Big data analytics is the basis of decision making in an organization. It involves the examination of a large number of data sets in order to identify the hidden patterns that result in their existence. Consequently, it becomes easier for the big data influencers to study the big data market trends, the preferences of the customers, and the hidden correlation between them, which, in turn, will help the organizations to take effective decisions with respect to their businesses.
Data is huge in amount and it tends to drive our lives in a number of ways either directly or indirectly. And thus the name big data; it analysis gives rise to a lot of information in both areas of a person’s life- personal and professional. Better analysis of data will result in better handling of data and using it for further developments. Therefore, there must be some brain heads who are actually working to give rise to all this; they are the big data influencers.
These big data and analytics influencers are the people, who are highly skilled experts in various fields and they have helped a number of organizations with their expert advice on the analysis of big data. Apart from people, there are a number of brands too, that are influencers of big data.
List of Top 20 Big Data and Analytics Influencers
Here is a list of top 20 big data and analytics influencers who have been highly effective in harnessing the potential of data science. It is no wonder that they have more than thousands and millions of followers on Twitter.
Let’s meet the top 20 big data and analytics influencers in the order of their twitter followers.
1. Andrew Ng
Andrew Ng is a prominent name among the Data science thought leaders. He is an adjunct professor at Stanford University and the co-founder of Coursera. Formerly, he was the head of the Artificial Intelligence unit in Baidu. He is also an enthusiast researcher, having authored and co-authored around 100 research papers on machine learning, AI, deep learning, and robotics and many more relevant fields. He has also worked in close collaboration with Google on their ‘Google brain’ project, which dealt with deep learning algorithms. He is also a well-known social media influencer with over 344K followers on Twitter.
Follow him on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AndrewYNg
2. Kirk Borne
He is the principal data scientist and executive advisor at the Booz Allen Hamilton since 2015. He worked as an astrophysicist in NASA formerly, thereafter he was also called upon to analyze the big data, by the former President of US post the 9/11 attack on the WTC, in order to prevent further attacks. He is one of the top data science and big data influencers accounting for more than 211K followers on Twitter.
Follow him on Twitter: https://twitter.com/KirkDBorne
3. Ronald van Loon
He is one of the top ten big data influencers, specialized in big data, data science, machine learning, IoT, analytics, and AI. Ronald works for making businesses more successful by analyzing the big data for them, thus by garnering the value and benefits from the analysis. Apart from helping the businesses flourish, he is also a good speaker as well as an efficient writer.
He has been writing on big data trends and related topics that have been published in data Science Central, DataFloq, and many other platforms. With over 156K followers on Twitter, he is one of the most sought-after big data influencers.
Follow him on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Ronald_vanLoon
4. Gregory Piatetsky
Gregory Piatetsky is a well-known name in the field of Data Mining, Business Analytics, Data Science, and Big Data. He is the president of KDnuggets, and one of the top Big Data influencers. Gregory is the co-founder of SIGKDD, the professional association for Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining, and KDD (Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining conferences).
Gregory has over 60 publications and has edited several books and collections on knowledge discovery and big data. Gregory has a deep belief that data science is the answer to all the problems of the world. He is also a social media influencer with over 286,105 followers on LinkedIn.
Follow him on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/gpiatetsky/
5. Lillian Pierson
Lillian Pierson is a big name among the best big data influencers. She is the founder of Data-Mania, which offers training courses both online and offline and also organizes workshops on Big Data, analytics, and data science. She is mainly associated with the technical domain, where she works with big companies such as Dell, Intel, and others.
She also works with the government organizations such as US Navy. She is also a blogger for her own company’s website and also has written two books. She is a data strategist, trainer, and biz coach to the tech professionals who keep on sharing her knowledge with her 120K twitter followers continuously.
Follow her on twitter: https://twitter.com/BigDataGal
6. Hilary Mason
Hilary Mason has founded the machine learning Research Company called Fast Forward labs, and currently, she is the CEO here. Apart from being a big data expert, she is also the GM of Machine Learning at Cloudera and a data scientist at Accel. Being a data scientist, she advises companies with various strategies on data analysis and business intelligence. She is one of the members of the board of directors at Anita Borg Institute for Women in Technology. She was also a former Chief Scientist at Bitly. Besides holding so many positions, she is also a writer, speaker, and an influencer. Her twitter account has over 111K followers.
