Ben Collier

Curriculum vitae

CV

Appointments, teaching, courses built, advising, and practice.

Ben Collier · Assistant Teaching Professor of Business Analytics

Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University · also Heinz College

bcollier@andrew.cmu.edu · ben@collier.phd · ben.collier.phd

Assistant Teaching Professor of Business Analytics

Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University

Also teaches selected courses at Heinz College

Tepper Quad, Office 5135 · 4765 Forbes Avenue · Pittsburgh, PA 15213

bcollier@cmu.edu · bcollier@andrew.cmu.edu · ben@collier.phd

https://ben.collier.phd · https://www.linkedin.com/in/bcollierphd

ORCID: 0000-0002-4651-7684

Academic appointments

  • Assistant Teaching Professor of Business Analytics, Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University, Aug 2024–present
  • Adjunct Professor of Business Analytics, Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University, Oct 2023–May 2024
  • Assistant Teaching Professor of Organizational Behavior; Co-Director of Executive and Continuing Education, Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar, Aug 2012–Dec 2016
  • Research Assistant, Human-Computer Interaction Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Sep 2008–Aug 2012

Education

  • PhD, Carnegie Mellon University, Tepper School of Business, 2012

Emphasis: Information Systems and Organizational Behavior. Minor: Empirical Research Methods.

Dissertation: Leadership Development in Core-Periphery Organizations

  • MS, Carnegie Mellon University, Tepper School of Business, 2009

Emphasis: Information Systems and Organizational Behavior

  • MBA, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Wisconsin School of Business, 2007

Emphasis: Information Systems

  • BBA, University of Wisconsin–Whitewater, College of Business and Economics, 2004

Double major: Management Computer Systems and Mathematics (Statistics)

Teaching

Courses built

  • 45-884 AI Methods for Social and Visual Data (MBA) — developed for Fall 2025; full-time and online hybrid
  • 70-377 Managing and Assessing Tech Talent and Organizations (undergraduate) — micro-course developed for Fall 2025, Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar
  • 70-445 Artificial Intelligence for Business Leaders (undergraduate) — developed for Fall 2026
  • MSBA Math Skills Workshop — developed for Summer 2026

MBA courses

  • 45-851 Data Mining — Fall 2023, Spring 2024, Fall 2024 (full-time), Spring 2025 (online hybrid), Fall 2025
  • 45-885 Data Visualization — Spring 2024, Spring 2025 (full-time and online hybrid), Fall 2025, Spring 2026
  • 45-884 AI Methods for Social and Visual Data — Fall 2025 (full-time and online hybrid), Summer 2026

MSBA courses

  • 46-880 Introduction to Probability and Statistics — Fall 2024 (full-time)
  • 46-885 Data Exploration and Visualization — Spring 2025 (online hybrid), Spring 2026
  • 46-887 Machine Learning for Business Applications — Spring 2026
  • 46-994 MSBA Independent Study
  • MSBA Math Skills Workshop — Summer 2026

Heinz College

  • 90-803 Machine Learning Foundations with Python (Public Policy and Management) — Spring 2026

Undergraduate courses

  • 70-445 Artificial Intelligence for Business Leaders — Fall 2026, Tepper School of Business
  • 70-377 Managing and Assessing Tech Talent and Organizations — Fall 2025 (micro-course), Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar
  • Organizational Behavior — Summer 2011 (Pittsburgh); Fall 2012, Fall 2013, Fall 2014, Spring 2016, Fall 2016 (Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar)
  • Negotiations and Conflict Resolution — Spring 2013, Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar
  • Empirical Research Methods — Spring 2013, Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar
  • Business Technology Consulting — Spring 2014, Spring 2015, Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar
  • Digital Marketing and Social Media Strategy — Spring 2014, Spring 2015, Fall 2015, Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar
  • Managing Across Cultures — Spring 2016, Fall 2016, Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar

Executive education, Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar

  • Negotiation and Conflict Resolution — Spring 2014, Fall 2014, Spring 2016
  • Dynamic Organizational Leadership — Fall 2014
  • Decision Making in Groups and Organizations — Fall 2014
  • Managing Groups and Teams — Spring 2015
  • Innovation in Groups and Teams — Fall 2015

Advising

  • Advisor, two MSBA capstone teams, both partnering with Westinghouse, Spring 2026
  • Advisor, five MSBA capstone teams (20 students) partnering with Saratoga, RBC, Swank, Deloitte, and Confirmed, Spring 2025
  • Technical advisor for several MSBA capstone teams and advisor to one team, Spring 2024
  • MSBA Independent Study supervisor
  • Faculty advisor for undergraduate independent studies in Organizational Behavior, Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar: Qatari Females in Leadership: Examining Motivation and Social Capital Influences (Fall 2012); Social Media Marketing: Theory and Evidence from Olympic Bid Campaigns (Fall 2012); A Cultural Analysis of Leadership and Influence: A Qualitative Comparison of Western and Middle Eastern Leadership Approaches (Spring 2013); Designing Leadership Development Programs for Women in the Gulf (Spring 2014)
  • Co-advisor, undergraduate senior thesis Social Networks and Promotion in Online Environments, with Robert Kraut, Spring 2010

Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence

  • Graduate Teaching Fellow, Carnegie Mellon University, 2011–2012. Consulted with graduate students on their teaching, observed them in the classroom and gave feedback, and led workshops for students working toward the Eberly teaching certificate.

