The Department of Information Systems and Business Analytics (ISBA) regularly brings in industry experts to speak to students about the latest technology trends and developments in the business analytics field. These events significantly enhance the educational experience and generate new connections for our students.

  • ISBA Guest Speaker: Alex Nascimento
    April 22, 2024
    Slideshow

    Professors Yasaman Ghasemi and Sina Zare have arranged a special virtual session with Alex Nascimento, a best-selling author known for teaching Blockchain Business Applications at UCLA. Alex serves as the managing director of 7CC - Blockchain Investments, a company dedicated to supporting and fostering the blockchain industry. During the session, Alex will discuss how blockchain applies to supply chain and operations management. 
  • Guest Speaker: Nadia Sharrar '01, VP of Supply Chain and Distribution, L'ANZA Healing Haircare / DAVEXLABS Labs
    December 4, 2023
    Professors Yasaman Ghasemi and Sina Zare have organized a special talk featuring Nadia Sharrar '01, VP of Supply Chain and Distribution at L'ANZA Healing Haircare / DAVEXLABS Labs. She sponsored an ISBA capstone project last semester. During the session, Nadia will delve into her career journey within the supply chain field and discuss various case studies centered around sourcing, purchasing, and supply chain planning. 
  • The Business of IoT
    April 10, 2023
    Slideshow

    Saivendra Kayal, Senior Architect at Microsoft, gave an interactive talk in Prof. Ana Mangal’s class. He introduced broad concepts and keywords in IoT, shared IoT products and use cases from Microsoft and presented a demo to show how IoT can be used to control the speed of a vehicle.

     

    NLP in Healthcare 
    April 3, 2023

    Gursev Pirge, PhD, Senior Data Scientist at John Snow Labs, introduces how natural language processing works in the healthcare industry.

     

    Innovation Symposium: Disruptive Technologies and Education
    March 18, 2023 
    Slideshow

    The second annual Innovation Symposium, co-presented by CBA, the School of Education and LMU External Affairs brought together thought leaders from the tech industry, k-12 and higher education to discuss the confluence of disruptive technology especially AI and education. Agenda:

    • Morning Keynote: Neil Sahota
    • Panel 1: Disruptive Technologies Impacting Education
      • Matt Christopher Competitive and Market Intelligence Lead, Zoom
      • Aarde Cosseboom, CEO & Founder, Clariti
      • Colin Doyle, J.D. Associate Professor of Law, LMU Loyola Law School
      • Elizabeth A. Drummond, Ph.D., Associate Professor of History, Loyola Marymount University
      • Trent Johnson, Chief Strategy Office, Cie
      • Ana Mangal, Associate Clinical professor, College of Business Administration, Loyola Marymount University
    • Lunch & Fireside Chat with Vice President for Information Technology Tamara Armstrong and Talespin Co-founder & Chief Content Officer Stephen Fromkin
    • Afternoon Keynote: Sabba Quidwai
    • Panel 2: Educating with Disruption: Using emerging technology in the classroom
      • Gipson Bachman, President Graduate Students of Loyola Marymount University
      • Nathan Corkhill, Science Instructor, St. John Bosco High School
      • Mingyu Feng, Ph.D., Senior Research Associate, WestEd
      • Sabba Quidwai Ed.D., Founder, Designing Schools
      • Joel Walsh, Ph.D., Software Engineer, Privateer
      • Shannon N. Tabaldo Director of Digital Curriculum Integration and Development for the School of Education at LMU

     

    Panel on Digital Transformation Technology Trends
    February 21, 2023 
    Slideshow

    Experts discussed how today's technologies such as AI, AR/VR and the metaverse are giving organizations the capability to digitally transform to survive and thrive. Panelists included Ryan Komagome, Senior Director FP&A Marketing at LinkedIn, Abhisek Rath, M&E Leader, Digital Transformations Executive, Amazon Web Services and Susheem Gupta, Director, Strategy and Business Processes at Epson America Inc.

     

    Intro to Blockchain
    February 3, 2023
    Slideshow

    Alex Nascimento, Managing Director of 7CC Blockchain Investments, introduced blockchain for business leaders to faculty and students at the CBA. In his presentation Nascimento gave an overview of how Blockchain has been used in businesses already and provided insightful information about the future of blockchain and payments in the new world.

     

    Data and Decision Making
    January 30, 2023 
    Slideshow

    Quaseer Mujawar, group product manager at Google and member of the ISBA Advisory Council, spoke at CBA to a group of about 100 students and faculty. He shared his experience working at Amazon in a previous role on the data points that were used for decision making to launch Alexa for a new market, autonomous vehicles. 

