Michael Harrison

Accelerated Master of Quantitative Management: Business Analytics Student Michael Harrison
“The Accelerated MSQM program has given me a new perspective on the breadth of analytics applications to business problems. This exposure introduced me to use cases that are outside my domain of experience, but would be beneficial to my company and its stakeholders.”
Director of Data Science
Verizon

MSQM: Accelerated Business Analytics

Class of 2022
Industry:
Telecommunications

Prior Education:

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Management Science, 2019
Hometown:
Newport News, Virginia
Nationality:
USA

Reflections

Prior to the Accelerated MSQM program, I earned a Masters in Statistics. I took multiple machine learning courses, but the applications were all related to the hard sciences, which I had very little experience in. The same statistical models may be applied to many different areas of study across industries, but learning how they are applied to business functions including finance, accounting, marketing, and strategy was extremely beneficial. The Accelerated MSQM program also has blend of applied learning and academic research, which introduces students to a world of substantive business- and consumer-related research as well as cutting edge machine learning techniques developed by some of the world’s most influential contributors.

Before Fuqua

I worked as a director of data science in telecommunications, focused on developing models that supported business functions including sales, marketing, and customer operations. The main challenge of model development is building, fostering, and growing the knowledge overlap between the business team and data scientists to create compelling analytic solutions.

After Fuqua

I plan to stay with my current company and broaden the focus of the Data Science team from developing predictive models to include models that focus on causal relationships. This will give business leaders greater insight into what actions they may take to improve operations, customer experience, and overall shareholder value.

Advantages of Working as a Team

I really enjoyed the team experience, I got to know my team members personally and professionally and we learned to utilize each other’s strengths to maximize our grades and help each other improve those areas that were new to us. I am uncertain if my team experience was uncommon, but not once did our team have challenges unrelated to the coursework itself. Despite the geographic distance between members of our team, and the online nature of the program, we all got to be good friends and worked hard to ensure the group succeeded in its goals and in the program.