I’m the VP of Data Solutions AI at FactSet, and I took an unusual path to get here — from political science research to production machine learning systems to senior AI leadership. That combination of rigorous academic training, hands-on engineering experience, and executive leadership is what I bring to every project.
Industry Experience
I am the VP of Data Solutions AI at FactSet, an S&P 500 financial data company. I lead teams of MLEs, Data Scientists, and Software Engineers building knowledge graphs, ontology-driven data architectures, and semantic AI systems that power FactSet’s financial data products. Current focus areas include graph neural networks for entity resolution, taxonomy and ontology design for structured financial data, and integrating knowledge graph infrastructure with generative AI workflows.
Previously, I worked as an MLE at SparkCognition Government Systems, a defense startup. I built NLP/IR pipelines for Air Force Research Labs, helping engineers surface relevant technical documents at scale from massive unstructured corpora.
I consult for startups, NGOs, and political campaigns, providing end-to-end ML solutions from problem framing through production deployment. More info available on the Services page or upon request.
Academia and Research
I was a Postdoctoral Fellow and NLP/ML Researcher at the University of Central Florida’s National Center for Integrated Coastal Research and School of Politics, Security, and International Affairs. I used ML/NLP techniques to analyze disaster readiness at fine-grained spatial resolutions.
I hold a Ph.D. in Security Studies from the University of Central Florida. My dissertation used spatial and environmental determinants to forecast global coups d’etat using ensemble ML methods. My research sits at the intersection of computational methods and security studies — using ML to forecast political instability, analyze fisheries conflicts, and quantify leader psychology.
Broader research interests include food security, political psychology, civil-military relations, and forecasting. You can find an updated CV here .
Teaching
I am a Global Scholar in the Ph.D. in Business Administration program at the University of South Alabama’s Mitchell College of Business, where I lead doctoral courses in ML/AI for Business Analysis and Python for Business Analysis within the Business Analytics concentration. Previously, I taught GIS for Political Analysis at the University of Central Florida. More on the teaching page .
Personal
When I’m not exploring social phenomena or working on ML problems, I enjoy hiking with our pup Rivia, playing sports of any kind, music, movies, books, and most of all spending time with my wife and son!
Ph.D Security Studies
- 2016-2020
- University of Central Florida
M.A. Political Science
- 2014-2015
- University of New Orleans
B.A. Political Science
- 2010-2014
- Auburn University