Teaching preparation and certificates

  • Case Method Teaching Seminar, Harvard Business School, Spring 2014
  • Advanced Case Method Teaching Seminar, Harvard Business School, Summer 2014
  • Teaching with Cases Online, Harvard Business School, Fall 2014
  • Negotiation and Leadership, Harvard Law School Executive Education, Summer 2014
  • Women and Career Negotiation, Harvard Law School Executive Education, Summer 2014
  • Case Teaching Workshop, INSEAD, Summer 2015
  • Case Writing Workshop, INSEAD, Summer 2015
  • Foundations of Virtual Instruction, University of California, Irvine, 2015
  • Advanced Instructional Strategies in the Virtual Classroom, University of California, Irvine, 2015
  • Data Science Specialization (10 courses), Johns Hopkins University, 2015–2017
  • Faculty Success Program, NCFDD, Cohort 46, Spring 2025
  • AWS Academy Educator, Amazon Web Services, 2026

Honors and awards

  • George Leland Bach Teaching Award, Tepper School of Business, 2026. One faculty member per year, chosen by vote of the graduating MBA class.
  • Center for Intelligent Business Award, $10,000 for work on collaborative AI in the classroom, 2024
  • Research Grant Award, Qatar Foundation, $200,000, 2012
  • Doctoral Consortium, Academy of Management, 2011
  • United States Army Research stipend, 2011–2012, for work on collective intelligence in online groups
  • National Science Foundation stipend, 2010–2011, for research on management in online communities
  • William L. Mellon Fellowship, Carnegie Mellon University, 2007–2010. Full tuition and living stipend for the PhD.
  • Outstanding MBA Student Award, University of Wisconsin–Madison, 2007. Awarded to two students in each graduating class.
  • G. Steven Burrill Technology Business Plan Competition Finalist, $4,000 award for entrepreneurship in a technology startup, 2006

Industry experience

  • Senior Director of AI and Data Science, gAIm Systems, May 2025–present. Builds AI tools and research studies that help sports teams reimagine how they recruit and develop players, predict potential, and build teams.
  • Founder and Principal Data Scientist, Hot Metal AI (Hot Metal Data), Oct 2018–present. Analytics consulting and corporate training. Taught on-site and hybrid professional development courses for technology leaders and executives at Optum, AT&T, Cox Communications, and RapidScale. Ran one- to three-day workshops on chatbot development, data programming, SQL and NoSQL, data mining, infrastructure and the cloud, and agile development. Built a recommendation engine for healthcare specialist referrals for a healthcare client.
  • Staff Data Scientist, Duolingo, Feb 2020–Jun 2023. Senior Data Scientist (Feb 2020–Sep 2021), Lead Data Scientist (Sep 2021–Oct 2022), Staff Data Scientist (Oct 2022–Jun 2023). Led the monetization data science team: financial forecasting, user retention prediction, ad platform optimization, and the key performance metrics for the 2021 initial public offering. Recruited, trained, and managed data scientists as the team grew from three to fifteen. Designed and analyzed large-scale A/B tests across more than 70 million users. Presented findings and recommendations to the CEO and executive team that shaped the product roadmap.
  • Senior Director of Data Science, UPMC / Pensiamo, Sep 2017–Feb 2020; Data Scientist, Sep 2016–Sep 2017. Founding data scientist for a joint venture with IBM Watson Health applying AI to the healthcare supply chain. Conducted machine learning research and built production pipelines for CognitiveRx, a drug price prediction and drug shortage tool later acquired by Premier. Hired and managed a team of PhD-level healthcare data scientists. Designed data pipelines and analytic tools for managing a $1.2 billion fleet of 175,000 medical devices across the UPMC system. Built the Databricks infrastructure for large-scale aggregation, cleaning, and machine learning in Python and Spark.

