Chris S. Bennett Email & Phone Number

Southbury, Ct, Us

Brewster, Ny, Us

● Engineer data products, leveraging Python and SAS, that power enterprise business intelligence tools and predictive modeling solutions for various major brands, leading to improved marketing performance and profitability.

Southbury, Connecticut, Us

Helping small minority-owned companies, private educational and community-based organizations achieve extraordinary results by leveraging cutting-edge analytical tools and solid business acumen!

Newtown, Connecticut, Us

● Served as senior analytics leader, principal decision scientist and trusted advisor ● Mentored junior analysts and provided oversight of the model-scoring and mailing-list generation processes.Select Deliverables:● Transitioned the company’s propensity-modeling framework from linear regression to the better-suited logistic regression.● Introduced new modeling techniques for dealing with unbalanced datasets that significantly improved the performance of legacy propensity and customer-acquisition models.● Built over 50 propensity models in SAS within a 24-month period across a broad swath of verticals, including, but not limited to, travel, insurance, finance/investments, publishing, and consumer goods.● Performed monthly predictive model scoring of data universes comprised of tens of millions of observations.● Created and maintained data pipelines from multiple sources and file formats and created datasets with over 250 million records.● Spawned significant repeat purchases and expansion in client portfolios. ● Introduced a SAS training program to improve data literacy and strengthen the SAS-programming competency of the team.● Leveraged geospatial libraries in Python (geopandas, geopy, and shapely) to perform a “neighborhood mapping” analysis for a major client, enabling effective direct-marketing and email campaigns based on the proximity of prospects to the nearest partner store.● Designed and implemented a “Zip” model that enabled a major client to effectively and profitably target direct marketing promotions/offers to prospects residing in high propensity zip-codes, within the first four months on the job.● Built multiple optimization models for a major client enabling them to grow their insurance line of business and diversify their customer-based through payment flexibility.● Championed the use of proper experimental design methodology that improved the efficacy and generalizability of marketing tests.

Shelton, Connecticut, Us

Really Good Stuff (RGS) creates innovative educational products that help teachers make a difference in students' lives. I was delighted to have an opportunity to leverage analytics to create value for all of RGS's stakeholders, including elementary school teachers and their students across the United States and Canada.• Served as chief steward of all SAS-driven data processes and outputs geared toward the development of direct marketing plans, including scoring circulation models, and ad hoc reporting.• Drove efforts aimed at embedding advanced analytics into business functions across the RGS Supplies’ Division, leveraging mainstream analytics tools, including Tableau, SAS, R and Python.Select Deliverables:• Generated mailing list for numerous catalogs as part of RGS’s direct-marketing campaigns, using advanced SAS programming based on key business rules.• Developed Tableau-based KPI reporting dashboards for each product category within the Merchandising team.• Segmented RGS’s customer database using an RFM model developed in Python, aimed at improving the efficiency and effectiveness of email marketing campaigns.• Developed a product-category demand forecasting model based on the SARIMA timeseries modeling technique, implemented in Python.• Generated market baskets of products frequently purchased together geared toward cross-selling and up-selling initiatives, based on the Association Rules/Affinity Analysis machine-learning technique implemented in R and Python.• Leveraged the NLTK library in Python to parse customers’ free-form comments about a subscription-box product in order to harvest frequently used keywords and customers' sentiments for promotional messaging and targeting.

Dublin 2, Ie

• Assisted the Personal Insurance R&D team at Travelers Insurance with the implementation of the territory pricing model for an innovative and marketing-leading property Insurance product, leveraging complex SAS and R programming in a Linux environment.• Leveraged complex SAS and R programming skills to generate statistical analyses and ad hoc reports in response to Department of Insurance(DOI) inquiries relative to the new product launch.• Revised the R code for the territory pricing model implementation to improve flexibility, ease of maintenance and efficiency.• Wrote a manual documenting the process around deploying and executing the revised R code.

New York City, Ny

Participated in an intensive 12-week full-time data science boot-camp and concurrently wrote a weekly blog for the Principal Analytics Prep’s Facebook page, chronicling the learning experience of their students and appraising the overall quality of the data science boot-camp. The certification program covered the three fundamental pillars of data science (computing, statistics, and business analysis). Coursework, taught by senior industry professionals, involved real work projects based on mainstream topics and techniques including: Python, R, SAS, SQL and NoSQL; AWS; machine learning (including NLP), statistical reasoning and modeling, data quality and visualization; mobile apps and web analytics; business strategy, financial analysis, marketing and communications.

Walnut Creek, California, Us

(Formerly known as Autobytel Inc.)Drove optimization in business processes and digital marketing campaigns by leveraging mainstream analytical technologies to explore and extract actionable insights from “Big Data” for fact-based decision-making. Educated the marketing team on optimal bid and other data-driven strategies. Conducted A/B testing of website elements to gauge the “voice of the customer”.Major Contributions:• Orchestrated the design and deployment of an organizational learning model driven by formal documentation of experimentation; enabling an understanding of what works and what doesn’t.• Created a comprehensive proposal for the development and deployment of a new Business Intelligence Infrastructure based on Microsoft SSAS Cubes integrated with Tableau.• Developed a high-level blueprint for an enhanced campaign management system.• Provided actionable insights around error rates by conducting frequency distribution of error attributes employing base SAS 9.3.• Uncovered data integrity issues by performing data exploration of large datasets using base SAS • Employed SQL queries to create reports relative to geographic performance of marketing campaigns based on Zip Codes, Cities and States.

Tampa, Fl, Us

Worked as a consultant under the auspices of the USF Practice Center for two major U.S. corporations, namely 3M and Citigroup:For 3M’s Electronic Monitoring Division (1/2013 – 5/2013):• Led a multi-disciplinary team in the development of an operational definition for a confidential service-quality problem.• Collaborated with several client groups to compile a comprehensive list of potential predictors of the problem.• Translated the predictors into hypotheses and performed descriptive statistics with SAS and SQL to test the hypotheses.For Citi’s Risk and Control Group (9/2012 – 12/2012):• Optimized Citi’s risk management and reporting system leveraging the integration of Microsoft SharePoint with Access.• Generated cost-savings of over $70K through the system optimization resulting from increased end-user productivity.• Empowered senior risk managers across the globe to effectively and efficiently review and take action on their risk issues.

Boca Raton, Fl, Us

Drove grant-development initiatives within the university’s research enterprise, with specific focus on the College of Medicine and College of Science, from lead generation, proposal and budget review (based on OMB circulars-A110, A21 and A133- and other applicable regulations), electronic grant submission, contract and grant agreement review and negotiation ( including Clinical Trial Agreements, CDA’s , NDA’s and MOU’s) to post-award administration. Reviewed and assessed risk of subcontractors. Conducted compliance risk assessments for sponsored research programs. Served as the chief point-of-contact for 100 plus research faculty members and 15 departmental budget coordinators on corporate, foundation, state and federal policies as they relate to grant development. Major Contributions: • Recommended changes in the reconciliation model for grant and contract awards that led to a reduction in reporting errors. • Recognized by the Vice President for the Division of Research for making strategic contributions to the division and the university beyond the scope of stated job responsibilities.

Boca Raton, Fl, Us

Developed and managed the Center’s operating budget of over $3 million annually. The budget was supported through funding from various sponsors, including state, local and federal government agencies, corporations and private foundations. Forecasted operating expenditures and apprised top leaders of potential funding gaps. Reconciled monthly departmental ledgers. Counseled staff on current developments in state and university administrative policies relating to fiscal and personnel matters. Directed four support staff. Managed the Center’s inventory control system. Major Contributions: • Boosted support staff’s morale and productivity within the first 6 months of assuming the position. • Leveraged data analytics to uncover a $29 thousand deficit in the center’s overhead account and implemented a corrective action leading to a surplus of $11 thousand on the same account within the first 6 months on the job. • Designed, developed and implemented a fiscal tracking mechanism to prevent over-expenditures and minimize disallowances on grants and contracts

Boca Raton, Fl, Us

Presided over a $1.5 million budget relative to an outsourced contract between the Broward Workforce Development Board and the Florida Atlantic University on behalf of the College of Design and Social Inquiry.Major Contributions: • Updated a six-month back-log of invoices within the first two months of assuming the role. • Designed and implemented a fail-safe system to prevent critical errors in the billing process; thereby significantly reducing the financial risk exposure of the college.

Toronto, Ontario, Ca

Kingston, St Andrew, Jm

Doctor Of Philosophy - Phd (Abd), Ms, Computer And Information Sciences (Major : Data Science)

Ms (Incomplete Due To Limited Funding), Actuarial Science

Ms, Management Of Information Systems (Major: Data Science)

Mba, Finance (Corporate & International Finance, Financial Risk & Investment Management)

Ms, Quantitative Economics (Advanced Econometrics)

Bsc (Hons), Accounting & Management Studies (Double Major)

Associate'S Degree, Natural Sciences (Mathematics, Chemistry & Physics)