     

  • KPI Presentation by John Daly, COO, Calico Group
    December 5, 2022
    View PPT slides

    John Daly, chief operating officer of Calico Group, was a featured guest speaker in Professor Yasaman Ghasemi's class. John served as EVP, Supply Chain at Sony before his current role. His presentation focused on KPIs (key performance indicators) - what they are and why every business needs them. John outlined the six most important KPIs and how they can be implemented in a business plan.

     

    Cybersecurity and Blockchain in the Global Digital Age
    October 11, 2022
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    The Center for International Business Education and Department of ISBA presented a panel webinar on the cybersecurity challenges that fourth industrial revolution (4IR) technologies - including blockchain, IoT and big data - present in the global digital world and how governments, policymakers and business organizations can leverage these technologies to positively impact society and our planet. Panelists included Maria Dalasio '14, channel program manager, Unit 42, Palo Alto Networks; Rick Gehringer, CIO, Wedgewood; Charla Griffy-Brown, senior associate dean, Pepperdine Graziadio Business School; and Alex Nascimento, managing director, 7CC Blockchain Investments. Moderated by Ana Mangal, LMU ISBA faculty.

     

    Emerging Opportunities & Threats: Understanding the Role of AI in Digital Transformation
    September 26, 2022
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    Industry experts from Silicon Beach discussed topics related to AI and digital transformation. Organized by ISBA/MSBA in partnership with ISBA Society and AI LA (Artificial Intelligence Los Angeles). Panelists included:

    • Ilana Golbin, director of emerging technologies and AI, PwC 
    • Carlos Ignacio Gutierrez, AI policy researcher, Future of Life Institute
    • Harnish Jani, managing director and partner, Boston Consulting Group 
    • Lara Jeremko, CEO and founder, Beyond Ventures
  • LMU Innovation Symposium: Transforming Business in the Digital Age
    March 24, 2022

    Digital transformation across sectors and organizations is ubiquitous and transforming the lives of people and society. The LMU Innovation Symposium brings together industry and academic experts from multiple disciplines to discuss how innovations in technology, data, ethical decision making and strategies have an impact on people, planet and profit.

    • Panel 1: Collaboration between Academia and Industry to Train Future Leaders View replay
    • Panel 2: Organizational Values and Ethics in Technology an Analytics View replay
    • Fireside Chat with "Bad Blood" Author John Carreyrou View replay

     

    An Overview of NFTs, Web 3 and Metaverse
    February 15, 2022
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    Kareen Bayoun, co-founder and CEO of Brandverse, joined The Block @ LMU student leaders Dave Tang and Will Portillo for a discussion on NFTs, Web 3 and the Metaverse.

     

    POWER Summit: Women in Technology Panel - "Digital Transformation"
    January 28, 2022
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    This year's annual POWER (Positive Opportunities for Women's Empowerment and Recognition) Summit featured a panel discussion with top women in the tech industry, including: 

    • Jeannette Duval, Assistant Director, Capgemini
    • Ana Mangal, ISBA Professor, LMU
    • Chantal Sathi, Founding CEO, Cornerstone AI
    • Lauren Stanford, Founder/CEO, Cierto
    • Jennifer Wong, Product Management Director, Workday

  • Data Science Class Speakers
    December 8, 2021

    ISBA Professor Youyou Tao welcomed two guest speakers to her class:
    • Career Paths in Data with Jeremy Greene, Head of Data Science at Retina AI
    • Python for Data Science Application with Fangjin Huang, Senior Algorithm Engineer at Luckin Coffee


    Cybersecurity at PwC
    December 1, 2021

    ISBA Professor Greg Lontok welcomed AIMS graduate Stefan Cook '18 who spoke about his cybersecurity experience at PwC and discussed his current role as a cloud infrastructure engineer for SADA where he specializes in Google Cloud Platform solutions. 

     

    Data Visualizations in Marketing and the Analysis of an Open Dataset
    November 4, 2021

    ISBA Professor Ace Vo welcomed Vishal Vatnani, senior marketing analyst at Instacart, where he analyzes data around email and paid marketing channels for B2C side of the business. Students watched a few presentations at the start of the talk where Vishal introduced how data analysis is conducted in the domain of marketing analytics, then moved on to analyze a dataset together with the students on a shared Jupyter Notebook. 

