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Cartesian Dataworks

About

A new company, built on fifteen years of experience.

Cartesian Dataworks is a veteran-owned company in Minnesota. We use data, data science, and AI/ML to help businesses and government agencies optimize resources and expand what their teams can do.

Why we exist

Guesswork has real costs.

When a resident acts on an outdated ordinance, a crew drives extra miles on a route planned by hand, or a team runs on the wrong version of a spreadsheet, the cost is real: wasted time and fuel, missed deadlines, lost trust, and sometimes liability.

Large enterprises spend millions on governed data, analytics, and AI. Cities, agencies, and growing businesses usually can't. We started Cartesian Dataworks to bring that same capability to them, with the same standards, without the enterprise overhead, and at a scale where the difference shows up right away.

Founder

Chad Dahlheimer

Founder & Principal

“My value comes from integrating data, analytics, AI, governance, technology, and business strategy, not from any single one of them.”

Chad is a U.S. Navy veteran who has spent more than fifteen years building data, analytics, and AI capabilities in financial services, one of the most heavily regulated environments there is, most recently as Vice President of AI and Data Science at a top-5 U.S. bank.

The work spans the full range: from rescuing teams whose data lived in Access databases and spreadsheets, to production AI systems that save thousands of hours a year. One body of that work earned 23 consecutive “Strong” ratings from internal audit, legal, and independent third-party reviewers.

Chad still works hands-on, close enough to the architecture and the code to catch what's wrong and to know what's actually possible. Cartesian Dataworks' products are built exactly that way.

Why start a company? The work that served one of the largest banks in the country can serve a small business, a city, or an agency just as well. At this scale, Chad sees the benefit right away: a team that gets its afternoons back, a business that spends less on fuel, a resident who gets a straight answer.

  1. Earlier career

    U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

    Built and led the data infrastructure for the VA's Native American Direct Loan Program. It was adopted as a national standard and cut processing times by 55%.

  2. About 2 years

    A national financial services firm

    Led board-level governance reporting and vendor management while modernizing loan acquisition systems, including SQL-based data systems and automated underwriting workflows.

  3. About 14 years

    A top-5 U.S. bank

    • Rose from fraud analytics to Vice President of AI and Data Science.
    • Rebuilt a complaint-reporting team running on Access databases into a governed data ecosystem, and later led a team of 12 data engineers and consultants.
    • Automated the bank's end-to-end privacy-rights (CPRA) process across roughly 1,500 data systems, with data loss prevention and PII controls built in, cutting cycle time by more than 95%.
    • Put neural-network classification and agentic AI automation into production, eliminating thousands of manual hours a year under responsible-AI guardrails based on the NIST AI Risk Management Framework.

  4. 2026

    Founded Cartesian Dataworks

    Bringing the same standard of governed, traceable data and AI to organizations that have never had access to it.

Credentials

Formally trained. Continuously learning.

Most of these were earned in 2025 and 2026. In a field that changes every month, current skills matter more than old degrees.

MIT Professional Education

  • Professional Certificate in Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence

    Earned by completing five courses:

    • Applied Data Science Program: Leveraging AI for Effective Decision-Making
    • AI System Architecture and Large Language Model Applications
    • Machine Learning for Big Data and Text Processing: Foundations
    • Machine Learning for Big Data and Text Processing: Advanced
    • Applied AI for Materials Discovery
  • Applied Agentic AI for Organizational Transformation

Degrees

  • M.S., Data Science

    Oklahoma State University

  • M.B.A., Finance & Strategy

    University of Minnesota, Carlson School of Management

  • B.A., Political Science

    St. Cloud State University

Industry

  • Tableau Desktop Specialist

    Tableau

  • Bayesian Analyses Using SAS

    SAS

  • Teradata Data Challenge, Honorable Mention

    Teradata

  • Google AI certificate series

    Google

Plus 40+ recent courses in agentic AI, large language models and RAG, responsible AI, cloud data platforms (Azure, Databricks, Snowflake, GitLab CI/CD), statistics and machine learning, and innovation strategy.

Want to work with us?

Whether you're a city, an agency, a growing business, or a potential partner, we'd like to hear from you.

Contact us