Deutsche Bank's ex-big data guy just set up on his own

Remember Graham Giller? If you pay attention to what's going on in the world of financial data science, it's a name that should be familiar. - Giller used to be the head of data science and research at Bloomberg and then JPMorgan. He left JPM to join Deutsche Bank in March 2018 and then left Deutsche Bank (possibly inadvertently) last month as Deutsche began swinging the ax. 

Now Giller's turned up doing his own thing. According to his LinkedIn profile, he's founded Giller Investments, a New Jersey-based company that will specialize in, "Predicting key variables for companies and the economy." He didn't respond to a request to elaborate further.

Giller's background is in the application of machine learning to financial markets and finance organizations. At Bloomberg, he built predictive analytics and machine learning models to support the broader company. At JPMorgan he was head of advanced analytics and machine learning and data science research. At Deutsche, Giller says he, "operated an internal analytical services consultancy for Deutsche Bank Research," which developed analytics for social media, payrolls and consumer confidence, among other things. 

Giller's decision to go it alone rather than joining another big bank might be an indication of the difficulties big data professionals have had in implementing meaningful projects in large finance firms. Others in similar positions have complained of internal politics and a lack of support for transitioning models into production. 

One of the most successful banks at implementing machine learning models has been JPMorgan, which disbanded its centralized machine learning team and now has people embedded in its business. Data science in JPMorgan's corporate and investment bank is now the responsibility of Samik Chandarana, a former credit trader, who was promoted in 2017.

Photo by Filip Mroz on Unsplash

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