through intuitive dashboards, enabling clients to optimize their investment strategies
    Price ElasticityRevenue ManagementEconomic ModelingFMCG

  3. Revenue Management Data Analyst

    February 2021 – January 2022

    StepUp RGM · Leuven, Belgium

    Revenue ManagementData Analysis

  4. Accounting & Tax Trainee — Special Tax Inspectorate (STI)

    July 2020 – February 2021

    FOD Financiën (SPF Finances) · Antwerp, Belgium

    • Completed comprehensive training in corporate taxation, accounting principles, tax law, and investigation procedures
    • Directly supported team investigations by applying newly acquired knowledge to real cases
    • Developed foundational skills in financial analysis and regulatory compliance
    Corporate TaxationAccountingFinancial AnalysisRegulatory Compliance

  5. Data and Risk Analyst

    June 2019 – August 2019

    Freel · Brussels, Belgium

    • Executed comprehensive user behavior analysis for a mobility startup using multiple data sources
    • Identified key profitability drivers and efficiency improvement opportunities through data modeling
    • Implemented Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) techniques to optimize operational workflows
    User Behavior AnalysisData ModelingBPMN

  6. Board Member

    September 2018 – July 2019

    VELO · Oud-Heverlee, Belgium

    • Represented KU Leuven student interests on the board of a social enterprise with 75+ employees
    • Contributed to company modernization through the development and implementation of strategic initiatives
    • Participated in governance decisions while balancing social mission and business objectives
    GovernanceSocial EnterpriseStrategy

  7. Student jobs (various)

    July 2013 – August 2020

    Various · Belgium

    • Private Economics tutor
    • Data collection — thermal mapping for MeteoGroup
    • Tutor for Peer Assisted Learning at KU Leuven
    • Experience in retail, logistics and catering
    TutoringData Collection

Education

  • MSc, EconomicsKU LeuvenMagna Cum Laude2019–2020

    ThesisStudied educational equity in Flemish early secondary education by measuring the effectiveness of the Flemish Equal Education Opportunity Program. Implemented a Bayesian machine-learning algorithm (BCF-IV) to identify and quantify the policy's heterogeneous causal effects across student groups, with a particular focus on students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

  • MSc, Economic PolicyKU LeuvenCum Laude2018–2020

    ThesisDe-industrialization and export promotion in Europe — Examined the causes of deindustrialisation and their link to policy. Using fixed-effects regressions on Eurostat data, the analysis shows that industrial labour skills play a critical role in deindustrialisation.

    • Member of LOKO, the Leuven student association representing all students in the city — held the mandate for student mobility with both KU Leuven and the City of Leuven
    • That mobility mandate also brought a seat on the board of the social enterprise VELO
  • BSc, Geography: Business & InnovationKU Leuven2015–2019

Certifications Certified Environmental, Social and Governance Analyst (CESGA) · Investment Foundations Certificate · Essential Financial Modelling · Certificate for Business IT Skills Program · Communication Skills via Insights

03 · Selected work

Projects

professional2026

Investment Analyst Toolkit

A local quant toolkit + web app that screens, deeply analyses and compares investment opportunities — always showing risk next to return, and fitting them to your portfolio.

Four cooperating Python scripts, wrapped in a local “Investment Cockpit” web app, that take an idea from find → analyse → decide — with an optional fit to your existing portfolio. Risk and return are always shown together (Sharpe / Sortino, drawdowns, risk–return scatters), and ESG (Sustainalytics rating, SFDR article 6/8/9) sits alongside as a purely informational layer.

