Movio has appointed Dr. Bryan Smith as the company's chief data scientist. A computational scientist with research and management experience, Smith most recently was research group manager, information & communications technologies at Callaghan Innovation, the New Zealand government agency, which commercializes technical innovation of New Zealand companies. The announcement was made by Will Palmer, Movio’s chief executive and co-founder.
Callaghan Innovation gives businesses a single front door to the innovation system in New Zealand, working in partnership with government agency New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, economic development agencies, business incubators, universities, polytechnics, Crown Research Institutes, the venture capital community and industry associations.
Smith, who worked with Movio during his tenure at Callaghan, has a B.S.E. degree in Biomedical Engineering and Mathematics from Tulane University and Masters' and Ph.D. degrees in Applied Mathematics from Northwestern University in Chicago. He will head all research in statistics, science, and analytics at Movio, concentrating on the development of new products that utilize Movio’s global moviegoer database to generate analytical insights. He will report directly to Peter Beguely, chief product officer and co-founder of Movio.
"Dr. Smith is a world-class data scientist and mathematician as well as a superlative manager," said Palmer. "His expertise is a game changer for Movio and will help lead our growth as film exhibitors and studios gradually realize that big data on their customers’ choices are invaluable, revenue-deriving assets."
"Movio is an ideal fit for me," added Smith. "It has interesting, established and innovative products with obvious potential for improvement utilizing ever more sophisticated analytics, but is still of the size that I feel that one person can make a real difference."
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