Christina Luu is a Business Intelligence Systems Architect on ESA’s Business Intelligence team, where she helps turn complex data into useful insights that support teams across the firm. Her work focuses on improving business systems, streamlining processes, and developing reporting tools that make information easier to access and understand. From supporting Deltek Vantagepoint to collaborating on firmwide data initiatives, Christina helps connect technology with everyday business needs, making it easier for teams to work efficiently and make informed decisions.
What does it mean to you to be part of an employee-owned company?
Being part of an employee-owned company means that we all have a shared responsibility to ensure our collective success. For me, it brings a sense of duty and pride in knowing that we all have the ability to influence the future of the company. This empowers me to take initiative, speak up, and look for opportunities to make things better. Even small improvements can make a meaningful difference and have a positive impact on fellow employee-owners.
What keeps you coming to work here at ESA every day?
I’m grateful for the relationships I’ve built with colleagues across the firm over the years. I’m especially fortunate to have a manager who genuinely supports me, advocates for me, and encourages me to grow professionally. Having a manager that trusts me, values my perspective, and respects my professional judgment has made a tremendous difference in my experience at ESA.
What’s your favorite thing to do when you are out of the office?
Staying active – in the gym, playing pickleball, or (more recently) volleyball. I definitely enjoy evenings on the couch watching TV with a bowl of popcorn, but I like to balance that with exercise and time outdoors. Other recent interests include camping, coastal foraging, and crabbing in Northern California. I also love to travel, striving to visit at least one new international destination each year.
If you had one free hour each day, how would you use it?
Cookin’ in the kitchen – whether on the pickleball court or at home.
What are three skills that you bring to the ESA team? In other words, what should colleagues know to reach out to you about?
- Process improvement and problem-solving
- Data governance and workflow design
- Data visualization and analytics
In a nutshell, what kind of work does your team do?
The Business Intelligence team connects business strategy, people, processes, systems, and data to help ESA understand how the business is performing and make better-informed decisions. While our work is often associated with dashboards and performance reporting, those are just some of the visible outputs of a much broader function. Much of our work involves connecting information across teams and systems, ensuring data is reliable and consistent, and providing the business context needed to turn that information into meaningful insights. Ultimately, better-connected information helps us see the bigger picture, plan more effectively, collaborate, and support delivery excellence for our clients.
Describe your role at ESA and the type of work you do.
My role on ESA’s Business Intelligence team involves a mix of technical work, business operations, and collaboration with teams across the firm. I help manage and improve our Deltek Vantagepoint system, oversee data quality and governance, and work with tools like SQL, Excel, and Power BI to develop reporting and analytics solutions that support business decisions. No two days look quite the same. I might be troubleshooting a system issue, translating business needs into technical requirements, working with colleagues to improve a process, or coordinating on larger initiatives like our data warehouse. My work spans both day-to-day operational needs and longer-term improvements that support ESA’s strategic goals.
Have you had the opportunity to work on any career-defining projects?
One of the projects I’m most proud of is ESA’s upgrade from Deltek Vision to Vantagepoint. It was a massive cross-functional effort involving teams across ESA, including Accounting, Finance, Operations, Marketing, and IT. The upgrade involved not just transitioning to a new system, but also rethinking and improving how we manage our business processes and data across the organization. I played a significant role in data cleanup, system configuration, user experience testing, and designing workflows to support new and evolving business processes. I’m proud of what we accomplished together and the role I played in the successful transition to a system that supports so much of ESA’s day-to-day operations. The experience reinforced the importance of testing (and testing and testing!), gathering employee-owner feedback, iterating, and connecting people, processes, and technology to implement meaningful change.
