Harry Ahlas

Harry Ahlas photo

Title:

Senior Data Science Advisor

Employer:

Wells Fargo

Degree:

MSIS

Graduation year:

2001
"I remember nearly every SILS faculty member constantly reminding us about the importance of understanding the users’ perspective. SILS made it second-nature for me to keep in mind what the end user is thinking, which gives me an advantage in the workplace."

I joined Wells Fargo Bank shortly after graduating SILS in 2001. Wells Fargo is the nation’s fourth largest bank and one of the top 10 public companies in the world (Forbes 2019). It is a great place to work because the company strives to uphold the values of its vision to help satisfy customers’ needs and help them succeed financially.

I am proud to play a role in bringing this vision to life. As the Senior Data Science Advisor on Wells Fargo's Human Resources Analytics Team, I mine data, build analytical tools, lead data wrangling, perform analysis, and craft advanced analytics and artificial intelligence models, as well as help others on the team develop their professional skills.

I think back to the courses I took as SILS all the time – Paul Jones’ Information Security and Bob Losee’s Information Retrieval courses certainly help me to this day!

Prior to joining Human Resources, I worked with the Wells Fargo Regional Resource Planning team where I forecasted bank transactions. During my tenure there, we increased forecast accuracy from 76% to 95%.

My degree at SILS has helped me in several ways. I remember nearly every SILS faculty member constantly reminding us about the importance of understanding the users’ perspective. SILS made it second-nature for me to keep in mind what the end user is thinking, which gives me an advantage in the workplace.

Additionally, SILS provided me with foundational skills in information visualization as well as data organization that have become vital to my career. I still use my professors as a resource and they are usually quick to respond. It is great to know that my ties to SILS have continued to last over all these years!