Tapping into current big data and modeling trends, PeaceTech Lab has appointed a Chief Data Scientist and Economist to launch its innovative ‘groundTruth’ corporate program. Dr. Michel Leonard – who at one time was the youngest chief economist at a Fortune 100 firm – will establish a center of excellence dedicated to data science and risk analytics focusing on stability risk, political risk, and conflict resolution in emerging and frontier markets. Dr. Michel Leonard comes to the Lab from Alliant Insurance Services, a KKR portfolio company, and will oversee the creation of the Lab's corporate membership program, called groundTruth. Private public partnerships are evolving as corporate leaders and investors recognize their role in building peaceful, stable societies. Starting in January 2016, groundTruth will be a new type of corporate membership built on addressing the mutual needs of companies and peace builders operating in or near conflict countries.
"Complex global threats like ISIS stress the need for real-time data for peacebuilders and communities in conflict," says Sheldon Himelfarb, President and CEO of the PeaceTech Lab. "Social media and news analytic tools, which the corporate world is already using, have enormous potential to create and evaluate conflict prevention methods."
The United States Institute of Peace, this nation's center for conflict resolution, created PeaceTech Lab to prevent violent conflict and promote secure and peaceful societies through the use of data, technology and media. Spun off recently as an independent organization, the Lab connects peace-builders in conflict-affected societies with the resources and know-how to create peaceful change. It is the first of its kind to bring together engineers and activists, MBAs and conflict experts, social scientists and data scientists to develop new ways of amplifying the power of media, tech, and data to both save lives and invite private sector investment.
groundTruth will build on the Lab's unique position at the intersection of government, the private sector and conflict resolution experts to set a new global standard in providing real time and locally generated data and analytics to better manage the risks of operating in emerging and frontier markets.
"The Lab is a game changer. By combining the know-how of key policymakers and leading technology innovators, it will create a new standard in forecasting the risks posed by conflicts to the private sector, government actors, and peace builders,” says Dr. Leonard. “Political risk has always needed an institutional center of expertise to assemble, advance, and disseminate best-in-class data and models so that everyone in the field can access scalable risk analytics: This is it."
groundTruth is based on Leonard's research over the last 20 years and, more specifically, his work at Alliant Insurance Services. Thanks to Alliant, Dr Leonard is bringing with him data, analytics, and risk solutions developed over his 10 years at Alliant advising global companies on emerging and frontier markets risk management.
Using big data analytics and modeling, the Lab will create tools to support locally driven solutions addressing major conflict drivers. PeaceTech Lab will help local partners collect, analyze, visualize and store data for a variety of uses. These may include tracking and forecasting instances of terrorist attacks, civil unrest due to resource shortages, gender violence, and inter-religious conflict.
