IT Director  ·  Fortune 500  ·  AI Strategy

William "Bill" Shipman

Turning emerging technology into measurable business value

0+
Years in Tech
0+
Platform Users
0K+
Hours Saved / Yr
0+
AI Use Cases
WS
BS Computer Science Drexel University · Magna Cum Laude
West Norriton, PA Eastern Time Zone

Data strategist.
AI evangelist.
Builder of things.

I'm an IT Director at Newell Brands with 20+ years of experience leading enterprise data and AI initiatives. I serve as a forward-deployed AI engineer and AI Navigator on Newell's enterprise AI initiative — a company-wide program targeting $110M–$130M in annual savings — where I help translate AI strategy into real, working capabilities across the organization.

Within this initiative I helped build and lead the AI FDE (Forward Deployed Engineer) team — AI specialists embedded across 9 business functions to drive adoption where the work actually happens. I also built the company's AI skills and prompt discovery portal and run the AI Architecture Review Board that governs how AI gets adopted at scale. Alongside that, I've grown Power BI and Azure adoption from zero to 5,000+ users and lead an 8-person global analytics engagement team.

AI & Modern Work

ChatGPT / GPT-4o Microsoft Copilot Custom GPTs Make.com LLM APIs Agent Workflows

BI & Data

Power BI Databricks Azure Tableau SAP BW / BEx SQL Server

Development

Python C# / .NET SQL JavaScript HTML / CSS

Impact at scale

A selection of high-impact initiatives from the past two years.

2025

ChatGPT & Copilot Enterprise Rollout

ChatGPTMS CopilotAPIs
500 Users Enabled

Enabled 100+ use cases and 10,000+ hours saved annually through an enterprise-wide AI adoption program.

2025

Jira AI Automation Enablement

JiraChatGPTMake.com
25% Faster Sprint Planning

Migrated 50 developers to Jira with AI automation, cutting sprint planning overhead by a quarter.

2024

Data & Analytics Week

Power BIBeautiful.aiPowerPoint
800 Participants Trained

Hosted and led training for 800 participants across 80 sessions on data and analytics capabilities.

2023

Supply Chain Reorg (OVID)

Power BIAzure
23→1 Network Consolidation

Delivered the reporting infrastructure enabling consolidation from 23 distribution networks to 1.

Work that moved
the needle

Enterprise solutions built and delivered across two decades at Fortune 500 scale.

2018–2025 BI Platform

Enterprise Power BI Platform

Built and scaled the company's BI platform from zero to 5,000+ active users across every major function — finance, sales, supply chain, HR, and e-commerce.

Power BIAzureDAXSQL Server
Outcome 5,000+ users · Multi-million $ in savings
2023 Supply Chain

OVID Supply Chain Reorg

Architected the reporting and analytics layer that powered a 23-to-1 distribution network consolidation — one of the most complex operational transformations in the company's recent history.

Power BIAzureSAP
Outcome 23 → 1 network · Major cost reduction
2017 Global Reporting

Global Daily Sales Report

Co-designed and implemented a global daily sales report on SAP BW integrating data from 30 ERPs following a $10B merger — giving C-suite leadership a single view of global performance.

SAP BWBExSQL
Outcome 30 ERPs unified · Global exec visibility
2015 Retail Analytics

Point-of-Sale Reporting Program

Led enterprise-wide POS reporting aggregating retail sales data across 70+ retail partners in 6 countries — turning fragmented sell-through data into a single source of truth.

TableauSQL ServerETL
Outcome 70+ partners · 10,000 hrs/yr saved
2013 CRM / Data

Marketing CRM Platform

Implemented an enterprise Marketing CRM aggregating 50+ sources of consumer data across all brands globally — creating a unified consumer intelligence platform.

SalesforceSQLAPI Integrations
Outcome 50+ sources unified · All brands, all regions

The journey

2017 — Present
Newell Brands

IT Director — Information Delivery & AI

Lead reporting/analytics and AI roadmaps across the enterprise. Serving as a forward-deployed AI engineer and IT Navigator on Newell's enterprise AI initiative targeting $110M–$130M in savings. Manage multi-million-dollar budget and 8-person global engagement team. Run the AI Architecture Review Board.

AI Initiative Navigator AI Architecture Review Board AI FDE Team Power BI Platform
2012 — 2017
Newell Brands

Senior Manager — Information Delivery

Led full-spectrum application development and analytics for multiple business functions. Managed $1M budget. Built global POS reporting program and co-designed the daily global sales report following the $10B Jarden merger.

POS Reporting SAP BW Tableau 70+ Retail Partners
2005 — 2012
Newell Brands

Group Program Manager / Lead Analyst

Progressive SAP, CRM, and SharePoint leadership. Led divisional IT roadmap, global RightNow CX rollout, and 20+ system integrations. Spearheaded New Product Development workflow on SharePoint.

SAP CRM SharePoint 20+ Integrations
1999 — 2004
Contractor · Unisys · Gestalt

Developer

Website and application development while simultaneously earning a BS in Computer Science from Drexel University, graduating Magna Cum Laude.

Web Development Application Dev Drexel CS

Let's build
something great.

Whether you're looking to hire a data & AI leader, explore a collaboration, or just connect — I'd love to hear from you.