Rory Heilakka
Partner
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Rory is a Partner in Oliver Wyman’s Transportation and Services and Digital practices, based in New York. He has over 12 years of consulting experience, driving strategic insights and digital transformation on numerous client engagements for Oliver Wyman’s aviation, transportation, and corporate finance clients and has executed projects in the US, Latin America and Europe. He specializes in working with airlines at the intersection of commercial and operations and has extensive project delivery experience on airline network, fleet, partnership, and operational reliability topics with a focus on leveraging digital innovations and analytics.

Relevant experience in data strategy, technology transformation and analytics includes:

  • For multiple airlines, designed new planning processes, roles and supporting data-driven analytical and forecasting capabilities to improve schedule reliability and financial performance
  • For multiple airlines, worked with executive team to set future reliability (OTP) objectives and path to target performance, including roadmap design and initiative implementation
  • Developed and stress tested a suite of self-learning, predictive operational planning models for a leading global airline that both improved planning accuracy and significantly reduced forecast error, improving asset availability to reduce cost by an estimated $30+MM p.a.
  • Designed optimization program of digital marketing ROI for an online travel agency (OTA) and identified opportunities to improve margin over ad spend by $5-10MM p.a. through deep analytics optimizing ad spend for customer LTV.
  • For a global industry organization, developed a global airline demand forecasting model and user platform to estimate international demand recovery from COVID-19 demand shocks
  • For multiple airlines, has led vision development, sourcing and implementation to modernize core, mission-critical operational systems and related business intelligence capabilities
  • Supported data-enabled business transformation for a leading global logistics company, focusing on future-state state model design, DSML talent / use cases / capabilities development, and design and development of new data sharing and monitoring capabilities to drive improved customer value and experience
  • Rory is also a leader for the Oliver Wyman Forum, focusing on the impact of artificial intelligence on cities and society. Recently he has helped develop the Oliver Wyman Forum’s City Readiness for AI index, assessing over 100 cities on their preparedness for the rise of artificial intelligence.
  • Rory holds a BA from the University of Pennsylvania. He is also a competitive squash player, aspiring cook, and home brewer.