Dong was previously Senior Director of Product Management and Data Science at Best Buy where he created an enterprise center of excellence for analytics and data science. Dong also led product management at McDonald’s and software development at Motorola. Additionally, he founded myDaVinci, an eCommerce startup, and Unload, a warehouse automation company. Dong earned his MBA from Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a MS of Computer Engineering from the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

Sandy is a seasoned Data Science leader with a passion for building advanced analytics teams and driving scalable solutions that deliver significant business value. Prior to BlackLocus, she led the Data Science team at Bazaarvoice helping the world’s largest brands and retailers improve their online experience and drive revenue by providing actionable insights from over 1B monthly consumers’ voice and shopping behavior data. Sandy received her undergraduate and master’s degrees in mathematics & Statistics from the University of Texas at San Antonio. She has over 25 years of experience in software development, consulting and digital marketing.

Outside of work, Sandy spends her time watching movies (all the movies), traveling with her family and spoiling her Australian Shepherd Ralph.

Brent spent 15 years at Apple, writing low-level system software. If you have a Mac or an iPhone, you’re running some of his code. Joining Apple was his escape route from Cornell’s Computer Science PhD program. Although he didn’t get a degree there, he does have a BSc in Computer Science from the University of Alberta, and an MSc in Computer Science from the University of Victoria. He likes clever solutions and would someday like to work smarter rather than harder.

In his spare time, Brent is trying to complete a double-major degree in Medicine and Russian Nuclear Submarines from Wikipedia. This is taking longer than expected. But with 3 kids there is never a dull moment!

Mario was born and raised in San Jose, Costa Rica. After high school in Costa Rica, he moved to Des Moines, IA, to live with his sisters. While in Iowa, he taught himself English, earned an internship at Pioneer HiBred, a DuPont company and graduated from Iowa State University with a BS in Management Information Systems. His internship and studies at ISU lead him to love all things UI/UX. Mario moved to Austin in 2006 to further his career at IBM and then Vignette. He is a skilled software engineer and thrives in BlackLocus’ collaborative team environment.

When Mario is not working, he enjoys playing with his two young girls and cooking delicious food for the family. And if there’s time after all that, you will find him on the golf course or soccer field.

"If you really want to make a friend, go to someone's house and eat with them... the people who give you their food give you their heart." - Cesar Chavez

Wang was born and raised in China and graduated from college in Chinese Literature and Marketing Communication. She later became a big fan of programming and completed her Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science in only 2.5 years at the University of Texas at Austin. Wang and her (fellow Longhorn) husband made Austin their second hometown.

Outside of work, Wang enjoys playing piano and cello, traveling, and doing everything with her cat, Summer. She has traveled to many places around the world, though her favorite was her 2016 African safari trip to Maasai Mara National Reserve in Kenya. The experience of falling asleep around hippos snoring is amazing! She hopes she can return to this nature of wildlife again in future!

"Surrounding yourself with people who inspire you is as important as being talented or working hard."

Miles grew up in the Atlanta area without much issue. He pushes to deliver material solutions that improve decision modeling. He graduated from the College of Charleston with a BS in Economics, and was somehow able to convince his future wife to move back home (like literally in the house Miles grew up in) after school. He has spent time in the financial, medical, and retail industries, where he discovered his love for predictive analytics and crashing Office applications.

His spare time is spent with his family, music, and movies. When he isn’t trying to vacuum all information from the old books on his shelves, he’s probably got a metal album cranked up to 11.

Born and raised in Honolulu, Crandall eventually left the sunny islands for rainy Seattle and earned a BS in Electrical Engineering at the University of Washington. He has since collected over 25 years’ worth of good experience (and a few bad habits) from his professional gigs in Rochester (Minnesota), Boston, and Austin. His pursuit of clever solutions and intuitive designs keeps him interested in both server-side and front-end projects. When it comes to “holy wars”, Crandall’s on Team Emacs, tabs, Playstation, HP RPN, matte screens, clicky keyboards, and no designated hitter.

