News/Events

Impact, Future of Data Innovations Topic of Talk

Tuesday, September 18, 2018

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How data shaped the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, how it is transforming local and global problem-solving, and the risks posed by a policy makers and a public increasingly skeptical of data will be the topic of a Oct. 1 talk co-sponsored by WDI and the Center for Value Chain Innovation.

Daniella Ballou-Aares, partner at the global advisory firm Dalberg Advisors, will give the talk, “Data Innovation for Global Problem Solving: Promise and Peril” beginning at 5 p.m. in Room R2230 at the Ross School of Business. It is open and free to the public.

Ballou-Aares will discuss if data innovations can transform how the world responds to the biggest social, economic and environmental challenges, and if data is able to bring nations, companies, and citizens together for a common cause. Conversely, she will examine whether the ability of data to influence decision-makers is on the decline, and if the impact of data innovations will be unable to address the world’s most significant development challenges.

Ballou-Aares was a founding partner that grew Dalberg from start-up to a global group of businesses that now has 17 offices across Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas. She served as senior advisor for development to two U.S. Secretaries of State during the Obama administration, supporting the secretary’s role as board chair of the Millennium Challenge Corp., a multibillion-dollar fund that invests in infrastructure and other large-scale projects in newly-emerging economies. She also guided data-driven targeting of the $6 billion annual HIV/AIDS budget to reach millions with treatment and helped secure a 193-country agreement on the Sustainable Development Goals. She returned to Dalberg in 2017.

In 2014, she was selected as a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader and currently serves on the group’s Advisory Council. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Prior to serving in government, Ballou-Aares  was at Bain & Co. and advised financial services, private equity, telecom, healthcare and consumer product firms in the U.S., U.K. and South Africa. She holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, a master’s degree in public administration from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and a bachelor’s degree in Operations Research and Industrial Engineering from Cornell University.

Top photo by Mika Baumeister on Unsplash

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