Blake Nicholson Email & Phone Number

New York, Ny, Us

Menlo Park, Ca, Us

Westport, Connecticut, Us

Westport, Connecticut, Us

Provide strategic and technical expertise to this advanced people analytics startup. Assist with evaluation of market opportunities and give feedback on product developments.

Ann Arbor, Michigan, Us

Oversee all aspects related to the use of data to develop insights that drive the business. Leverage Amazon Web Services for data infrastructure and tools such as R and Python for data manipulation, statistics, and machine learning. Representative projects include:STATISTICS: Applied statistical methods to link behaviors on Seelio to real-world outcomes to demonstrate the impact that Seelio has on education and career preparation.A/B TESTING: Conducted experiments to evaluate the impact on user engagement of changes to design, algorithms, and other aspects of the website.BIG DATA: Set up the data infrastructure to log events from website visitors in real time, created a Hadoop cluster from nightly database backups and event logs, installed Presto on top of Hadoop for analytical queries, and created a d3-based reporting portal with Presto as a backend data source.SOFTWARE ENGINEERING: Developed Apache Thrift-based services in C++ to power the backend of a new feature of seelio.com. Leveraged Docker and Continuous Integration to quickly iterate on ideas and bring them to reality.

Responsible for advanced analytics used to help Facebook find, grow, and keep employees. Apply various analytical methods, including machine learning and statistics, to scale Facebook’s People org and to identify drivers of employee engagement. Representative projects include:STATISTICS: Spearheaded the development of the company's predictive attrition model. Identified a third party with talent analytics and machine learning expertise with which to partner to develop the model. Successfully executed the project and created a model that helped identify factors that contribute to attrition.ANALYTICS: Leveraged data to assess interviewer quality in an effort to identify interviewers that do the best job of identifying strong employees. Used this same analysis to spot employees that may need training on the interview approach due to poor past performance.

San Francisco, Ca, Us

Led a team responsible for shaping revenue optimization strategies. Oversaw the creation of reports and high-level dashboards with executive visibility. Conducted ad hoc business analyses and data mining to uncover useful insights to drive better business decisions. Representative projects include:ANALYTICS: Developed a methodology for quantifying the revenue impact of a suboptimal yield management strategy. Recommended options to better capture revenue via new inventory management strategies.

Atlanta, Georgia, Us

Managed a ten-person advanced analytics team that analyzed, modeled, and forecast airline industry and consumer data. Devised creative strategies for capturing additional revenue by varying the supply of product at different price points. Conceived, developed, and implemented state-of-the-art yield management solutions. Specific responsibilities included:LEADERSHIP: Served as the leader of a $5 million project that was expected to generate approximately $75 million in incremental revenue annually. Devised creative solutions to challenging problems in the face of conflicting priorities of multiple parties.ANALYTICS: Oversaw the analysis and quantification of the revenue impact of market management strategies. Guided analysts in the design and execution of their work, and conveyed results to senior management.COLLABORATION: Represented the business’s interests in discussions with the Information Technology (IT) and Operations Research (OR) groups. Fostered a positive working relationship with both groups to facilitate productive projects. Worked with leaders from the IT and OR organizations to develop a technology road map guided by business needs.MENTORING: Led and developed technical staff. Provided feedback on job performance via regular meetings and formal performance review process. Promoted professional development.

Managed the design, development, and implementation of applications for clients of Package Software, a 5-person software consulting firm. Projects consisted of the development of n-tier Web-based applications based upon WebObjects or WebSphere written in Java. Representative projects include:WEB-BASED ANALYTICS: Served as both Technical Lead and Project Manager for a $150,000 project to monitor the performance of 43 hydroelectric dams for a $6 billion utility. Designed the schema for an Oracle database to store performance data and developed a web-based intranet application to analyze the data.SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT: Worked with Apple Computer’s iServices consulting group to design and develop an on-line virtual world for one of their clients using Apple’s Java-based WebObjects application server software. Made extensive use of object-oriented design principles to create reusable components.

Evanston, Il, Us

Responsible for problem-solving and data analysis activities at ZS Associates, a 400-person sales force and marketing consulting firm. Worked independently and in teams of 2 to 15 to provide analysis-based solutions for clients in the technology, distribution, medical supply, and pharmaceutical industries. Collaborated with client management and staff in creating and implementing solutions. Representative projects include:STATISTICS: Evaluated the effectiveness of an 8-person community education team for an $18 billion pharmaceutical company. Made use of segmentation, simple random sampling, and a test-control methodology via SAS to determine how well the company’s representatives met their stated objective of increasing the size of the market in which their product competes.COMPENSATION ANALYSIS: Worked with ZS Managing Directors and client management to develop a global compensation plan for the $20 billion mid-sized customer division of a $76 billion computer hardware and software company. Developed customized metrics and analyzed the current compensation structure in the US, UK, Asia, and Germany to expose the strengths and weaknesses of the current plan.STATISTICS: Provided data analysis and problem-solving support to a 15-person project team developing a sales strategy for a $9.2 billion pharmaceutical company. Representative analysis techniques included:• Created simulation models using VBA in Excel to simulate the flow of patients in the antidepressant market. The patient pool size information was used as an input to a strategic forecasting project.• Used hypothesis testing to analyze the effects of a rebate program.• Performed linear regression analysis to determine incremental market share per doctor sales call.

Ph.D., Industrial And Operations Engineering

M.S.E., Industrial And Operations Engineering

B.S., Industrial Engineering And Operations Research