Duru Ahanotu, PhD
Founder and Sole Proprietor, Ahan Analytics, LLC
Dr. Duru is a graduate of Stanford University with over twenty-five years of experience in data analytics, decision analysis, pricing strategies, enterprise software implementation, and leading teams of brilliant data analysts, data engineers, and data scientists. His early research in knowledge management and organizational learning complemented his work with an expert systems start-up, preparing him to align data strategies with business objectives in the era of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Dr. Duru started his professional career while pursuing his PhD as a Business Solutions Project Manager and Consultant for Expert Edge, Inc., implementing expert systems for diagnosing and troubleshooting automotive and semiconductor manufacturing equipment. Later, as an independent contractor, he developed mathematical programming algorithms for managing and optimizing “Y2K” projects.
At Integral, Inc., a strategic management consulting firm, he spent three years advising high-tech and pharmaceutical companies on product development and technology strategy.
He next joined Rapt, Inc., where he progressed to the role of Engagement Manager, leading software implementation projects for major online media publishers. His work included developing innovative approaches to inventory forecasting, structuring product hierarchies, ETL processes across software systems for order management, advertising delivery, and price optimization solutions. He also generated a step-by-step methodology for interpreting and using the results of price optimization. Dr. Duru designed and implemented price optimization solutions, demonstrating expertise in mathematical modeling, pricing, data analysis, SQL, and relational data models. He led discussions with customers and internal teams to improve implementation processes and product design.
These contributions earned him recognition as a co-patent contributor for “Method and System for Producing Optimized Prices for Products for Sale.” Rapt also published his white paper, “Pricing New Products: Turning Portfolio Uncertainty Into Profits,” in The Journal of Professional Pricing which Dr. Duru also presented at an INFORMS Annual Meeting.
After Microsoft acquired Rapt, he transitioned to Microsoft Advertising’s Advertiser and Publisher Solutions (APS) group, where he provided product expertise, technical support, and employee training to enhance sales productivity.
At Yahoo, later Verizon Media, he spent over eight years in analytics staff and leadership roles. Dr. Duru started as a program manager of KPIs and Analytics for the technology platform group supporting Yahoo’s social networking efforts. On this team, he consolidated reporting and dashboarding functions which improved efficiency of the entire team. He next moved to a centralized analytics and data organization where he soon managed a growing team of business and insights analysts, data scientists, and statisticians. He grew the award-winning team from 4 to 20 in 2 years and provided services for operational reporting of internal and external industry data, research projects, and experimentation. Dr. Duru completed his career at Verizon Media as the Director of Data Science and Engineering for Marketing where he managed a small team focused on supporting Marketing’s analytics and data needs. He also led efforts to support Mobile growth through Data Science.
At Dictionary.com, Dr. Duru led a small analytics team responsible for nearly all data-related functions, including reporting, financial forecasting, A/B testing, data analysis, analytics support for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) efforts, product analytics, analytics support for the ad yield team, web site performance monitoring, and data engineering. His leadership improved operational efficiency, enhanced data accuracy, and anchored the company’s strategic insights. Dr. Duru won a company award for Best Execution.
Ahan Analytics, LLC (Ahan is pronounced “Ah-hon”) began as a platform for blogging on financial markets. It later expanded to projects such as optimizing the scheduling of doctors at an OBGYN practice, improving municipal web services, and financial modeling for for a solar panel venture. He created the company to help small organizations use data more effectively. Current projects include:
- Data Strategist for IT infrastructure consultancy. 1) Created data strategy to improve the data architecture of a large membership-based organization, and conducted a qualitative analysis of a knowledge discovery and knowledge management project. Developed a secure method for using generative AI to implement qualitative analysis. Created Standard Operation Procedures (SOP) for a Looker implementation (with warehousing on Civis Analytics) used to upgrade a suite of dashboards and reports and used to develop a 360-view of membership engagement across 5 software platforms. 2) Facilitated the creation of a RFP (Request for Proposal) for a major transformation of an on-premise data architecture to the cloud.
- Analytics consultant for Ikenga Wines.
Dr. Duru’s interest in small organizations extends to volunteer work. Dr. Duru worked with the Decision Education Foundation helping young people make quality decisions. For nearly five years, he organized a monthly “Night Out” with local restaurants to raise funds for a PTA (Parent Teacher’s Association). He advocates for Black students and parents as part of the District African American Advisory, served on a local rent stabilization taskforce and now serves as Vice Chair of a citizen’s bond oversight committee. Dr. Duru led the Sunnyvale, CA branch of Verizon Media’s Black employee resource group and secured corporate grants for educational and community charities. He also led various employee events and programming.
This corporate career and these volunteer roles reflect a commitment to fostering data-driven decision-making and improving organizational performance across a range of contexts.
Dr. Duru earned a Master’s and PhD in Engineering-Economic Systems (now called Management Science and Engineering), a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, and Honors in Values, Technology, Science, and Society (now called STS) – all at Stanford University. He earned STS Alumnus of the Year for supporting student and alumni networking programs.
