Luke Wu, Class of 2014

I graduated from Shanghai University of Finance and Economics with a B.A. in Real Estate and Investment. Joining the MMPA program was one of the best decisions I could have made, despite not ending up working as a CPA.

I started my career as a Data Analyst in the automotive industry, and since then, I have been the Lead Data Scientist at PayPal with a focus on risk fraud analytics. With an accounting background, I find that my analysis and perspective on tough business issues are more well-rounded than those with only the technical skills. MMPA has successfully taught me to factor in cost-benefit analysis, incremental/marginal benefit, and opportunity cost, just to name a few.

The most valuable thing I gained from my experience in the program is the case-based teaching approach. This has had a tremendous impact on my journey to getting to where I am today. Working in the data science industry, I’ve learned that it is not all about technical skills in programming, machine learning algorithms, or processing big data, but also serving as a “bridging interpreter” between data engineers and business stakeholders. This means that a big part of my job involves translating coding scripts and formulas into a language our clients can understand and building trust with our stakeholders by reliably telling stories through data insights – and I have MMPA to thank for that.