Meet MSM's faculty members: introducing Mr. Davy Cielen

Research is an integral part of the mission of Maastricht School of Management. We provide scientific knowledge to allow managers and entrepreneurs to make evidence-based decisions. To achieve our mission we encourage and support the research of our faculty members in a broad range of areas. MSM’s faculty members are passionate about what they do and tenacious in finding solutions to the toughest business challenges. Each month MSM will highlight one of its faculty members and this month the spotlight is on Mr. Davy Cielen

Let me introduce myself…
My name Davy Cielen, I’m Senior Lecturer in Business Data Analytics at Maastricht School of Management. Next to this position I’ m also principal at the Business Analytics Institute in France and adjunct professor at the IESEG School of Management and Managing Partner in Maiton. I hold a BSc in Commercial Engineering from Solvay Management School, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (2011) and an MSc in Applied Economics from Vrije Universiteit Brussels (2016). Furthermore I’m pursuing a PhD at IESEG School of Management (Lille, France) in Big Data Analytics for Business since 2015.

I have worked as a business analyst in Colruyt, one of the major retailers in Belgium. In this role I was responsible for as well the hands on implementation of projects as the internal business development of projects in one of its subsidiaries. Later we founded our own consultancy company which is now active in whole Western Europe and focusing on bringing business value from new technologies such as big data and artificial intelligence.

The Research I have been working on….
Currently, most of my research work is for the European Research Commission, an agency of the European Commission. We mainly investigate in which upcoming fields and projects the European Commission should allocate its research funds for researchers and commercial companies alike. Our focus is on scanning the whole body of published research by using Big Data techniques. This to spot trends and researchers as early as possible to give Europe a leading edge in R&D. In the past my research was mainly focused on banking and retail as a member of incompany research teams.

Equally important is to prepare leadership for this technical revolution..
Artificial intelligence and big data are reforming industries at an unprecedented pace. There is a lot of attention for the need of technical people to make this happen but equally important is that we need to prepare leadership for this revolution. For many leaders it is even hard to grasp what the technology of 5 years ago could mean for their business. But in a field where discoveries are following each other we need to create leaders who know what technology will be disruptive and which are fads. They also need to be able to see the potential for their business and find ways to translate this in economical and sociological benefits. This requires you to monitor the technology and make an informed decision about investing in it or not. This is certainly true for investments in artificial intelligence give the fact that the technology already can be obsolete before it is on the market.

The Scientific networks that I am active in….
I am a principal of the Business Analytics Institute and its corollary Foundation. The goal of the Institute is to promote business analytics as well as businesses at universities. It also serves as a network to connect students, teachers, recruiters and businesses in the context of Business Analytics.

The book that I recently published…
Is “Introduction to data science” which was published by Manning. There are also some book chapters in the review stage.

My dream for the future is…
One of my dreams is to be more active in developing countries as well as in education business. MSM has an extensive network in these countries so being active as lecturer at MSM either as teacher in the Big Data short course or as teacher for the Executive MBA studentsnaturally allows me to do what I like the most. It is truly fascinating to work with students and professors from so many different backgrounds. Not only does this enrich you as a professional and as a person, it also gives you access to many projects in regions you normally would have no access too.

In my spare time you can often find me…
Unfortunately, for the moment I don’t have that much spare time left. So whenever I have the chance I will use it either to rest or to read some literature.