About me
Hello! I'm an economist working as a researcher at Upside, the digital marketplace for brick-and-mortar retail. My specialties are business economics and digital economics, particularly in using big data to uncover industry trends.
My personal research is in building insights and solutions that leverage econometrics and machine learning. I am interested in questions where digital technology intersects with the physical world, especially within retail sectors like grocery, fuel, convenience, and restaurant.
I also perform pro bono consulting on nonprofit program evaluation and welcome speaking opportunities.
Research featured in
OF RESEARCH
EVENTS
AT SPEAKING EVENTS
VIEWS
Focus areas
If you spend enough time in a rabbit hole, you can call it a specialty. These are my enduring curiosities where I focus my professional, intellectual, and personal attention.
Business Economics
Much of business boils down to markets, incentives, and decision-making amid scarce resources. These make up the economist's toolkit.
Brick-and-Mortar Retail
Online retail isn’t completely replacing physical stores — it’s transforming them and merging the two worlds.
Macroeconomic Trends
No matter your planning, tomorrow’s economy will be driven by external forces like technology, capital, labor, and policy.
Consumer Behavior
The average American makes 1.6 transactions daily — plus countless other economic decisions shaping markets.
Artificial Intelligence
AI is transforming business and society through prediction, automation and generation — and it’s getting better every day.
Data-Driven Storytelling
Data without visuals is just algorithm fodder; visuals without a narrative are only half finished.
Notable Talks
My passion is telling data-driven narratives to non-technical audiences, especially how my research informs business decision-making. I regularly speak on various topics related to my focus areas as well as the grocery, restaurant, and fuel/convenience industries. The below featured talks are already prepared and ready to be tailored to a specific audience. I also welcome speaking opportunities on novel topics and always have new ideas that have not found an opportunity to share publicly yet. Reach out and we'll brainstorm personalized topic-audience fits.
The U.S. Economic Outlook
Three Types of AI Found in the Wild
Customer Loyalty in the Digital Age
That time I wrote a book
Artificial Intelligence with Microsoft Power BI
Simpler AI for the Enterprise
Advance your Power BI skills by adding AI to your repertoire at a practice level. With this practical book, business-oriented software engineers and developers will learn the terminologies, practices, and strategy necessary to successfully incorporate AI into your business intelligence estate.
I co-wrote it with Jen Stirrup, CEO of AI and BI leadership consultancy Data Relish. Together, we show you how to use data already available to your organization. Springboarding from the skills you already possess, this book adds AI to your organization's technical capability and expertise with Microsoft Power BI.
- Use Power BI to build a good data model for AI
- Demystify the AI terminology that you need to know
- Identify AI project roles, responsibilities, and teams for AI
- Use AI models, including supervised machine learning techniques
- Develop and train models in Azure ML for consumption in Power BI
- Improve your business AI maturity level with Power BI
- Use the AI feedback loop to help you get started with the next project
Blog
Medium-form writings that were too long for social media and too short for formal publication. Now my friends and family can grow tired of me saying "I actually wrote a blog post about that".
Personal
Three things I learned from running my first marathon
Reflections from a former non-runner to current non-runners
Economics
Using Twitter to predict retail foot traffic
My research paper in non-technical langauge, back when it was called "Twitter"
Economics
Economics in the Digital Age
How data, compute and statistics came together now to create the digital age we live in today
