Douglas Gray

Director, Data Science at Walmart Global Tech

Douglas A. Gray is an entrepreneur, practitioner, and executive with 30+ years of experience in Data & Analytics, IT/Software, E-Commerce, and Consulting. He has worked for Fortune 1-250, start-up, and early-stage companies in industries including retail, airlines, travel distribution, financial services, healthcare insurance, consulting, and commercial software. Doug is currently a Director, Data Science at Walmart Global Tech – US Omni Retail Tech – Data Engineering & Analytics where he leads teams that increase efficiency, cost effectiveness, and profit performance leveraging data and advanced analytics methods and solutions focused on the Supply Chain. Doug’s teams deliver economic impact and business value in the 8-9 figure range annually.

Previously, Doug served as Director, Enterprise Data & Analytics at Southwest Airlines. Through the data and analytics solutions delivered, Doug’s organization at Southwest Airlines generated $100M in annual operating cost reduction, and $100M in annual revenue augmentation. As a result, the team was recognized with the following awards: Teradata EPIC Award, FICO Decision Management Innovation Award, Alteryx Best Business ROI Award (2), Drexel LeBow Analytics50 Award (2), and AGIFORS Operations Best Innovation Award.

Doug was an early team member at award-winning American Airlines Decision Technologies (AADT) (now Sabre Airline Solutions), which pioneered numerous innovations driving substantial economic impact in the use of Analytics in the airline industry, solving commercial and operational problems across the enterprise. At Sabre, Doug served as the Founding CTO of Travelocity.com, the world’s first real-time, Internet-based travel reservation system.

Doug served as Acting Director of Analytics at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City where he led the development of an Analytics Platform, i.e., a data warehouse, an operational dashboard, and a portfolio of analytical scoring models for measuring patient propensity for health conditions, behaviors, and outcomes. BCBSKC evolved the platform into a commercial Analytics-as-a-Service enterprise (CobaltTalon) serving other BCBS entities that was later sold to HealthLumen.

Through his own company, Blueprint Technology Advisors, LLC, d.b.a., Optima Analytics, he advises executive leadership teams on best practices of applying Technology & Analytics to corporate strategy and Digital Transformation, and implementing Technology & Analytics organizations and capabilities. He has taught executive education seminars in Analytics since 2009. He taught BA6057 Business Analytics at SMU’s Cox School of Business Executive MBA Program for 5 years, through which his students’ real-world Case Analysis Projects routinely delivery 6-7-8-figure ($M) tangible, measurable business value and economic impact benefits. He continues as the instructor for DS6057 Business Analytics for SMU’s MS in Data Science program.

He holds an MBA from SMU’s Cox School of Business (Beta Gamma Sigma), an MS in operations research from the Georgia Institute of Technology’s Stewart School of Industrial & Systems Engineering (Omega Rho – Qualified), and a BS cum laude in mathematical sciences (statistics) from Loyola University Maryland (Pi Mu Epsilon). Doug is a recognized Analytics Expert of the International Institute for Analytics (IIA). He has published several articles and academic papers on analytics applications, and been an invited keynote & guest speaker and panel discussion participant at industry conferences and universities world-wide, including Deloitte Analytics Summit, Gartner Data & Analytics, IIA, Alteryx, SMU, NC State, Univ. of Dallas, and Georgia Tech.

Doug is originally from Baltimore, Maryland, however he considers himself a “transplanted Texan” having lived in North Texas for over 20 years. He is married to his wife Sonja, a Marketing Manager at Verizon, and has two grown sons, Nathan, a licensed Commercial Diver-Supervisor, & Ryan, a student at The University of Arkansas-Fayetteville Sam Walton College of Business Supply Chain Management Program. They have two dogs, a Wheaten Terrier-Lhasa Apso rescue, Charlie, and a Golden Doodle, Finnigan. He lives in Dallas, Texas.