Author Biography
Valerii Babushkin is a leading AI and data science executive with over 15 years of experience building and scaling data-driven organizations. Currently serving as Senior Director of Data, Analytics, and AI at BP, he leads global initiatives across trading, shipping, and customer products. Before BP, Valerii held leadership roles at Blockchain.com, Meta (WhatsApp Integrity team), Alibaba Russia, X5 Retail Group, and Yandex, where he designed and deployed machine learning systems that significantly improved business outcomes and operational efficiency.
A Kaggle Competitions Grandmaster and author of Machine Learning System Design, Valerii is widely respected for his deep expertise in ML infrastructure, system architecture, and applied data science. He has built and led multidisciplinary teams covering machine learning, computer vision, NLP, A/B testing, and data engineering—often transforming legacy systems into modern AI ecosystems.
Beyond industry, Valerii has shared his knowledge as a university lecturer at the Higher School of Economics and the National Bank of Kazakhstan. His work bridges the gap between theory and production, helping organizations adopt AI responsibly and at scale.