Terry Bandy is a Senior Data Scientist who works with clients across the globe. His passion for big data began in late eighties, when personal computers were becoming a household item. His career has grown along with the tech that he works with.
Bandy grew up in New England. His father was a Unitarian Minister and his mother was a school teacher. When Bandy reached age fifteen, he elected to enter into boarding school, so that he could participate in the advanced math and science classes which he was attracted to. He attended Saint Paul’s High School, in Concord, NH, through out high school. He then went on to Tufts, where he initially entered into a pre-med program. After one and a half semesters, he attended a computer sciences lecture which changed his educational path. He switched majors to focus on computer sciences. Two and a half years later, as a junior, he founded his first company, which specialized in website design and analytics.
Bandy graduated from Tufts with honors, and began working full time on his emerging business. As the CEO, he found that he had a great deal to learn about how to own and operate a small business. He had been an active member of the Undergraduate Business Association, and once he graduated, he continued to rely on the connections that he had formed while in the club as an undergraduate.
One such relationship was with Phil Hackney, a business owner also located in Boston, where Bandy was living at the time. Hackney mentored Bandy for three years, and in that time Bandy’s company expanded from a three-person operation to a company with over four hundred employees. As the CEO, Bandy’s focus was always on pushing the limits of website design. Because the field was relatively new, Bandy had the opportunity to be a pioneer in many of the beginning attempts at web analytics. The rapid growth of the internet led to a simultaneous fast-rate expansion in web analytics practices. After several years of rapid growth, Bandy decided to sell the company to a tech start-up in California.
Bandy relocated to California, where he worked for the new owners of his company as an adviser. At the same time, he began taking classes which would eventually led to a degree in Business Intelligence. While taking classes, Bandy sought after meetings with tech consultants in his local area. He found that many individuals interested in analyzing big data struggled with some common issues, many related to the limitations of the available technology at the time. Bandy partnered with a friend, Elliot Massa, in founding a Data Science Summit, which convened twice a year from 2002 to 2010. It was at a summit that Bandy met his wife, Melissa, who is a professor at UC San Francisco.
In 2010, Bandy received his Masters degree in Business Intelligence. He transitioned into freelance work during the same year that he and his wife welcomed their first son into the world. Bandy’s many connections through operating the Data Science Summit helped him to secure his first jobs as a contract worker. He quickly found success in the niche, and reputable companies began seeking out his services.
In 2013, Bandy presented at the Mountain Film Festival, in Telluride Colorado, regarding how big data could help to stop global warming. Bandy’s interests in mathematics, data analysis and interpretation, and business, give him a unique perspective on the problems which society faces. As an outdoor enthusiast, Bandy is constantly seeking out ways to tie his love for numbers and data into the other areas of life his is passionate about, including nature.
Bandy is a member of several nature conservation organizations, including the Dark Sky Society, and the Wilderness Society. He also participates in a family-oriented group for business-minded men in the San Francisco area. His second son was born in 2014. Bandy, his wife, and their two sons, are full time residents of San Francisco, CA. Bandy writes frequently on the intersection between big data and business. He is often consulted by businesses, small and large alike, who want to increase their customer base and profitability. Bandy works with businesses to collect, interpret, and skillfully use the data that is available to them.
