From NASA mission control to atmospheric science, wind energy, and financial risk — analytics has been the constant across every chapter.
2019 – Present
AVP, Manager Credit Analytics
American Savings Bank · Honolulu, Hawaii
Built and validated a $10B community bank's fraud, BSA/AML, and credit risk model infrastructures from the ground up, then grew into managing the Retail Credit Policy & Analytics department.
- Rebuilt all retail CECL models (mortgage, HELOC, personal unsecured) using logistic regression PD, cash flow EAD, and LGD estimation — yielding higher accuracy and a $5M reduction in ACL reserves at 1/1/2025.
- Automated monthly model monitoring via one-button R Markdown pipelines producing full statistical suites: AUC, KS statistic, Brier score, Spiegelhalter test, and population stability — six years of CECL development and validation with zero audit or OCC findings.
- Drove end-to-end outsourcing of CECL models to Moody's Analytics through vendor selection, contract negotiation (~$1M, 5 years), and full enterprise implementation — reducing model maintenance by approximately 2 FTE-years annually and cutting model count from ~20 to ~5.
- Built the department's entire analytics infrastructure: a custom SQL Server credit database (~1TB, 30+ source integrations, derived analytic tables, stored procedures, full data dictionary) powering all reporting, modeling, and policy analysis for a team of 12.
- Designed and built a complete debit card fraud prevention program from scratch: a 2TB database integrating 20+ daily feeds, custom R/SQL anomaly detection algorithms, and management of ~100 real-time FICO Falcon authorization rules for 4 years — maintaining fraud losses below 3 BPS and false positive rates below 4, saving approximately $3M over the program's life.
- Validated the bank's full BSA/AML model suite: 250 SAR detection rules, 2,000+ High Risk Customer rules, OFAC screening, and CTR detection across 4 models on GMS Patriot Officer — zero regulatory findings across all reviews.
- Built a KYC risk-rating model for account opening (Naive Bayes classifier in R, later arithmetic scoring) and created the repeatable annual validation framework adopted department-wide.
- Built a condo insurance crisis risk dashboard (SQL, Denodo, R, Power BI) integrating statewide Hawaii MLS data since 2010, loan performance, Fannie Mae project exclusions, and appraisal data — reviewed favorably by OCC, used by the Chief Credit Officer for ACL qualitative factor analysis.
- Led the Maui wildfire credit response (2023–2025): geospatial population exposure mapping, labor market QF modeling, PD/LGD stress testing, HELOC utilization monitoring, loan modification tracking, emergency loan analytics, and regular board-level reporting over two years.
- Managed 3 direct reports; contributed significantly to training new department directors in analytics and model governance despite high turnover (6 managers in under 8 years).
CECL Modeling
Fraud Analytics
$5M ACL Reduction
BSA/AML · KYC
R · SQL · Power BI · Denodo
Team Management
OCC — Zero Findings
Moody's Analytics
2018 – 2020
Blockchain & Cryptocurrency Analyst (Part-Time)
Judge Research · New York, New York
Part-time R&D role building analytics infrastructure for a crypto startup while working full-time at ASB. Set up the shared coding environment, data pipelines, and research frameworks for a team of economists and developers.
- Wrote R and Python to pull live data from cryptocurrency exchanges via API and correlate it with social media and Telegram sentiment signals to generate trading indicators for a hedge fund strategy under development.
- Built automated crypto market trend reports from live API data for a third-party client.
- Led due diligence research evaluating Initial Coin Offerings across industries; studied 40+ foundational academic papers and whitepapers on blockchain technology and cryptographic infrastructure.
Blockchain
Sentiment Analysis
R · Python · API
ICO Research
2015 – 2019
Project Manager / Business Analyst, Card Services
First Hawaiian Bank · Honolulu, Hawaii
Dual PM and analyst across 8–12 concurrent projects at Hawaii's only in-house credit card operation — a business generating roughly a third of the bank's total revenue. Obtained PMP certification to manage the cross-functional complexity.
- Modeled interchange revenue by merchant category code across 350,000 credit cards during an EMV chip reissue; identified 20,000 customers warranting free product upgrades, generating approximately $1M in annual incremental interchange revenue — projections matched actual results almost exactly.
