2013 Tillman Scholar

Michael Kothakota

Army
Northwestern University
M.S., Predictive Analytics

Mike wanted nothing more than to serve in the military – like his father, his mother and his brother. Deployed to Iraq in 2004 as an infantryman, his idealized thoughts about combat were shattered. Assuming that military leadership ran on the best available information, he realized very quickly that decisions were made that were not always congruent with what we knew.

He went to school at Northwestern to earn a Master’s in Predictive Analytics and concentrated on how information can be used to reduce risk. The application of statistical and modern machine learning techniques to make reasonable predictions about future outcomes is essential to reducing all sorts of risk. Business risk, political risk, financial risk and personal risk.  

Mike’s goal is to help veteran entrepreneurs become the next wave of great business leaders.  To take the country and the world into the next great era of innovation and prosperity.