What it does

  • Pipeline — the full flow in one place: run the screener, tick candidates onto a shortlist (peers pre-filled per sector/region), then automatic batch analyses and a final comparison. Resumes itself after a restart.
  • Ticker search over ~13,600 stocks and ETFs (US + Europe/Asia); sectors, regions and periods are pick-lists, so no more typos.
  • Portfolio in EUR: live positions with ETF look-through, a FIFO transaction ledger as the source of truth, time-weighted performance vs. the S&P 500, and a risk command centre — volatility, beta, VaR/CVaR, concentration, currency exposure, per-position Euler risk contribution, correlation matrix, and historical stress tests (2008, COVID, 2022).
  • Scenarios — hypothetical market / rate / currency / sector shocks on your current weights, using each position’s own beta and FRED-sourced sensitivities.

Stack: Python, FastAPI-style local web app, FRED & market-data feeds, HRP and quant factor models; JS/HTML/CSS front end.

PythonQuantitative FinancePortfolio AnalyticsRisk ModelingESG

Private repository — happy to walk through the code on request.

passion2026

DAS TRIATLON MACHINE — Adaptive Triathlon Coach

A local-first, adaptive ML training coach for triathlon: it ingests your Garmin/Strava/Apple Health data and regenerates a race-focused plan every morning based on how you actually slept, recovered and trained.

The project where my day job (data & AI) meets my sport (triathlon). It syncs data from Garmin Connect, Apple Health and Strava, tracks recovery (HRV, resting HR, sleep), and every morning regenerates a training plan that adapts to how you actually slept, recovered, trained and lived — while always steering toward the races you’ve put on the calendar.

The one-paragraph pitch: TrainingPeaks tells you what your coach planned weeks ago; intervals.icu has brilliant analytics but doesn’t plan for you; Garmin’s suggestions adapt but ignore your race calendar and life constraints. This app closes the loop — plan ↔ execution ↔ recovery ↔ replan, every morning, on your own machine, with your own data, for triathlon specifically (swim + bike + run + strength as one interacting system).

It also handles structured workouts and fuelling, FIT export, a compliance tracker, health/sport dashboards from Garmin effort curves, an injury/niggle log with a staged return-to-training, and pre-race briefings with carbohydrate guidance. Stack: local FastAPI + SQLite, Python analytics, JS/HTML front end.

PythonFastAPIMachine LearningGarmin / StravaTriathlon

Private repository — happy to walk through the code on request.

04 · Beyond work

Sport & the outdoors

Triathlon & endurance

current

2 full-distance finishes

2 full-distance · 5+ half-distance (incl. World Championship)

Running and cycling have been part of my life since my teens, and I took up triathlon around 2020. Two full-distance finishes — Ironman Maastricht and Challenge Roth — plus five-plus half-distances, including the World Championship, alongside a string of running and cycling events, with the Tokyo Marathon a personal highlight. I’m also a certified coach and enjoy helping friends reach their own goals. These days I train a little less to focus on work and new challenges.

“Discipline and consistency — long-course racing is a lesson in planning, pacing and showing up every day.”

Hiking & Trekking

current

GR20 · Salkantay Favourite treks

Multi-day mountain treks

Getting out into nature is one of my favourite ways to spend time. The GR20 in Corsica — often called one of Europe’s toughest long-distance trails — was a highlight, and so was the Salkantay trek high in the Peruvian Andes.

“Time in nature is how I reset — a long trek clears my head like nothing else.”

05 · What's next

What I'm looking for

I'm looking for a role where data and AI meet an economic and financial context — bringing me closer to my roots in economics — within an ambitious, fast-moving organisation.

Roles

  • Data & AI roles in finance, banking or economics
  • Roles that blend economic or financial analysis with hands-on data & AI

Domains

  • Financial services & banking
  • Economics & economic policy

Must-haves

  • Work that combines data & AI with an economic or financial context
  • An ambitious, fast-moving team

Nice-to-haves

  • Openness to a few months working from the Brisbane area
  • Scope to keep experimenting with new, AI-driven ways of working

AvailabilityOpen to new opportunities

ContractPermanent — open to freelance offers

WhereAntwerp–Brussels region (Belgium). Also open to a few months in the Brisbane area, Australia, in the coming year — with the option to extend.

Email meLinkedIn