Jeff Ma
As a member of the MIT Blackjack Team, Jeff Ma created an ingenious method for counting cards -- using talent, creativity, math and teamwork to win millions in Vegas. (Card-counting, by the way, is not illegal; casinos just don't like it.) Ma is the subject of the best-selling book Bringing Down the House and the hit movie, 21, which topped the box office in its first two weeks. He has since co-founded ProTrade, a revolutionary sports website, and become a much-sought after corporate speaker. Ma shows companies how to harness the power of numbers to make better bottom line business decisions; decisions that, often, are the difference between winning and losing.
At the blackjack table, and in the world of pro sports, Jeff Ma entered very emotional, "gut-feel" environments and achieved success by not only gathering the right data and analyzing it rationally, but also having the courage to follow through on the sometimes counterintuitive answers it provided. With stories drawn from sports and from Vegas, he helps you better visualize how a more rigorous approach to numbers will improve results in everything from sales to HR to strategy. A charismatic speaker, Ma talks about teamwork and innovative metrics in a way that will make you reevaluate how you access talent, find undervalued assets and measure the true worth of your business. Best of all, you don't need to be a calculus nerd to implement his winning strategies. By eschewing emotion and honing in on hard facts and results, Ma has helped usher in what Newsweek calls "a new age of numbers in corporate America."
Jeffrey Ma is the co-founder of Citizen Sports, the revolutionary sports media company that is changing the way businesses today use numbers and metrics to build their brand and retain customer loyalty. From Sports Illustrated to ESPN and from Ford to McDonald's, Ma has been instrumental in bringing these powerful organizations into the digital age.
A sought-after corporate speaker, Jeff Ma shows companies how harnessing the power of these technology-driven platforms, using not only social media, but concrete data and numbers, can create incredible success. Whether sharing his personal experiences on the blackjack table or his consultations with sports executives and scouts, he shows how you can use math and media to make a positive difference in your organization. Thoughtful and charismatic, Ma's story from the blackjack table to corporate business is told in his first book, The House Advantage: Playing the Odds to Win Big in Business.
