A Visit With Tim Berry

In this episode of "In the Interim…," Dr. Scott Berry interviews Tim Berry, co-founder of Blend360, detailing a career that demonstrates the practical application of statistical and analytical methods within large-scale business environments. Tim outlines his quick shift from earning a master’s at the University of Minnesota to industry positions, starting at AT&T Bell Laboratories, where he built and tested retention models on millions of consumer records. He recounts his time at Rapp Collins, where analytics had limited organizational impact, before joining Merkle and transforming analytics into a key business component through growing a team from two to over eighty, contributing to hundreds of millions in revenue. At Blend360, Tim discusses acquiring Consultants To Go (C2G) to build new capabilities, focusing on hiring and developing young analytics talent through programs like All-Star. The conversation addresses the evolution from traditional statistics to analytics, the rise of AI and agentic AI for workflow automation and calls out media overstatement of AI-driven disruption. He concludes with pointed career advice to his nephew and other quantitative students: prioritize adaptability, industry experience, and continuous learning over chasing credentials.Key Highlights:Graduate thesis using the Bradley-Terry model for baseball outcome predictionMainframe-driven, large-scale retention modeling at AT&TAnalytics as a peripheral function at Rapp Collins versus central driver at MerkleRapid talent expansion and analytics leadership at MerkleFounding Blend360 and institutional talent developmentAI advancements, agentic AI for business, skepticism on AI hypeConcrete advice for quantitative undergraduatesFor more, visit us at https://www.berryconsultants.com/