     

    Using Spatial Analytics for Smart and Resilient Cities
    November 1, 2021 

    ISBA Professor Ace Vo welcomed Claudia Caceres, Ph.D., GIS scientist for the City of Corona. Claudia's experience includes projects and research using spatio-temporal analysis, spatial statistics, data science, spatial analysis and modeling, mapping and visualizations, remote sensing, data analytics, machine learning, app development, etc. 


    Data Analytics and Visualization: Case Study and Demo

    October 13, 2021

    Noel Avison visited ISBA Professor Ana Mangal's class. As a senior business intelligence engineer with the Denver Regional Transportation District, Noel applies his knowledge and experience in data analytics to help management make strategic decisions and solve business problems.

     

    Data: The Changing Business Landscape and Competition
    September 8, 2021
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    A panel of experts discussed data’s impact on businesses through digital transformation, changing competition and data for good. 

    • Lakshmi Sharma, Director of Product Management for Networking, Google Cloud
    • Kathi Chandler-Payatt, Vice President of Content Analytics and Strategy, MGM Studios
    • Subash D’Souza, Director, Cloud Data Engineering at California State University Chancellor’s Office; Founder & Organizer of DataCon LA & Data4Good
    • Alvaro Paes de Barros, Head YouTube Spaces, Americas

    Moderated by Vandana (Ana) Mangal, Faculty Co-Director of MSBA Program & Clinical Associate Professor of ISBA at LMU.

    Organized by ISBA @ LMU. In collaboration with AIMS/ISBA Society, LMU Silicon Beach Think Tank and LMU Institute for Business Ethics and Sustainability.

  • Use of Data in the Hollywood District to Create a Great Experience for Guests and the Surrounding Businesses
    April 20, 2021
    Ruben Lechuga, VP, Urban Place Management at The Hollywood Partnership, and Davon Barbour, VP, Advocacy and Economic Development at The Hollywood Partnership

    Mr. Lechuga and Mr. Barbour talk about how the Hollywood District is using data to make informed decisions from economic development, cleanliness, to homeless outreach. The Hollywood District is home to the largest economic corridors that span the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Using data, the Hollywood District is helping businesses and tourists experience the best Hollywood has to offer.

     

    Overview of Agile + Live Simulation of a Sprint
    April 14, 2021
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    In this talk, David Church, SVP, senior delivery lead at Bank of America, reviews the basics of Agile, including common terms, roles, routines and tools, and conducts a brief, simulated sprint. The pros and cons of Agile are explored, as well as the adaptations of Agile to align to large organizations (e.g. SAFe - Scaled Agile Framework for enterprises).

     

    Future of Technology: Blockchain
    March 29, 2021
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    Panelists include Heidi Pease, CEO & Co-founder at LA Blockchain Lab; Lene Martin, Founder & Director, Blockchain at Pepperdine University; Nina Nichols, Founder of Global Women in Blockchain; and Joshua Garcia, Partner at Ketsal. Moderated by Vandana (Ana) Mangal, Clinical Associate Professor at LMU discussed blockchain technology, trends and applications in various fields, including NFTs and cryptocurrencies.

     

    Moneyball: How a Data -Driven Culture Yields In$ight$
    January 26, 2021
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    Tim Park, director of data management at Sony Pictures Entertainnment, discusses the essential data pillars to cultivate a data-driven culture, where insights can be gleaned to make strategic business decisions and improve the bottom line. Topics include: Data Storytelling, Data Visualization, Data Governance, Data Democratization, Data Socialization, Digital Transformation, Cyber Security, Data Ethics, AI/Machine Learning applications and many industry examples are presented.

     

  • Journey in Analytics
    November 30, 2020
    Kumar Janu, Analytics Manager at the Advisor Group 

    Kumar Janu recounts his experience after graduation in obtaining internship, analyst, senior analyst and manager positions. He offers insights and advice to MSBA students so that they can be successful in their own analytics journey.

     

    Power of Storytelling
    November 16, 2020
    Alex Velez, Data Storyteller

    Having data is a good start. In her talk, Alex Velez augments the use of data and creates visualization to tell a story to capture the audience and move them to action. Alex shares tips on effective communications, and leads a small workshop to help our students learn more about how to become an effective data storyteller.

     

    His Journey to Becoming an Executive at Amazon Web Services
    October 21, 2020
    Scott Barrows, WW Commercial Go To Market Segment

    As a seasoned technology executive, Scott Barrows shares stories from the start of his career and offers advice to students who want to pursue a career in tech. He also provides insights as a top executive at Amazon to help students understand the importance of culture in relation to hiring.