Oracle President Mark Hurd, BBA ’79, to Open Baylor Global Business Forum on Big Data

March 17, 2014
Mark Hurd

1979 Baylor business graduate Mark Hurd, President and Board Member of Oracle Corp., will headline the eighth annual Global Business Forum at Baylor on March 19.

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Contact: Lori Fogleman, 254-710-6275

WACO, Texas (March 17, 2014) – Mark Hurd, BBA ’79, President and Board Member of Oracle Corp., will deliver the keynote address on “Big Data in a Shrinking World” on Wednesday, March 19, during the eighth annual Global Business Forum, sponsored by Baylor University’s Hankamer School of Business and the McBride Center for International Business. Hurd’s presentation will take place at 7 p.m. in Kayser Auditorium of the Hankamer School of Business, 1401 S. Fifth St., on the Baylor campus.

In addition to Hurd’s keynote address, the Big Data forum will continue on Thursday, March 20, with the following sessions:
• “Crowdsourcing and Emerging Technologies” (9:30-10:45 a.m.), featuring Rodney Smith, (vice president for emerging technologies at IBM) and Will Cukierski (data scientist at Kaggle)
• “Social Media, Text Analytics, and Health Care” (11 a.m.-12:15 p.m.), featuring Michael Wilde (“Chief of Awesome” at Splunk), Michael Fulmer (Ph.D. candidate at SMU) and Neil S. Fleming (vice president for quantitative sciences at Baylor Scott & White)
• Big Data Luncheon (12:30-1:45 p.m.), featuring an address by Anand Srinivasan (sector head for technology at Bloomberg Research)
• “Legal and Ethical Concerns” (2-3:15 p.m.), featuring Robert Kantner (a partner at the Jones Day Law Firm and a specialist on intellectual property) and Shirley Hunter (global vice president for strategic partnerships at Teradata)
• “Consumer Supply and Demand” (3:30-4:45 p.m.), featuring Kerry McNair (vice president for product supply at Coca Cola), Patrick Brady (IT and services at Slalom Consulting) and Ben Becker (CRM consultant at Becker Strategies)

All of these sessions will be held in the Fifth Floor Conference Room in Cashion Academic Center, 1401 S. Fifth St., on the Baylor campus. The forum is free and open to the public. The luncheon, however, requires advanced registration at www.baylor.edu/globalbusiness.

Steve Gardner, Ph.D., professor and chair of economics and director of the McBride Center, said “Big Data” was selected as the theme of the 2014 Global Business Forum because of the public’s need to have a better understanding of the new world of data-driven decision making.

“Employment and business opportunities are growing rapidly for specialists who can take advantage of new data sources, new technologies for data storage and retrieval and new methods for analysis of unstructured data,” Gardner said.

According to recent projections, the annual flow of recorded data will increase to 35 trillion gigabytes by 2020, much of it coming from new sources such as blogs, social media, web searches and sensor networks.

“The data explosion, paired with new technologies, will create an estimated $3 trillion of new business opportunities,” Gardner said. “As the volume of useful data grows larger and the world grows smaller, we are encountering incredible new opportunities and difficult challenges.”

For additional information, visit www.baylor.edu/globalbusiness or contact Julie_LaStrape@baylor.edu at 254-710-6048.

ABOUT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY

Baylor University is a private Christian University and a nationally ranked research institution, characterized as having “high research activity” by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The University provides a vibrant campus community for approximately 15,000 students by blending interdisciplinary research with an international reputation for educational excellence and a faculty commitment to teaching and scholarship. Chartered in 1845 by the Republic of Texas through the efforts of Baptist pioneers, Baylor is the oldest continually operating University in Texas. Located in Waco, Baylor welcomes students from all 50 states and more than 80 countries to study a broad range of degrees among its 11 nationally recognized academic divisions. Baylor sponsors 19 varsity athletic teams and is a founding member of the Big 12 Conference.

ABOUT HANKAMER SCHOOL OF BUSINESS

Baylor University's Hankamer School of Business provides a rigorous academic experience, consisting of classroom and hands-on learning, guided by Christian commitment and a global perspective. Recognized nationally for several programs, including Entrepreneurship and Accounting, the school offers 24 undergraduate and 13 graduate areas of study. Visit www.baylor.edu/business and follow Baylor Business on Twitter: @Baylor_Business.