Follow her on twitter: https://twitter.com/hmason
7. Naval Ravikant
Ravikant is the co-founder and CEO at AngelList. Apart from being an entrepreneur, he is an angel investor too who has invested greatly in companies like Uber, Twitter, Stack Overflow. After having invested largely in these companies and many more, TechCrunch named him as the Angel investor just this year as their analysis found that he has invested in more than 88 companies for a decade. He is also a social media influencer with over 481K followers on Twitter.
Follow him on Twitter: https://twitter.com/naval
8. Bernard Marr
One of the top big data influencers, Bernard Marr is the big data and analytics expert. Also, he is a strategic performance consultant, author, and speaker. He has written many renowned books such as Data Strategy – How to profit from a World of Big Data, Analytics, and the Internet of Things. His big data and analytics articles are regularly published on Forbes.
Bernard is a strong believer of the concept that says big data and analytics is the answer to every problem in the world. He has over 108K followers on Twitter and hence no wonder he is one of the renowned big data influencers.
Follow him on Twitter: https://twitter.com/BernardMarr
9. Craig Brown
Craig is an expert in big data and also a technology consultant, with an industrial experience as well as technical expertise in the IT sector for more than two decades. Besides being a data consultant and an analytics influencer, he is also a writer and has written the most renowned book – Untapped Potential: The Supreme Partnership of Self in which he talks about the path to achieving success and the tools to be used for the same. He is also highly active in social media, with over 86.7K followers on Twitter where he talks about technical topics.
Follow him on Twitter: https://twitter.com/craigbrownphd
10. Evan Sinar
Evan is the Vice President and also the main data scientist at Development Dimensions International (DDI). He is the head of the Centre for Analytics and Behavioral Research (CABER) which is a team of individuals who are specialists in data analytics, research and customer intelligence. He is a thought leader in big data as well as talent management analytics, IoT, data visualization and leadership development. With over 53.1K followers on Twitter, it is certain that he is a great influencer of big data.
Follow him on Twitter: https://twitter.com/EvanSinar
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11. Carla Gentry
Carla Gentry is a professed data scientist. Owing to the fact that being a data nerd, she has her own data analytics center which is called the Analytical Solution. Formerly an analyst, Carla has helped the big brands like Kellogg’s, Firestone, Hershey, and other companies with her big data analytics skills to come up with better business decisions. She is greatly active on various social platforms too, for instance, her twitter account has more than 50K followers. No wonder she is in the list of top big data influencers.
Follow her on twitter: https://twitter.com/data_nerd
12. Monica Rogati
Monica is an independent AI and data science advisor. As an advisor on big data analytics, she works with a number of companies and organizations in order to address their problems on business strategies and the AI needs. She is an expert in machine learning, recommender systems, and text mining.
She has been worked as a Senior Data Scientist at LinkedIn and Vice President of Data at Jawbone, thereby named as one of the efficient big data influencers. Also, she is an equity partner at DCVC – Data Collective, and Advisor and Guest lecturer at Stanford University. She has built a strong base on social media by sharing her knowledge and has over 46.1K followers on Twitter.
Follow her on twitter: https://twitter.com/mrogati
13. Ben Lorica
Ben Lorica is the Chief Data Scientist at O’Reilly Media, owing to the fact that he is an expert in Business intelligence, machine learning and other relevant domains of marketing and market research, web analytics, financial engineering, and text mining. Besides being the analytics influencer and an expert in advising, he is also a blogger. He has written several blogs on data and technology at The Gradient Flow. He keeps on sharing his data science and big data knowledge with his 42.1K Twitter followers continuously.
Follow him on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bigdata
14. Marcus Borba
He is primarily a data science, big data, and analytics consultant and advisor. He founded Borba Consulting in 2000, and since then performing the role of principal consultant there. Marcus Borba has been awarded the title of top big data expert as well as the influencer, quite a number of times.
Apart from big data, he is also an expert in machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI), business intelligence and digital transformation to name a few. Being an expert in big data and the related fields, he is one of the popular big data influencers who has 31.4K followers on Twitter.
Follow him on Twitter: https://twitter.com/marcusborba
15. Merv Adrian
Merv Adrian is the Vice President and analyst at Gartner for last 7 years. He has 42 years of experience as the analyst in the IT sector. He is a specialist in DBMS, NoSQL, Big Data, and Hadoop. He founded and headed IT Market Strategy with the aim of providing professional services to Adrian has worked as the Senior Vice President at Forrester Research. You can find a number of Adrian blogs on Gartner. Merv Adrian is a well-known name in the big data industry with over 30.6K followers on Twitter.
Follow him on Twitter: https://twitter.com/merv
16. Cindi Howson
Cindi Howson is the Vice President of the research department of Gartner. She is also the founder and president of BI Scorecard since 2001, which is a detailed Business intelligence product review resource essentially based on hands-on testing. She has been a big data expert and advising her clients on selecting BI tools and relevant strategies for more than two decades already.
Apart from being a data analyst, she is also a writer and has written greatly on business intelligence, big data, and analytics. She is one of the social media active big data influencers and has 23.1K followers on Twitter.
Follow her on Twitter: https://twitter.com/BIScorecard
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17. Tamara Dull
Tamara Dull is highly qualified and experienced in data analytics, she is one of the top thought leaders in big data. Being an expert in data privacy and security and big data, she is the director of Emerging Technologies at SAS. She has a wide knowledge in areas of big data and Internet of Things, for a long time since their inception in the global market.
Tamara is one of top 25 in the list of influencers in IoT. Additionally, she has a professional experience of over three decades in technology. She is also a great writer having published her writing on websites such as DataFloq, brand Quarterly, and KDnuggets. Her knowledge is witnessed by her followers, currently, she has over 16.8K followers on Twitter.
Follow her on twitter: https://twitter.com/tamaradull
18. Judith Hurwitz
Hurwitz is the CEO of Hurwitz and Associates. Her agenda is to advise both the developing as well as established companies to derive benefits from the potential of big data and implement in their businesses. She is also a great writer and has written many books. Besides being among the best big data influencers, her book ‘For Dummies’ has gained huge popularity because of its content which is focused on big data, cloud, and cognitive computing. She is also active on social media with 16.4K followers on Twitter.
Follow her on Twitter: https://twitter.com/jhurwitz
19. Jen Stirrup
She is the founder of Data Relish and one of the top influencers of big data and business intelligence both. With over two decades of expertise in the IT sector, she is one of the thought leaders in big data, and now a data strategist and a technologist too. Alongside, she is an SQLFamily and community advocate, a speaker, and also an active blogger at jenstirrup. Jen is a well-known social media influencer with 14.5K followers on Twitter. She has been named twice as one of the top 100 big data influencers.
Follow her on Twitter: https://twitter.com/jenstirrup
20. Vincent Granville
Vincent Granville is the co-founder of Data Science Central, currently working as Executive Data Scientist and Managing Partner. Data Science Central is an online resource for the enthusiast and the professionals in big data analysis and data science. Vincent Granville is one of the Data science thought leaders.
He is a data science pioneer who is highly knowledgeable and a skilled expert in machine learning too, along with business intelligence and data mining. He has helped a number of companies from startups to fortune 100, across various industries and domains, with his knowledge and skills.
Find him on Twitter: https://twitter.com/granvilleDSC
Summing Up
Therefore, it can be well concluded that the field of big data and data science is vast and thus finding a data scientist who is an influencer is greatly dependent on the selection of the domain. While some influencers cover a vast area of research, there are others who are specialists in certain specific areas.
Hence, it is often difficult to come up with a list of the best big data influencers; however, this is a list of the top 20 influencers who are usually followed and looked upon by eminent organizations from a long time. Owing to the expertise they hold, one is sure to benefit from their advice.
There is a lot to learn in the big data and analytics domain. We at Whizlabs are aimed to help the big data freshers and big data professionals in learning and validating their big data skills. Our big data certification training courses are made to help you clear the big data certifications.
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