In his free time, you can often find Crandall on a bike, tinkering with a bike, or rooting for various college and pro sports teams.

After graduating from Indiana University with a Dual BS in Criminology and Communications, Richard lived in Indianapolis working at a Corn Factory. On a whim, Richard made the move to Austin in late-2015. While sleeping on a couch and working as a barista at a local coffee shop, he decided to make a career move and take one of the many Computer Science Bootcamps offered in town. He’s been applying his data superpowers at BlackLocus ever since.

When he’s not knee-deep in data, Richard is occupying his time with video games, movies, writing, music and general arts and crafts.

"Give out some love and you'll find peace sublime." - Marvin Gaye

Megan made the move to Austin, TX, in 2006 to attend school at the University of Texas, where she graduated with a degree in Management Information Systems and discovered her passion for finding creative solutions to new problems through tech. She fell in love with the city and has continued working in the Austin tech scene since.

Always ready for a new adventure, Megan strives to travel the world as much as possible. When not exploring new countries, she can be found spending time outdoors with her dog, Stella, enjoying a glass of wine with friends, or trying out that latest new restaurant in Austin.

"Today me will live in the moment unless it’s unpleasant in which case me will eat a cookie" - Cookie Monster

Nicole graduated from MIT in 2011 with a BS in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering. She spent 6 years in cybersecurity catching bad guys with data before joining BlackLocus. She is passionate about problem solving – big problems, new problems, weird problems, really anything where she gets a chance to use creativity, math, engineering, denial, anger, bargaining…

Outside of work you can find Nicole running around lakes, snowboarding, playing piano, reading, playing with her spazzy cats, and traveling.

After earning a BA in Communication Studies from The University of Texas at San Antonio, Theresa started her operations career in tech at Capital Factory and then Honeywell. Theresa feels most fulfilled supporting a team of talented designers, developers, and creatives working on projects that inspire them. She also enjoys taking care of a beautiful office and making sure the space functions properly to suit the needs of the people in it.

An Austin born native, she loves spending time downtown and trying new things in this ever changing landscape. On the weekend you can find her out at Zilker Park Hula Hooping, at Sephora buying makeup, or cuddling with her cats watching Netflix.

"As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself, the other for helping others." - Audrey Hepburn

Xi graduated from Xi’an Jiaotong University with a degree in Computer Science and then completed her master’s at University of Virginia in the same field. She moved south soon after and is now a self-declared Austinite for life.

Aside from building clever software and solving issues, she enjoys contemplating great scientific and philosophical questions while reading on a Sunday afternoon. If the weather outside is terrific, you might even catch her biking on the trails!

"No computer has been designed that is ever aware of what it’s doing; but most of the time, we aren’t either." - Marvin Minsky

Brig has shown himself to not be great at writing bios but he does have an elite level command of Madonna lyrics. As he said on his first day:
“Just try to understand (understand)
I’ve given all I can
’Cause you got the best of me
Borderline
Feels like I’m going to lose my mind
You just keep on pushing my love
Over the borderline
Borderline
Feels like I’m going to lose my mind
You just keep on pushing my love
Over the borderline.” – Madonna

Travis earned a B.S. in Engineering Technology from Texas A&M in 2016 and accidentally wound up in software soon after. He can turn any amount of caffeine into some amount of legible code and a breezy disposition.

Outside of work, Travis enjoys long walks on the beach, short walks to the fridge, chili-cheese takoyaki, and golden retrievers. He frequents Lake Travis, Lucy’s Fried Chicken, Soccerzone Lakeline, and Lord of the Rings trivia events the world over, but mostly he just naps a lot.

