From practice into teaching
Practice first: eCommerce and finance in Silicon Valley. Then teaching that same practice at Berkeley and Boğaziçi. With organizations the order stays the same — define the problem first, then choose the right solution set and implement it.
Experience and collaborations
Corporate leadership experience
Academic institutions
Program and advisory collaborations
Application first: Silicon Valley and enterprise experience
My 25+ years in eCommerce and Finance were shaped inside analytics, growth, customer, and operating decisions.
Aug 2016 - Jun 2024
Head of Business Strategy and Analytics
Walmart eCommerce · San Bruno, California
Led business intelligence, performance measurement, and AI-enabled insight across Walmart eCommerce business lines.
- Led the online pickup and delivery program as the business grew from $100 million to $25 billion.
- Ran weekly C-suite KPI reporting and machine-learning-supported customer acquisition work.
Feb 2012 - Jul 2016
Head of North America Small Business Segment
PayPal
Used machine learning and scenario analysis to guide acquisition, retention, investment, and growth decisions.
- Managed a $1.1 billion small-business top line while delivering double-digit year-over-year revenue growth.
- Connected propensity and churn models to business-development and investment priorities.
Feb 2009 - Jan 2012
Founder
SPrimeData · San Francisco, California
Founded a data company serving unbanked and underbanked populations and sold it to Infogroup, now Data Axle.
Jun 2000 - Jan 2009
Head of Business Analytics
JPMorgan Chase · San Francisco, California
Led customer acquisition, retention, fraud, product-development, and profitability analytics.
- Launched the PayPal Visa cobranded credit card.
- Added $300 million in balances through a high-line customer program.
Sep 1996 - Jul 1998
Project Manager
Koç Holding · Automotive Group · Istanbul
Analyzed production and sales performance across automotive companies and prepared input-price analysis for central purchasing decisions.
Bringing application into academia
My teaching connects quantitative methods and artificial intelligence to real business decisions, with ways of thinking before tools.
Aug 2008 - present
Faculty Member — U.C. Berkeley
U.C. Berkeley · Haas School of Business
Teaching that connects quantitative methods to real business decisions, with a strong bias for practical industry application.
- Data and Decisions
- Artificial Intelligence in Business
- Probability Theory and Statistics
Sep 2024 - present
Faculty Member — Boğaziçi University
Boğaziçi University · Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences
Practice-led teaching in artificial intelligence, data, and decision-making for students and executives.
- Artificial Intelligence in Business
- Data and Decisions
- Vibe Coding
How I work today
Technology matters when it improves a real problem.
Start with the problem
No tool choice until the business problem is clear.
Solution set
From the toolbox, propose the solution set that fits that problem.
Implementation
Put the chosen solution into a real process with ownership and measures.
See how we work together
On the Work page, see how education, advisory, and implementation come together in enterprise AI transformation.