Executive Spotlight: Usama Fayyad, Senior Vice Provost for AI and Data Strategy at Northeastern University (2027)
Usama Fayyad is Senior Vice Provost for AI and Data Strategy and Senior Advisor to the President at Northeastern University, and a professor of the practice in the Khoury College of Computer Sciences. He joined Northeastern in 2020 as the first executive director of the Institute for Experiential AI. Before academia he built machine learning systems at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, led data mining work at Microsoft Research, and became Yahoo's first chief data officer.
This page covers public professional information only, drawn from Northeastern's own pages.
Current role and company
Northeastern's AI institute site and the Roux Institute's people page both give his title as Senior Vice Provost for AI and Data Strategy and Senior Advisor to the President. The AI institute page also lists him as the Institute for Experiential AI's founding executive director, and both pages say he is a professor of the practice at Khoury College of Computer Sciences. The Roux page describes his work on the Institute as running from 2021 to 2025. Neither page states the date the new title took effect.
- OrganizationNortheastern University.
- TitleSenior Vice Provost for AI and Data Strategy and Senior Advisor to the President, per Northeastern's pages.
- Academic appointmentProfessor of the practice, Khoury College of Computer Sciences.
- At Northeastern since2020.
Career path
- Education. Northeastern's pages say he holds a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in engineering with a focus on AI and machine learning, plus other engineering and mathematics degrees. The two pages word the lower degrees differently, so this page does not list them.
- NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He founded the Machine Learning Systems group at JPL, work tied to a Caltech research excellence award and a U.S. Government medal from NASA, according to the Roux page.
- Microsoft. He held leadership positions at Microsoft; Northeastern's AI site says he founded the Data Mining and Exploration Group at Microsoft Research in 1997.
- Startups and Yahoo. He led startups including digiMine and DMX Group. A startup he led was acquired by Yahoo, where he became the first known chief data officer and founded Yahoo Research Labs and its Strategic Data Solutions group.
- Open Insights. He founded the data consulting firm Open Insights in 2008 and now chairs it.
- Barclays and health tech. He was global chief data officer and group managing director at Barclays Bank in London, and co-founder and chief technology officer of OODA Health.
- Northeastern. Northeastern announced him as the inaugural executive director of the Institute for Experiential AI on October 9, 2020.
What he is known for
- Chief data officer role. Northeastern's announcement describes him as the first person known to hold the chief data officer title, at Yahoo.
- Data mining research community. The announcement says he co-founded the KDD conference and SIGKDD. Northeastern's AI site lists him as a Fellow of AAAI and of ACM, with more than 100 technical articles and over 20 patents.
- Building the Institute for Experiential AI. The institute is a university-wide hub for application-driven, human-centered AI. Its site describes four focus areas: AI and Health, AI and Life Sciences, Responsible AI, and AI for Climate and Sustainability.
Leadership style and philosophy
On the name of the institute's approach, Fayyad said in Northeastern's 2020 announcement: "I used to call it 'pragmatic AI' and 'hybrid AI,' but I think 'experiential AI' is a better term for it." At a 2024 Boston Globe summit, Northeastern's write-up quotes him saying a lot of the interesting research of the past decade "has happened in companies, not in universities," and that the gap needs to be fixed. The Roux page states his vision for the institute as combining human and machine intelligence into practical AI solutions.
Key numbers
Institute figures are Northeastern-reported and undated on the page read; they are not Fayyad's personal figures.
- Institute faculty90+ faculty members across Northeastern, per the Institute for Experiential AI home page.
- Focus areasFour, per the institute's home page.
- Institute announcementFayyad named inaugural executive director on October 9, 2020.
- Firm foundedOpen Insights, 2008, per Northeastern.
What to watch next
Worth tracking: how his university-wide AI and data strategy role develops alongside the Institute for Experiential AI, and how Northeastern updates its descriptions of both.
Questions people ask
Who is Usama Fayyad?
He is Senior Vice Provost for AI and Data Strategy and Senior Advisor to the President at Northeastern University, and a professor of the practice at Khoury College.
What was his role at the Institute for Experiential AI?
Northeastern named him the institute's inaugural executive director in October 2020. Its AI site calls him the founding executive director.
What did he do at Yahoo?
Northeastern says he became Yahoo's chief data officer, described as the first known holder of the title, and founded Yahoo Research Labs and the Strategic Data Solutions group.
What is Open Insights?
It is a data consulting firm he founded in 2008 to help enterprises get more value from their data. He now chairs it.
Where did he work before Northeastern?
His roles include NASA JPL, Microsoft Research, Yahoo, Barclays Bank and OODA Health, per Northeastern's pages.
What professional honors does he hold?
Northeastern's AI site lists him as a Fellow of AAAI and ACM.
Sources
- Northeastern Institute for Experiential AI: Usama Fayyad · Title, bio, career, honors, headshot
- Roux Institute at Northeastern: Usama Fayyad · Title, career, awards, institute dates
- Northeastern Global News: Fayyad named to lead the Institute of Experiential AI (Oct 9, 2020) · Appointment, career, quotes
- Northeastern Institute for Experiential AI: Boston Globe summit (Oct 1, 2024) · 2024 remarks
- Northeastern Institute for Experiential AI home page · Faculty count and focus areas
Facts were read from the linked pages on October 31, 2026, partly through a fetch tool that returns summaries, so confirm details on the original pages. The hero photo is Usama Fayyad's portrait from Northeastern's Institute for Experiential AI site. This page covers public professional information only.
Top photo: Northeastern University (ai.northeastern.edu/ai-our-people/usama-fayyad)