- Independently built a real-time ID&V anti-fraud application in Extra Basic interfacing live with TSYS core processing — still running more than 10 years later. The application pulled in-wallet and out-of-wallet data to generate randomized identity verification questions, tracked enablement attempts and failures, monitored device IDs for multi-card anomalies, flagged geographic discrepancies, and gave agents a unified cross-call view during digital wallet enablement. Supported Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, Android Pay, and Mastercard Digital wallets.
- Managed Mastercard rewards platform conversion for 350,000 cardholders — including reverse-engineering and programmatically replicating the legacy points scoring model for the cutover month to ensure seamless customer experience.
- Managed rollout of 4 digital wallets, automated fraud alerts, and risk-based overlimit authorization workflows using FICO TRIAD; coordinated cross-functional teams across product, compliance, legal, call center, card production, and accounting plus vendor relationships with TSYS, FDR, and Mastercard.
PMP Certified 2017
$1M Revenue Generated
Interchange Modeling
Fraud Prevention
Digital Wallets
TSYS · Mastercard · FICO TRIAD
2013 – 2015
System Analyst, Information Systems
Hawaii Medical Service Association (HMSA) · Honolulu, Hawaii
Supported a complex mainframe system replacement during an extended parallel-operation cutover. Built and maintained data synchronization tools that kept legacy and replacement platforms running simultaneously while the organization continued operating normally.
- Built SQL Server queries, SSIS packages, and SSRS reports for data analysis and ETL across complex healthcare data environments.
- Developed and repaired applications in Visual Studio .NET; reached solid intermediate SQL proficiency foundational to subsequent banking career.
- Observed at first-hand the real costs of poor system design, inadequate documentation, and short-term patch mentality — lessons that shaped how meticulously every subsequent system was built and documented.
SQL Server · SSIS · SSRS
Systems Integration
.NET · ETL
2011 – 2013
Senior Scientific Systems Engineer
Innovim LLC at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center · Greenbelt, Maryland
Supported the real-time Interface Data Processing System (IDPS) for the Suomi-NPP satellite — a joint NASA, NOAA, and Department of Defense mission carrying five instruments to measure atmospheric, oceanic, and terrestrial conditions from orbit.
- Managed the Mini-IDPS, an offline version of the satellite's real-time data processing system, allowing NASA scientists to process raw Level 0 data into calibrated Level 1–3 scientific products for research.
- Wrote standard operating procedures, developed training materials, and led in-person training sessions for scientists on the Mini-IDPS system.
- Coordinated with IDPS project teams to define requirements, manage schedules, and ensure deliverables met government client expectations — navigating a system that was underutilized and required active advocacy to prove its value.
NASA Group Achievement Award 2013
NASA JPSS Team Award 2012
Suomi-NPP · NASA/NOAA/DoD
Systems Engineering
Scientific Data Processing
2010 – 2011
Programmer / Analyst
Science Systems & Applications Inc. (SSAI) at NASA Goddard · Greenbelt, Maryland
Inherited a 25,000-line, 200-module IDL program that derived global atmospheric ozone distributions from data collected by two instruments aboard the NASA Aura satellite — the Microwave Limb Sounder and the Ozone Monitoring Instrument. The original author was no longer available.
- Reorganized, documented, placed under revision control, and substantially enhanced the program — completing a two-year scope in approximately one year due to deep IDL expertise.
- The program used PV-theta trajectory modeling and trapezoidal vertical integration to produce daily worldwide maps of tropospheric ozone distribution, tropopause height, and cloud-corrected mixing ratios across 210+ IDL routines.
- Contributed to peer-reviewed publications based on the results; worked closely with NASA scientists to evaluate outputs and refine algorithms.
NASA Outstanding Contribution 2011
IDL · Atmospheric Modeling
NASA Aura Satellite
Tropospheric Ozone (TOR)
PV-Theta Trajectory
2008 – 2010
Wind Energy Analyst
Garrad Hassan America (GL Garrad Hassan) · Portland, OR & Beijing, China
The world's leading independent wind energy consulting firm. Conducted energy production assessments for 10+ utility-scale wind farms (20MW to over 1GW) across the US and Taiwan, with six months based out of Beijing.
- Inspected sites in person, including meteorological masts and equipment configurations, before building computational wind flow models using WAsP and GH WindFarmer.
- Correlated on-site measurements to long-term NWS meteorological station data, modeled wind shear, seasonal patterns, and turbine wake effects, and quantified statistical uncertainty at every stage.
- Reports went directly to banks and private lenders as the primary technical basis for project financing decisions on wind farms worth hundreds of millions of dollars — the same discipline of quantitative work subject to independent scrutiny with real financial stakes that characterized later banking work.
- Designed and managed a shared SQL Server meteorological database for 30+ analysts across multiple US offices.
- Built IDL wind shear computation tools that automated work previously done manually in Excel — a recurring career pattern of using programming to replace inefficient manual processes.
Wind Flow Modeling · WAsP · WindFarmer
Statistical Uncertainty Analysis
Capital Markets
SQL Server
Beijing / Taiwan
2002 – 2008
Programmer / Research Associate
NOAA Mauna Loa Observatory · Research Corporation of University of Hawaii · Hilo, Hawaii
Six years at one of the most scientifically significant places on earth — where continuous atmospheric CO₂ measurements have been taken since 1958. Working alongside PhD physicists and NOAA/NASA scientists shaped every standard held since.
- Wrote and maintained 100,000+ lines of production IDL code for the Camera Lidar (CLidar) — a GUI-driven image processing system for CCD camera lidar analysis using physics-based atmospheric scatter and boundary layer profiling. The CLidar instrument has its own Wikipedia page. The software was provided to Peking University for replication.
- Contributed software development for the Polar Nephelometer (SuperNeph) — US Patent 8531516, Imaging Polar Nephelometer explicitly credits the implemented source code to Trevor Kaplan by name.
- Built the complete data acquisition, control, and analysis system in Borland Delphi Object Pascal for a NOAA lidar deployed at the American Samoa Observatory in 2005 — controlling the laser, pulse generator, multi-channel data acquisition board, and housekeeping sensors in real time while recording data and providing interactive GUI for live and post-hoc analysis.
- Co-authored 11 peer-reviewed publications and conference presentations; managed 6 concurrent atmospheric research programs measuring ozone, CO₂, solar radiation, and aerosols for NOAA, NSF, and university research groups worldwide.
- Built the original NOAA MLO programs webpage, collecting and organizing information for 100+ research programs — much of the framework remains live today. Also created the observatory's first instrument maintenance manual, gathering and standardizing decades of handwritten notes for a remote high-altitude site.
- Regularly operated instruments at the summit site (11,135 ft / 3,394 m) — including the Lidar at night, firing a powerful green laser into the atmosphere above the cloud layer over the Pacific.
Hawaii Employee of Year Nominee 2006
US Patent 8531516 — Code Cited by Name
CLidar · Polar Nephelometer
IDL · C++ · Object Pascal
11 Peer-Reviewed Publications
NOAA · NSF Research
2000 – 2001
Systems Engineer, Mission Control
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center — Honeywell Technical Services · Greenbelt, Maryland
First job out of college: flight operator at mission control for NASA's Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite — a technology demonstration mission carrying the first hyperspectral land imaging instrument flown in space.
- Commanded and monitored satellite operations, coordinated data acquisition and downlinks, worked with ground station personnel worldwide, and analyzed live telemetry on UNIX/Linux platforms using STOL (Spacecraft Test and Operations Language).
- Worked 12-hour day/night rotating shifts, 7 days on/7 days off. Each shift contained narrow 12-minute windows per orbit during which the satellite passed over ground stations — requiring careful preparation and precise execution.
- Built a custom status dashboard displaying key spacecraft health signals across multiple screens — still in operational use when a colleague showed it to Trevor over a decade later. The first instance of a recurring career pattern: building things that outlast their expected lifespan.
NASA Mission Control · EO-1
STOL · UNIX/Linux
Satellite Operations
