E513 John Elder, Founder and Chair at Elder Research

Today's guest is John Elder, Founder and Chair at Elder Research. In 1995, John started Elder Research to help clients solve some of their most complex and challenging business problems leveraging data science. Over the last 28 years, Elder Research has grown to a team of about 150 data scientists, engineers and support staff who are deeply passionate about the craft, practice and deployment of data science & machine learning solutions. They apply their craft to serve clients in the public and private sectors, as well as domestically and internationally.

With offices in Charlottesville, VA, Baltimore, MD, Raleigh, NC, Washington D.C. and London, Elder Research have solved hundreds of challenges for commercial and government clients by extracting actionable knowledge from all types of data. John has co-authored three books on practical data mining, ensembles and text mining - two of which won “book of the year” awards. John has also created data mining tools, was a discoverer of ensemble methods, chairs international conferences, and is a popular workshop and keynote speaker.

In today's episode, John will discuss:

His background & journey from engineer to entrepreneur,

Specializing in national security, anti-fraud and commercial projects,

Why Project implementation is hindered by fear of change,

Focus on mentoring, teamwork and humility in data science,

Excelling in complex problem-solving from oil wells to drug discovery,

Growth plans in seeking talented individuals for diverse opportunities