BRS is a consulting firm that helps leaders in industry and government design smart, adaptable operations by guiding them in engineering knowledged-based business solutions.
For over 30 years BRS has helped leaders in corporations and government agencies run a smart, adaptable business by enabling them to identify and close gaps in operational compliance, communication, and knowledge critical to their success. We enable the coherent design of smart, knowledged-based business operations suitable for the digital age.
BRS was the pioneer in creating business-oriented techniques, and remains the worldwide leader in changing how organizations view, manage and apply their knowledge and data in day-to-day business operations and in redesign of business capabilities.
Who We Are
Vanessa F. Lam is Principal of BRS (BRSolutions.com). BRS provides consulting, training, and mentoring in support of data, Al, vocabulary, and rules.
Vanessa specializes in building data-driven organizations where operations and leadership understand and trust the data, treat knowledge as a resource, and use to make day-to-day and strategic decisions.
Previously, she worked at Mastercard as a Manager of Business Vanessa Lam Insight and Productivity and Optoro as a Manager of Business Principal Intelligence. In these roles, she created educational tools for the organization, fostered data communities, and ensured people used data responsibly.
Vanessa is a frequent speaker at conferences worldwide, including Enterprise Data World (EDW), Building Business Capability (BBC), Data Governance & Information Quality (DGIQ), Tableau User Group, Predictive Analytics World, and others. Vanessa’s popular articles on data and knowledge are published regularly in the Business Rules Journal, The Data Administration Newsletter (TDAN), and others.
She holds a Masters of Computer and Information Technology from the University of Pennsylvania and a 880 in Economics from the Wharton School. She was named a top influencer to watch in 2021 by IIBA.
Ronald G. Ross is Co-Founder of BRS (BRSolutions.com). BRS provides consulting, training, and mentoring in support of data, AI, vocabulary, and rules. Concept models and business rules are specialties.
Ron co-develops the landmark BRS methodology featuring numerous innovative techniques including the popular ConceptSpeakTM and RuleSpeak® (free on RuleSpeak.com, also in Spanish, German, Dutch, Norwegian and Polish). These are the latest offerings in a 5-decade career that has consistently featured creative, business-driven solutions.
Ron is Executive Editor of BRCommunity.com and its flagship on-line publication, Business Rules Journal. Sponsored by BRS, BRCommunity.com is an open community for professionals. Ron is recognized internationally as the ‘father of business rules.’ He was formerly Editor of the Data Base Newsletter from I977 to I998.
His newest books are: Rules: Shaping Behavior and Knowledge (2023) and Building Knowledge Blueprints: Enabling Your Data to Speak the Language of the Business 2nd ed. (2020) on vocabulary and concept models.
In all, Ron is the author of ten professional books including Building Business Solutions: Business Analysis with Business Rules 2nd ed. with Gladys S.W. Lam (20I5), and Business Rule Concepts: Getting to the Point of Knowledge 4th ed. (20I3).
Ron serves as Chair of the annual Building Business Capability (BBC) Conference, the official conference of the IIBA®.
Ron holds an MS. in information science from the Illinois Institute of Technology and a BA. from Rice University.
Gladys S.W. Lam is a world-renowned authority on business design. She is Co-Founder of BRS (www.BRSolutions.com), the most recognized company world-wide in developing business capabilities based on data, AI, vocabulary, and rules. She has consulted to over three hundred organizations. She co-authored Building Business Solutions: Business Analysis with Business Rules (2nd Ed.).
Gladys is widely known for her lively, pragmatic style. She speaks and teaches worldwide at conferences and other professional events. She is also Executive Director of the Building Business Capability (BBC) Conference, the official conference of the IIBA®. She initiated and developed the BBC Women in Tech (WiT) community and track.
Gladys is an expert on business project management, having managed numerous large-scale projects across a variety of industries and government organizations. She works comfortably with senior executives and senior management providing insights and advice on business solutions to business problems. She is highly effective with mentoring and training business analysts and other professionals.
Gladys is recognized for her ability to identify the source of business issues, and for her effectiveness in developing pragmatic approaches to resolve them. She has gained a world-class reputation for fostering positive professional relationships with principals and support staff on client projects.
Gladys graduated from the University of British Columbia with a B.S. in Computer Science.