Ahmed Abbasi
So much data, so many applications—and so many interested students.
Addressing some 160 keenly engaged McIntire undergraduate and graduate students in the McIntire School of Commerce’s Robertson Hall, some 23 expert practitioners spent Friday, Sept. 4, 2015, discussing the rapidly evolving challenges and enormous opportunities associated with perhaps the most revolutionary force in business today: big data.
The daylong event—which comprised an insightful panel discussion of the current state of data analytics as a driver of organizational insight and value; a second illuminating panel discussion of the art and science of customer analytics; an interactive lunch; four intense sessions on careers in analytics; and a wrap-up reception—marked the second annual Analytics Colloquium organized by the Center for Business Analytics at the McIntire School of Commerce.
Event panelists included Joanna Bergeron, Principal, CapTech; Jeff Campbell, VP, Applied Predictive Technologies; Todd Kennedy, SVP, Capital One; Doug McElhaney, Client Services Leader, McKinsey & Company; Cameron Meierhoefer, COO, comScore; Martin Stolfa, VP, Hilton Worldwide; and Mark Urbanczyk, Principal, Deloitte Consulting. Participants in the Careers in Analytics sessions included Arun Balasubramanian of EY; Kate Buzzelli of comScore; Peter Corbett of EY; Ben Harden of CapTech; Taylor Jenkins of Red Ventures; Ross Koon of Merkle/RKG; Ian Major of APT; Ujwal Neelakantan of Deloitte; Tom Reilly of EY; Lee Scoggins of McKinsey; Yang Shim of EY; Miles Sollinger of Deloitte; Ben Travis of Viget; Sarah Ann Gayner Van Gilst of Capital One; and Marcelo Villar of Red Ventures.
“Every one of our corporate participants brings outstanding insight to the exciting and transformative field of data analytics,” says McIntire IT Professor and Center Director Ahmed Abbasi, noting that many of the participants are also representatives of the Center’s 13 corporate partners. “Their real-world perspectives helped our audience understand not only the multifaceted challenges and enormous opportunities associated with analytics, but also the incredibly broad range of analytics-related applications and career opportunities.”
Indeed, says Abbasi, the Colloquium offered a superb example of precisely the sort of high-level industry-academic cross-pollination that the Center aims to achieve. “This year’s Colloquium was a fantastic example of the potent combination of academic rigor and industry relevance,” Abbasi says. “We are extremely grateful to our participants for their willingness to make their outstanding industry knowledge and expertise a part of McIntire’s world-class, real-world curriculum.”
By Mary Summers Whittle
