Interview with Duru Ahanotu : Alumni Stories
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Nwokoro Duru Ahanotu (BS Mechanical Engineering 1991, MS Engineering-Economic Systems 1992, PhD Engineering-Economic Systems 1999) speaks about his family background, his first experiences at Stanford, campus traditions, and student housing. He also reflects on his time in a fraternity and his involvement with the Black community, including Ujamaa, the Society of Black Scientists and Engineers, and the Stanford African Students Association. Ahanotu discusses his academic journey, from important faculty to his honors thesis in Science, Technology, and Society to his decision to pursue a PhD. He traces his journey through graduate school at Stanford and discusses his PhD research topic and his life after Stanford, from his career in management consulting to working in the technology sector.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Extent | 1 text file |
| Place | Stanford (Calif.) |
| Publisher | Stanford Historical Society |
| Date created | October 23, 2021 |
| Language | English |
| Digital origin | born digital |
Creators/Contributors
| Interviewee | Ahanotu, Duru | |
|---|---|---|
| Creator | Ahanotu, Duru | |
| Interviewer | Frothingham, Emma | |
| Publisher | Stanford Historical Society |
Subjects
| Subject | Stanford University. Students > 1987-1999 |
|---|---|
| Subject | Universities and colleges |
| Subject | College students |
| Genre | Interview |
Bibliographic information
| Biographical Profile | Dr. Ahanotu is a graduate of Stanford University with twenty-eight years of experience leading and developing Analytics teams, transforming data analytics into business insights, executing pricing strategies through price optimization, and implementing, developing, and selling enterprise software. He adds to this industry experience five overlapping years of research in knowledge management and organizational learning. Dr. Ahanotu currently works for Dictionary.com where he leads Analytics as a Senior Director. The Analytics team is responsible for nearly all things data in the company from reporting, financial forecasting, A/B testing, data analysis, analytics support for Search Engine Optimization (SEO), product analytics, business insights, analytics support for the ad yield team, web site performance monitoring, and Data Engineering. Dr. Ahanotu took on leadership roles as Director of Data Science and Engineering for Marketing and a Director of Analytics at Yahoo. He also gained management and analytics experience as an Engagement Manager, Solutions Architect, and Business Solutions Manager across two software start-ups. Dr. Ahanotu is a co-patent contributor for a “Method and System for Producing Optimized Prices for Products for Sale.” Dr. Ahanotu volunteers for a broad array of civic and educational activities and organizations. He currently works with the Decision Education Foundation helping young people make quality decisions. With the Parent Teacher’s Association of the local elementary school, he spent nearly 5 years organizing a monthly “Night Out” which included working with local restaurants to raise money for PTA programming. He currently works with the District African American Advisory as an advocate for Black students and parents in the school district. While working with Yahoo, Dr. Ahanotu won corporate grants for educational and community charities. He is also very experienced in leading events and programming for Black employee resource groups and served as the lead for the Sunnyvale, CA branch of Black Organizers Leaders and Doers (BOLD) at Yahoo. Dr. Ahanotu served on a local rent stabilization taskforce and now serves on a citizen’s bond oversight committee. |
|---|---|
| Audio |
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| Finding Aid | |
| Location | https://purl.stanford.edu/nn471ym3930 |
| Location | SC0932 |
| Repository | Stanford University. Libraries. Department of Special Collections and University Archives |
Access conditions
- Use and reproduction
- The materials are open for research use and may be used freely for non-commercial purposes with an attribution. For commercial permission requests, please contact the Stanford University Archives (universityarchives@stanford.edu).
- Copyright
- Copyright © The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. All rights reserved.
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