Michael Braun

Michael Braun uses probability models to tackle business problems as diverse as forecasting customer retention, reconstructing unobserved events from partially-observed data, and capturing patterns of consumer choice. An expert on customer decision processes for insurance products, Professor Braun's research has allowed insurers to predict which customers are most likely to absorb the costs of losses themselves, rather than file an insurance claim. He is currently working on applications of probability theory to evolving issues in the media, consumer goods, online financial services, and direct marketing industries.

Before entering academia, Professor Braun worked on the development and deployment of broadband Internet products for such companies as Comcast, Marcus Cable and Charter Communications. From 1999 to 2002, he was Vice President for Global Affiliate Operations of Chello Broadband, the Amsterdam-based Internet arm of United Pan-Europe Communications, the largest cable operator in Europe. An avid sports fan, he also worked as a production assistant at ESPN, and as a researcher for NBC at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona.

In addition to his Ph.D. from Penn, Professor Braun holds an A.B. (with Honors) in Economics from Princeton University and an MBA from Duke University's Fuqua School of Business. He is a member of the American Statistical Association and the American Marketing Association. He bikes to work, thinks air conditioning is the world's greatest invention, and believes that the best vacation spots are the ones that are really hard to get to.