Earlier research and industry roles

  • Research Assistant, Human-Computer Interaction Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Sep 2008–Aug 2012
  • Technical Consultant, Nakoma Capital Management Equity Fund
  • Research Assistant, Experimental Economics, Accounting Department, Wisconsin School of Business, 2005–2007
  • Research Assistant, Applied Securities Analysis Program, Wisconsin School of Business, 2005–2007
  • Project Manager, Virtualization Technologies, IBM, May–Sep 2006
  • Software Developer, Production Operations and Warehousing, Quad Graphics, May 2003–Aug 2005
  • Web Developer, Residence Life, University of Wisconsin–Whitewater

Publications and presentations

Peer-reviewed publications and conference proceedings

  • Bear, J. B., & Collier, B. (2016). Where are the Women in Wikipedia? Understanding the Different Psychological Experiences of Men and Women in Wikipedia. Sex Roles, 74(5–6), 254–265. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-015-0573-y
  • Turan, N., & Collier, B. (2014). Gender and Negotiation in Leadership Roles: Extending Advocacy Effects to Women in Leadership Positions. Annual Meeting of the International Association for Conflict Management, Leiden, Netherlands.
  • Collier, B., & Kraut, R. (2012). Leading the Collective: Social Capital and the Development of Leaders in Core-Periphery Organizations. Collective Intelligence, Cambridge, MA. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.1204.3682
  • Collier, B., & Bear, J. (2012). Conflict, Confidence, or Criticism: An Empirical Examination of the Gender Gap in Wikipedia Contributors. ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work, Seattle, WA, 383–392. https://doi.org/10.1145/2145204.2145265
  • Collier, B., Burke, M., Kittur, A., & Kraut, R. (2010). Promoting Good Management: Governance, Promotion, and Leadership in Open Collaboration Communities. International Conference on Information Systems, St. Louis, MO.
  • Collier, B., & Hampshire, R. (2010). Sending Mixed Signals: Multilevel Reputation Effects in Peer-to-Peer Lending Markets. ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work, Savannah, GA, 197–206. https://doi.org/10.1145/1718918.1718955
  • Collier, B., Burke, M., Kittur, A., & Kraut, R. (2008). Retrospective versus Prospective Evidence for Promotion: The Case of Wikipedia. Academy of Management Annual Meeting, Anaheim, CA.
  • Collier, B. (2012). Leadership Development in Core-Periphery Organizations. Doctoral dissertation, Carnegie Mellon University.

Teaching presentations

  • Collier, B., & Jiang, Z. (2025, June 5). AI Data Visualization Coach. Teaching with AI Conference, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University.

Practitioner publications

  • Kurta, M., Lang, M. B., Collier, B., et al. (2018, March). Linking Data Leads to Cost-Effective Supply Chain Decisions in Population Health Management. Supply Chain Strategies & Solutions.
  • Collier, B., & Lang, M. B. (2017, November). Driving Healthcare Supply Chain Decisions Using Cognitive Analytics. Supply Chain Strategies & Solutions.

Invited talks and media

  • Lessons learned from teaching AI Methods for Social and Visual Data, Tepper AI Exchange, Carnegie Mellon University, 2026
  • Conversation on the MS in Business Analytics program, Tepper School of Business video, 2026. https://cmu.is/4tcxTyj
  • Creating a Culture for Innovation in Teams, RasGas Company, 2015
  • Digital Marketing for Entrepreneurs, International Telecommunication Union World Conference (United Nations specialized agency for ICT), 2014
  • Leadership in Groups and Organizations, Cultivate Leadership Workshop, Hamad Bin Khalifa University, 2014

Academic service

Tepper School of Business

  • Business Analytics Teaching Track Hiring Committee, 2025
  • MSBA Curriculum Review Committee, 2024–
  • Business Analytics Summer Summit Planning Committee, 2024–
  • Business Analytics Summer Summit Instructor, 2024 and 2025
  • Faculty Advisor, MS in Business Analytics Capstone, 2024–

Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar

  • Faculty Ambassador, Career Development Office, 2013–2016
  • Chair, Student Affairs Review Committee, 2014–2015
  • Hiring Committee, Career Development Office, 2015
  • Program Chair, Undergraduate Conference on Information Systems and Faculty Workshop on Undergraduate Research, 2015
  • Panel Chair and Conference Committee Member, Undergraduate Conference on Information Systems, 2014
  • Co-Organizer, Qatar Airways Digital Marketing Challenge, Fall 2014
  • Research Methods Workshop Panel, 2013, 2014
  • Faculty Judge, Internal Case Competition, 2013, 2014
  • Faculty Board Member, Management Game, 2013, 2014, 2015

Service to the field

  • Associate Editor, International Conference on Information Systems, 2011
  • Reviewer, Information Systems Research, 2013, 2015
  • Reviewer, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 2014
  • Reviewer, Annual Meeting of the International Association for Conflict Management, 2014
  • Reviewer, Academy of Management Annual Meeting, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2015
  • Reviewer, International Conference on Information Systems, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2014
  • Reviewer, Americas Conference on Information Systems, 2008

Professional affiliations

  • Association for Computing Machinery, 2008–present
  • Association for Information Systems, 2006–2016
  • Academy of Management, 2007–2016

Community

  • Volunteer, Waldorf School of Pittsburgh
  • Volunteer, The Open Door Presbyterian Church, 2007–present

Links