Class of 2021

Matthew Walz is a Decision Sciences Manager at General Mills, a role he’s held for the past three years. He started with the company as a Data Scientist in Consumer Insights. In his current position, Walz leads the strategic forecasting unit and tackles complex analytic questions the business has struggled to solve.

Walz's expertise in forecasting comes from his time at Binghamton, where he learned the essential skills and taught undergraduates an election forecasting class. It was here too, that he grasped the importance of rigorous research, which he now uses daily to answer challenging questions at work.

Beyond his role at General Mills, Walz recently founded a tech startup, the Jenny Project, which aims to leverage advanced technologies to understand human behaviour better and promote Generative AI as a force for good in the world. The tools and knowledge he gained at Binghamton were crucial in building and coding the company's products.

"All in all, I’m not sure where I’d be without the PhD from BU, but I know I wouldn’t have the skills nor the ability to navigate complex problems without it," he says. 

"While most data scientists are comfortable with econometrics, they typically don’t have a thorough enough understanding of the underlying assumptions and the concern with error drilled into us at BU, leading to poor insights," he says. "Further, causal analysis is the one consistent area that the business has questions on, and most data scientists aren't trained to answer them; causal methods often play only a small role in their coursework."