Jordan has a passion for people, puppies, and pasta covered in cheese. Since getting her degree in psychology from Western Washington University, she has made it her goal to find happiness at work, for herself and for others. After growing a startup in Seattle, she decided she needed some sunshine in her life after years of living in the dark. She moved to Austin in 2019 and is happy to have found a Seahawks bar at which she can cheer on her home team – without getting rained on. Jordan loves to travel, read a good book, experiment in the kitchen, and spend her time on the “hiking” trails in Austin with her dogs.

"I’m just ’bout that action, boss." - Marshawn Lynch

Oscar started his professional career as a tax auditor. Soon after, his skills and interest landed him in a role in analytics. He has loved this field ever since.

Outside of work, Oscar loves spending time with his wife and two daughters by taking hiking and camping trips to national parks with the aim of visiting all continental United States. He enjoys reading books on varied topics such as psychology, anthropology and coming of age.

"So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you." - Jesus Christ

“You have brains in your head and feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose.” - Dr. Seuss

Uncertain of how to combine a love of the arts and the analytical into a career, Mallory graduated with her BHA in Arts and Technology from UTD. Initially dabbling in animation, web design and film, she finally decided to pursue a career in User Experience Research and Design in 2015 and went on to earn her MS in Information Studies from UT.

Mallory believes that, at its simplest, UX is a way of figuring out how the world works and making it better – it perfectly combines art and analytics to facilitate the solving of difficult problems with imaginative solutions.

In her free time, Mallory is taking care of her four pets, reading, streaming sci-fi, horror and action shows/movies, and attending art events around Austin.

Hiking and backpacking in the Colorado mountains are where you will find Carl on his down time – enjoying the scenery and rejuvenating. Professionally his passion is in Network Administration and Technology Consulting. Carl’s experience spans over 25 years. Born and raised in Houston, TX, he moved to Austin in 2002. Opening an IT Consulting business in 2004, he found his niche in helping small-to-medium organizations establish themselves technologically and flourish. Carl was key to aiding several surrounding Austin area city governments as they transitioned to the latest available technology. In 2016 he joined Austin Energy as their Senior Storage Area Network Administrator, a vital part of the City of Austin’s elite system operations team.

Carl’s wife Kristine and his three children are his support system at home and often join him in his quest to complete all 58 Colorado mountain peaks exceeding 14,000 feet (known as “14ers” locally).

"Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity, but in doing it." - Greg Anderson

Colin earned a BS in Information Science from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Particularly fascinated by his database theory and user experience classes, Colin pursued work in the latter but took a software quality assurance internship at a local start-up after graduation. Colin loved the fast-paced environment and the opportunities for new skill development, wearing multiple hats, from QA analyst, software engineer, to data architect, before eventually overseeing all technology teams. Following a year spent leading a distributed team of data engineers on a corporate EDW project in Australia, Colin found himself pining for work in his own city and landed at BlackLocus.

Alex was born in Siberia, Russia, with a “math and computer geek” syndrome and an apparent allergy to cold weather. It took him 20 long years to get to Austin, Texas, where he started his PhD program in 2003 (and discovered you can’t buy beer in US until you are 21!). Now Alex holds a PhD in Operations Research and Industrial Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin. He thinks his calling is to help build a better world through large-scale optimization models, turning chaos into controlled chaos. He has over decade of experience doing just that.

Before joining BlackLocus, he worked in the nuclear safety, finance, and transportation asset management industries, building decision support tools of different types that affect hundred millions of people around the globe.

Outside of work Alex enjoys traveling and spending time with his family. His hobbies include pickup soccer games at Zilker, practicing guitar and playing different computer games. From time to time he publishes his traveling pics to https://500px.com/agalenko.

Born and raised in Bangalore, India, Abhirami came to the United States for her graduate studies and graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic institute with a master’s in Computer Science. She moved to Austin for her first job and realized solving data problems was her main interest. She has been learning and working on multiple data solutions since.

When she is not on her laptop she is binging on popular whodunit shows/movies, painting away her afternoons and trying out new bakes.

