Hi, I’m Jeff! Based in Stockholm, Sweden, I’m a computational researcher and machine learning executive with a diverse career spanning 35+ domains. My journey has taken me from pioneering fire prediction systems at the NYC Fire Department and advising on climate data at NASA to developing personalized streaming experiences at Viaplay in the EU. I strongly believe in helping stakeholders understand both the rewards and risks of ML and data science approaches, which has led me to collaborate with a wide range of professionals such as macroeconomists, climatologists, soccer coaches, media executives, and software engineers.

For the past five years, I’ve been immersed in Stockholm’s thriving tech scene while balancing the joys of raising my kids. Currently, I’m the Chief Data Scientist & Director at Aira Group, where we’re revolutionizing energy systems with next-generation solutions, including an intelligent heat pump now available in the UK, Germany, and Italy. And prior to this, I led a core data, personalization algorithms, and commercial analytics at Viaplay – a regional streaming service operating in 10 countries.

Back home in the U.S., I was among the earliest data scientists in public service, leading applied R&D that has led to scaled impact such the NYC Fire Department’s FireCast  — a fire prediction system for risk inspections – as well as data-driven hurricane response at the NYC Mayor’s Office during the Bloomberg Administration. These experiences shaped my perspectives on integrating science with policy and strategy of large organisations.

Later, I joined the U.S. Federal Government to help build data science and ML capacity, starting at NASA  and the Obama White House. I later served as the first Chief Data Scientist in a US cabinet agency (U.S. Department of Commerce) and as the Chief Innovation Officer of the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. One of my most memorable experiences was designing and building out ML models that directly helped the accuracy of the US’ Gross Domestic Product

Outside work, I’m constantly learning and building. I co-authored Data Science for Public Policy (Springer Nature) with Professor Ed Rubin and Bayesian Econometrician Gary Cornwall.. I’ve taught data science at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy, advised startups like Urbint, consulted for DC United (Major League Soccer), and advised and built algorithms for the UN Development Programme in Nigeria.

I hold a Bachelor’s in Economics from Tufts University, a Master’s in Quantitative Methods from Columbia University, and I’m currently pursuing a Doctorate in Computational Statistics at the University of Oxford.