Claudia Gerola was a program manager at IBM specializing in business and information technology and big data analysis, and an adjunct professor at Columbia University teaching advanced degree students and executive workshops. She began her career at IBM in 1980, and from 2010-2011 worked as IBM’s program executive for the City of New York, helping the city build risk-based analytics for fire prevention. Gerola’s other major clients over a decades-long career with IBM included the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and the Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi.