José Antonio Carbajal, CAP
Head of Analytics, Data & Decision Sciences, iHeartMedia, San Antonio, TX
Vision Statement
I am honored to be nominated to the position of INFORMS VP of Marketing, Communications, and Outreach. INFORMS is my professional home. I have been an active member for over 15 years, and I believe that my involvement with our community as a student, an industry practitioner, and a part-time instructor has exposed me to a broad range of experiences across the diverse mix of the INFORMS membership.
We are living in an exciting time for our professional organization when there is increased interest in the convergence of data and algorithms in applications across every industry, which aligns with INFORMS' core purpose of advancing the science and practice of quantitative decision making. Every day, we hear about new and exciting applications of artificial intelligence (AI). Yet, as Ramayya Krishnan recently pointed out in a President's Desk article, "there's little awareness that the field of operations research (O.R.) and analytics contributes in foundational ways to the success of AI and its application." I would argue the same can be said about data science, big data, and other emerging technologies. Although there is a lot of hype about digital transformations and data-driven organizations, there is little visibility and understanding of operations research, management science, and advanced analytics and their role and impact. Marketing, communications, and outreach should focus on bridging this gap and ensuring that INFORMS’ place in the opportunities and challenges of emerging technologies is better understood and appreciated.
As the VP of Marketing, Communications, and Outreach, I will strive to promote INFORMS in two central facets: 1) as the organization at the core of quantitative decision-making, whichever form or name that may take, 2) as the natural home to communities of researchers and practitioners in developing fields for which OR/MS and analytics are foundational, overlapping, or synergic. To achieve this, I will work with our subdivisions, societies, volunteers, INFORMS staff, and membership at large to build on existing efforts and foster new initiatives in three specific areas: students and academic institutions, practice, and policy.
First, I will work to increase the awareness of OR/MS and analytics for students and academic institutions. I will collaborate with our student chapters to promote opportunities to expose students to career opportunities and student-focused prizes and competitions such as Doing Good with Good OR and the O.R. & Analytics Student Team Competition. I will also strive to foster a dialogue with academic institutions to disseminate best practices from the UPS George D. Smith Prize-winning academic institutions, and promote that new programs created in response to increased demands of quantitative practitioners meet the standards from our certification programs (aCAP and CAP).
Second, I will endeavor to promote our impact-driven, problem-focused, science-based approach to decision making and disseminate the impact of OR/MS in practice such as the many transformational applications of the Edelman and Wagner finalists, as well as the many impactful projects from our Pro Bono Analytics Committee. I will also promote activities that attract new members and raise awareness of INFORMS with practitioners who may not know about us, including exploring options for collaborating with other conferences, forums, and institutions that have been recently created to capture analytics and data science practitioners. In particular, I will work on ensuring INFORMS’ presence and awareness in executive forums such as those tailored to Chief Analytics Officers and Chief Data Officers as we need to ensure INFORMS becomes essential in the minds of the top quantitative decision-making executives.
Third, I will continue to promote our advocacy efforts and Washington outreach program for fostering opportunities for INFORMS to play a role in policy debates and developments; and I will work closely with our NSF liaison committee to ensure NSF funding decisions reflect the awareness of impact from our INFORMS academic members.
If elected, I look forward to serving the Board and our community.
Biographical Profile
Education
- Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology
- M.S. in Operations Research, Georgia Institute of Technology
- B.S. in Industrial and Systems Engineering, Monterrey Institute of Technology
Professional Experience
- iHeartMedia: Head of Analytics, Data & Decision Sciences (Jan 2019-Present)
- Georgia Institute of Technology: Instructor (2014-2018)
- Turner Broadcasting:
- VP, Analytics, Data & Decision Sciences (2018-Jan 2019),
- Director, Operations Research and Advanced Analytics (2017-2018),
- Principal, Operations Research (2016-2017),
- Sr. O.R. Analyst (2014-2016),
- O.R. Analyst (2011-2014)
- Monterrey Institute of Technology: Assistant Professor (2005-2006)
INFORMS Service
- INFORMS Section on Practice: Board Member (2016-present)
- INFORMS Analytics Society: Webmaster (2017-present)
- Franz Edelman Award: Judge (2019), Coach (2014, 2016), Verifier (2014-2016), Selection Committee (2014-2017, 2019), Gala Planning Committee (2014-2017, 2019)
- Innovative Applications in Analytics Award: Coach (2014), Judge (2015)
- Annual Meeting: Session Chair (2009, 2013, 2015), Cluster Chair (2015, 2016)
Honors and Awards
- Franz Edelman Laureate (Class of 2018)
- 2017 Daniel H. Wagner Prize for Excellence in Operations Research Practice (finalist)
- 2017 Innovative Applications in Analytics Award
- 2016 Association of National Advertisers Genius Award for Analytics Science
- 2015 Association of National Advertisers Genius Award for Pioneering Analytics Innovation
- 2014 Richard E. Rosenthal Early Career Connection
Publications and Patents
- J.A. Carbajal, P. Williams, A. Popescu, W. Chaar (2019), Turner Blazes a Trail for Audience Targeting on Television with Operations Research and Advanced Analytics. INFORMS Journal on Applied Analytics 49(1):64-89.
- J.A. Carbajal, W. Chaar (2017), Turner Optimizes the Allocation of Audience Deficiency Units. Interfaces 47(6):518-536.
- J.A. Carbajal, A.L. Erera, M.W.P. Savelsbergh (2013), Balancing Fleet Size and Repositioning Costs in LTL Trucking. Annals of Operations Research 203(1):235-254.
- Patent US9922341B2 – Programming optimization utilizing a framework for audience rating estimation (2018)
- Patent US10070166B2 – Generation of reach, mixture, and pricing utilizing a framework for audience rating estimation (2018