Center for Analytics and Transformative Technologies

Michael Sury is the Managing Director of the Center for Analytics & Transformative Technology; and is an award-winning professor who has taught at both the undergraduate and graduate levels for over 14 years. Michael began his career working in technology in 1986, building AI programs and designing intelligent systems architectures at MCC—the noted R&D consortium started by tech heavyweights including Intel, GE, Microsoft, and AMD. Michael later worked for Lockheed Missiles & Space Co. on classified projects for the DoD’s Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI); and IBM, where he taught and implemented statistical process control (SPC) and real-time analytics for manufacturing engineering across the IBM PC production line.

After graduate school at the University of Chicago, he was recruited by Goldman Sachs & Co., and served in the firm’s Equities Division (Capital Markets and Equity Derivatives) and Vice President in the Investment Management Division (including serving on the PCS Asset Allocation Committee). He later led one of the nation’s top-ranked wealth management and institutional broker-dealer trading firms before ultimately selling his stake and entering academia. He has taught at the University of California, DePaul University, Santa Clara University, and now as a member of the faculty of Finance at the University of Texas. At UT, he serves as the Program Director of the Financial Analytics track within the MSBA program, and as a member of the MSB Analytics Task Force.

He has delivered over 80 conference speeches in the US and internationally; and has appeared on the major networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox) as well as in Bloomberg, CNBC, and a variety of news publications for his insights and commentary on financial analytics and the capital markets.

Kumar Muthuraman is the H. Timothy (Tim) Harkins Centennial Professor in the Department of Information, Risk and Operations Management and the Department of Finance. He received his Ph.D. from Stanford University. Dr. Muthuraman’s research focuses on decision making under uncertainty. Application areas of interest to him are quantitative finance, operations management and health care.

Dr. Mitchell is a visiting assistant professor.  Dr. Mitchell’s research focuses on financial analytics and applications of network optimization.  He was previously an assistant professor at Singapore University of Technology and Design, and the University of Minnesota, and was a visiting scholar at the US Treasury Department’s Office of Financial Research. He received a PhD from McCombs in 2014, a masters in math from New York University in 2009, and a bachelors in math from the University of Texas in 2007.

Ben Fauber is a senior data scientist at Dell Technologies in Austin, Texas, where he leads applied research strategic alliances and maintains an active internal research program. He earned his B.Sc. from Colorado State University and Ph.D. from The University of Texas at Austin. Prior to joining Dell Technologies, he held various scientific and leadership positions at Stanley Black & Decker, Genentech/Roche, and AstraZeneca. He is a co-inventor and author on more than 70 patents and peer-reviewed publications, including publications in the journals Nature, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Cesare joined the Finance Faculty at the McCombs School of Business in 2009. His primary research interest is in the area of corporate finance and fintech. His research includes work on corporate governance, executive compensation, credit rating agencies, small business financing, and the effects of social networks and cultural preferences on financial policies. His articles have been published in the top Finance journals, such as the Journal of Finance, the Journal of Financial Economics, and the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis. He teaches Financial Technology and Corporate Valuation in the MBA program, and Empirical Methods in Corporate Finance in the PhD program.

Cesare holds a Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from the Politecnico di Milano (Italy), and an MBA and PhD in Finance from UCLA Anderson. He was a visiting professor at the Wharton School in 2012/2013. Before his PhD, he worked as strategic management consultant at Booz Allen and Roland Berger in Italy, and as summer intern at the United Nations in New York.