Jane Turnbull

My current role is Assistant Vice President in the Predictive Sciences department at Equifax, the credit reporting agency. It is a fast-paced role that requires many different skill sets including analytical, programming, organizational, multitasking, managerial, and business. The wide variety of tasks that I perform every day and the speed at which I must accomplish these tasks are what keeps me energized and engaged.

While I was in graduate school, the medical and pharmaceutical research career path was emphasized. I was absolutely excited about this type of job opportunity because I could use my favorite analytical tool, design of experiments, in a real world environment. Upon graduation, I relocated to an area of the country where very little research of this type was performed, and due to the recession, it was quite difficult to find a job. I took a position as a statistical modeler at JCPenney Life Insurance Company (now Aegon Direct Marketing Services) and built insurance response models for their direct marketing and telemarketing campaigns. I discovered that even though I was not using design of experiments, I loved what I did for a living. I realized that as long as I could play with data, regardless of its source, apply mathematical and statistical concepts, and formulate valid conclusions, I would be professionally satisfied in any type of analytical role.

Since my time at JCPenney, I have worked for several other financial services and database companies, including Acxiom, Conseco Finance, and now Equifax. For each of these companies, I have built many different types of predictive models (also known as scores) using various types of multivariate regressions for marketing and risk applications for the credit card, wireless, mortgage, and insurance industries for both domestic and well as international customers. Demographic, account masterfile, credit bureau, transaction, and insurance policy data sources, among other, that have been analyzed to build these models.

With each company, I have continued to grow professionally and been promoted to positions of greater responsibility. Currently, I manage a large analytical and statistical team that is responsible for delivering predictive models for Equifax customers. While my analytical capabilities are central to my success, I believe that the respect I have for each member of the team as well as my ability to successfully meet business timelines are equally as important. While I do not delve as deeply into the data now as I did before, and I do sometimes miss the feeling that I am actually producing something of value, I am passing my business and analytical experience on to junior statisticians and analysts, and I am gaining additional experience in the strategic role that analytics and predictive modeling play in the strategic value propositions of Equifax.