Matt has a storied history in behavioral analysis beginning with criminal behavior at the Austin Police Department, then to consumer behavior for the financial industry and finally attendee behavior for the conference and events industry. He has a passion for finding truth hidden in data. Matt is a longtime Austinite and received an Masters of Social Work and an MBA from The University of Texas. Outside of work Matt spends his time with one enduring wife, two brave children and two stupid dogs.

"Courageous convictions will drag the dream into existence." - Neil Peart

Madhavi likes to be a multi-tasker, with the ability to have high focus on all tasks at hand. Madhavi loves to see and make things grow – be it her huge variety of palms at home, her two boys or her ever growing circle of well wishers!

With interests in gardening, weight training and coding, Madhavi is usually seen on the go managing something or the other…

Andrew grew up in the Catskill Mountains of New York and followed his job to Austin in 2018. He started building computers and hosting LAN parties in highschool and pursued that interest to a career in IT and software development. After 12 years in the healthcare and tolling industries he’s still not tired of helping folks solve their problems and is always looking for a new challenge.

Outside of work he can be found enjoying Austin’s food and music, playing PC games, improving his cooking skills, and enjoying the great outdoors.

Lance has over 18 years of experience with SQL and data wrangling combined with analytical knowledge in the events, healthcare, and gaming industries. He has a BS in Math from The University of Texas and has passed two actuary exams.

"Going in one more round when you don’t think you can. That’s what makes all the difference in your life." - Rocky IV

Maggie is her name and data is her game. Maggie loves a challenge and continuous learning is a foundational piece of her life. Needless to say, she loves all things problem solving. Maggie previously worked for Home Depot’s Services organization in Atlanta but decided the tech side of the business and Austin’s landscape was more her style.

Maggie attended University of Georgia’s Terry School of Business but has been rooting for the Bulldogs since she could talk. Outside of work you can find her trying new foods, reading a book, or cutting a rug to some live music.

Stephanie was born and raised near the North Carolina coast and spent undergrad at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (go ‘Heels!). An operations and change management wonk, Stephanie is naturally curious about how systems and processes can be made lean, profitable, and productive. She’s grabbed on tightly to a career assembling and coaching teams through periods of rapid growth, and is moth-to-the-flame when it is time to scale.
Find her around Austin banging on a Brazilian drum, eating at the new restaurant, camping, or playing super-auntie to a small herd of miniature-adults.

“One way to open your eyes is to ask yourself, "What if I had never seen this before? What if I knew I would never see it again?” ― Rachel Carson

Nicholas was born in Austin, but raised in New Orleans. He graduated with a degree in Accounting and worked in Public Accounting. After taking some SQL courses, he decided to switch to data analytics and hasn’t looked back since. His interests include automation, gardening, snow skiing, reading, cooking, and traveling.

“When you’re good to others, you’re best to yourself” - Benjamin Franklin

Shamita brings with her 18 years of experience driving business needs – in product and analytics. Prior to BlackLocus, she worked as a Product Management consultant for TJX companies, being a visionary for the Merchandising Platform modernization and Analytics projects. Shamita loves challenges and believes that effective communication and transparency are the keys to successful Product Management. Shamita has an MBA in Finance from UMASS Boston, is a certified SAFE Agilist and PSPO Product Owner.

When she is not working, she is seen doing Theater or acting in front of Camera. She has acted in various Indian Plays, short films, and music videos. She is also passionate about Direction and Script Writing.

George is originally from Long Island, New York. He came down to Austin in 2022 to trade in his lifestyle of pizza and bagels for tacos and bbq. George graduated from Bucknell as a CS Eng where he would call himself a math major with a really big calculator. Outside of work he’s usually slowly learning guitar, reading science and tech books or exploring Austin on his electric longboard. George is also a big Python fanboy and Italian hand speaking interpreter.

"Remember Kids the Only Difference Between Screwing Around and Science Is Writing It Down" - Adam Savage

"If you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely" -Roald Dahl