Incorta Community GEM: Marc Paige

[KailaT]

Last month we started a new program called “Incorta Community GEM’s”.  A GEM is an individual who “Goes the Extra Mile” by helping Incorta create a welcoming and valuable community space. Each month get excited to learn from Incorta community members as they share a little bit about themselves.

For this month's GEM Spotlight, say hello to Marc Paige ( @marcpaige ), Assistant Vice President Corporate Security at GC Services.

Where in the world are you currently based?

Houston TX USA

What is your role at your company? What are your responsibilities?

I am in charge of corporate security and data analytics

What is your favorite part of your job?

I love experimenting with data and discovering new insights. Figuring out how to combine data from disparate sources and analyzing them is very satisfying.

With so many years in the industry, what current industry trends do you find most interesting and why?

I think that this industry in particular has lagged behind when it comes to driving the business with data. That is changing, slowly, but nonetheless changing. I found it surprising that the collections space relied on “gut” feelings when it comes to deciding how to prioritize work. At one point in my history, I hired an intern, math major, to perform (ML wasn’t a thing at this point) analysis on one of our data sets for a specific business category. He found an interesting scoring model that was trigonometric! The powers that were didn’t understand it and sloughed it off. What a shame that was. The seed of ML scoring was planted on concrete. It took many years of pushing to get the business to listen after that. Now that data has been pushed through so many channels and a few changes at the top, I find renewed interest and verve in driving business through data.

Why did you join the Incorta Community?

I joined to ask and answer. I know that most questions have an answer and a vibrant community is the best place for that kind of dialog.

You're the star of the show. Brag about yourself! What is your greatest career accomplishment so far?

I have been coding or building computers for over 50 years. (Yes, I started very young building mnemonic circuits with vacuum tubes and Christmas tree lights. Or to quote Spock from The City on the Edge of Forever: “I am endeavoring, ma'am, to construct a mnemonic memory circuit using stone knives and bearskins.”) I studied computer software design in school only because my advisor wondered why I was failing so badly as a PoliSci major. “What are you good at?” “I know how to do pretty much anything on a computer…” “Then why aren’t you a compsci major?” “Huh…good question. I never thought of doing that as a career.” In one day, I wrote 50,000 lines of bug-free compiled-the-first-time code in C++. I still haven’t topped that from a coding perspective. I replaced a mainframe (IBM 390) with a set of .net applications and services in 6 years. That ranks up there pretty high. I know many people have tried and failed in that task. A nod to this space, Bringing Incorta into my world has been a great accomplishment! 😉 

If you hadn't chosen your current career path, what do you think you would be instead?

I would have been a linguist, an actor, or a writer. I was voted most likely to go to Hollywood by my highschool. I love the stage. From the language side, I have studied and can converse comfortably in German, Russian, and Klingon. On the writer front, I have written many short stories and have a complete scifi novel in me somewhere (no time to get it out sadly.)

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Thanks Marc for all of your hard work!