Seminar by Alison Burnham | Statistics and Actuarial Science

Please Note: This seminar will be given both in person and virtually.

CANSSI seminar presented by the Statistics and Biostatistics seminar series

Alison Burnham
Chief Digitization Officer, RepairSmith Inc.
Member, Statistics Chair’s Council, Department of Statistics, UCLA

Hybrid format:

In-person: M3 3127
Virtually: Zoom

Using Data Science to Optimize Business – Opportunities & Challenges

Once you get into the real world of messy, confusing, incomplete data in almost all businesses the number one opportunity is to manage that data into something that can be interpreted, modelled, and used to drive business decisions. Sounds easy but in my experience it’s actually incredibly hard, especially in a growing business like a start up where the platform is constantly evolving and collecting data is often missed in the desire to continue to increase product functionality. What is required is a strong voice for data, someone who can explain the shortcomings of the current data in business friendly terms, and sell the extra time and effort it takes to build a platform that not only operates well but is measurable and hence optimizable. I’m going to talk about how that role works and how it can lead to an ever growing role in running the business overall (that “C” level role) if done properly.

Speaker Profile:
Dr. Alison Burnham has over 30 years of experience in applying data & analytics to a wide variety of applications including pricing, customer relationship marketing, predictive analytics, business intelligence, loyalty programs, and credit risk analysis. During that time she has worked in a diversity of verticals across both B2B and B2C clients, including Chico’s FAS (Fashion Retail), ScoreBig (Ticketing), Emotely (Social Networking), TD Bank, JP Morgan Chase, GE Capital, Esso, GM, Kraft, National Basketball Association and Fed Ex. She is currently managing all digitization efforts for RepairSmith Inc, a mobile auto repair service start-up based in Los Angeles. Digitization includes not only data science but also product management and software development. Alison has a PhD in Mathematics and a Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Chemical Engineering from McMaster University in Hamilton. Her undergraduate and master’s degrees are both from the University of Waterloo.