John Colias has more than thirty years of experience applying statistical models and methods, and helping businesses optimize their marketing programs, products, strategies, and pricing. John holds a PhD in economics from the University of Texas at Austin. He worked for the first ten years of his career in a corporate environment (telecommunications), then spent twenty-two years as a marketing research and analytics consultant, supporting a large variety of industries. 

John specializes in predictive modeling, big data analytics, forecasting, econometrics, and choice modeling. Prior to joining the University of Dallas' Gupta College of Business, John led the Advanced Analytics Group at Decision Analyst, a leading marketing research consulting firm. 

In August 2017, John joined the University of Dallas full-time as an Affiliate Assistant Professor, where he also serves as Director of the Business Analytics Program.

Why did you become a professor? 
I desired to teach advanced analytics at the university level to pass on my skills and experience to a new generation of business analysts.  I also wished to spend more time learning new analytical methods.

What do you enjoy most about teaching?  
Interacting with individual students about advanced modeling methods, and then witnessing their success in acquiring new skills. 

What do you hope students gain from your courses? 
An ability to build and validate high-quality analytical solutions to achieve important business objectives and to effectively communicate the value of the solutions. 

What did you do prior to entering academia?
I worked as Research Economist in telecommunications for ten years and then as a marketing research consultant for 22 years.

What are you passionate about outside of the University?
Orthodox Christianity and all that this Christian Tradition teaches about living well. 

What are your research interests?
I am interested in new applications of machine learning, predictive modeling, and market simulation for business decision making and marketing research. 

Predictive Modeling, Machine Learning, Choice Modeling, Conjoint Analysis, Forecasting

PhD in Economics, University of Texas at Austin

Affiliate Assistant Professor, Satish & Yasmin Gupta College of Business, University of Dallas

Colias, John (2016), “Fusing Marketing Research and Data Science: Using Technology to Deliver Greater Insights into Consumer Behavior,” ESOMAR Congress 2016 Presentation and Publication in Conference Proceedings, New Orleans.

Benson, George S., M. Salazar, John V. Colias, and Marcus Butts (2014), “Discrete Choice Models in Organizational Research: An Introduction to Hierarchical Bayes Estimation,” Academy of Management Annual Meeting Proceedings.

Sermas, Ryan and John Colias (2012) “ChoiceModelR,” Open-Source Choice Modeling Software Package Written in the R-Language,  http://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/

Colias, John and Michael Richarme (2008). “Realism in Research: Innovative Utilization of 3D Animation Qualitative and Quantitative Research Methodologies,” ESOMAR Congress 2008 Presentation and Conference Proceedings

Colias, John and Dustin Cannon (2017), “Machine Learning Segmentation in the Digital Age”, Presented at the Corporate Researchers Conference, Chicago.

Colias, John (2016), “Fusing Marketing Research and Data Science: Using Technology to Deliver Greater Insights into Consumer Behavior,” ESOMAR Congress 2016 Presentation and Publication in Conference Proceedings, New Orleans.

Colias, John (2016), “Fusing Marketing Research and Data Science: Using Technology to Deliver Greater Insights into Consumer Behavior,” ESOMAR Congress 2016 Presentation and Publication in Conference Proceedings, New Orleans.

Colias, John (2016), “Introduction to the R Language,” Hands-on workshop covering installation of R, data input, data management, basic statistics and graphs, Presented at 2016 Society of Insurance Research Spring Workshop, Chicago.

Colias, John and Rod Carver (2015), “Big Data, Little Data, Better Data,” Presented at Home Improvement Research Institute 2015 Spring Conference, Orlando.

Colias, John and Phil Jackson (2015), “Choice Modeling, Research Methods and Applications,” Presented at Society of Insurance Research Spring Workshop, 2015, Cleveland.

Colias, John (2014), “Using the Open-Source R Language to Model Store Sales,” Presented at American Statistical Association on Statistical Practice, Tampa.