Dr. Matthew McBrady Joins RapportBoost.AI Scientific Advisory Board

Los Angeles, CA, January 23, 2018 (Newswire.com) - ​RapportBoost.AI, a Los Angeles based start-up that uses Artificial Intelligence to optimize live chat, announced today that Matthew R. McBrady, Ph.D., has joined its Scientific Advisory Board.

Dr. McBrady brings extensive experience to the firm that spans business, government, and academia. The common theme throughout all has been the use of world-class data and analytics to deliver breakthrough results, most recently as Chief Investment Officer for BlackRock’s multi-strategy hedge fund.

Tony and Dr. Mike Housman, RapportBoost's Chief Data Scientist, have built a great business at the intersection of two of the most powerful trends in business - the explosion of AI-related capabilities and applications and the rapidly growing importance of Conversational Commerce. In many regards, it reminds me of the early days of aQuantive when we leveraged much simpler analytic techniques to create tremendous value for our customers in their emerging digital marketing campaigns.

Dr. Matthew R. McBrady, Ph.D.

“Dr. McBrady brings an amazing wealth of experience to the team. From having founded arguably the world’s first data science group at digital marketing pioneer, aQuantive, to designing and running quantitative investment strategies at BlackRock, he’s leveraged world-class data and analytics to create tremendous value across an amazing breadth of industries.  What’s even more exciting is that he also brings decades of hands-on start-up experience to our company as well,” said Tony Medrano, CEO of RapportBoost.AI. “We are excited to have Dr. McBrady join our team of awesome scientists by way of the scientific advisory board!”

“I couldn’t be more excited than I am to join RapportBoost’s Advisory Board. Tony and Dr. Mike Housman, RapportBoost’s Chief Data Scientist, have built a great business at the intersection of two of the most powerful trends in business – the explosion of AI-related capabilities and applications and the rapidly growing importance of Conversational Commerce. In many regards, it reminds me of the early days of aQuantive when we leveraged (in retrospect) much simpler analytic techniques to create tremendous value for our customers in their emerging digital marketing campaigns,” says Dr. McBrady. “Mike has also put together a remarkable team of data scientists and advisors. It’s a pleasure to join such a thoughtful and renowned group.”

Prior to joining BlackRock in 2014, Dr. McBrady served as head of Investment Strategy and Risk Management at Silver Creek Capital Management, and as a private equity investor at Bain Capital. Before moving to the private sector, Dr. McBrady was an award-winning professor at the Darden School of the University of Virginia and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Earlier in his career, he also served as both an entrepreneur and policy advisor.

As an entrepreneur, Dr. McBrady helped establish and grow aQuantive, a pioneer in digital advertising that went public in 2000 and was subsequently acquired by Microsoft. He was also actively involved in transforming Axon Enterprise (formerly TASER International) from a small Arizona-based startup into a leading international business. He led the company through its IPO and remained on the Board for 15 years afterward. As a policy advisor, Dr. McBrady worked as an International Economist for Janet Yellen in President Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisors. He was also recruited by Timothy Geithner to join the Asian Financial Crisis Task Force that later became the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Policy Development and Review.

Dr. McBrady earned an A.B. degree in Economics from Harvard College in 1992, an M.Sc. in Economics for Development from Oxford University in 1993, where he was a Marshall Scholar and a Ph.D. in Business Economics in 2002 from Harvard University. He has published research in publications including the Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Financial Intermediation, Review of Finance, and Journal of Restructuring Finance. He was also a co-author of two Harvard Business School case studies, and co-author of a chapter in the Encyclopedia of Financial Globalization.  

About RapportBoost.AI

RapportBoost.AI is an Artificial Intelligence company that uses AI to optimize live chat sales for online brands. Its services deliver a sustained lift to chat revenue, conversion rates, average order size, and customer satisfaction while helping managers with training, quality assurance and team efficiency. RapportBoost.AI’s platform can be configured to measure and improve any chat-related outcome important to an online brand. Learn more about how to optimize live chat sales for your brand from the team at RapportBoost.AI.

Source: RapportBoost.AI