Alumni Spotlight: Reed Hayes

Those of you who frequent websites, social media or have received other forms of communication from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, may have noticed a shift to include the Power T in all of our word marks. This was done as an effort to convey a greater cohesion among all campus units not just athletics. We gain strength and power when everyone works together.

A perfect example of the power of working together as a team can be seen in a recent relationship with Coca-Cola Refreshments and the Department of Business Analytics and Statistics. This relationship was started by Rob Carrico, in the development office, and Reed Hayes, a manager of strategic initiatives for Coca-Cola Refreshment.

Reed received his bachelor’s degree in supply chain management in 2010 from the Haslam College of Business. His first job after college was for Volkswagen Group of America as a Demand Planning Analyst. In 2011, Reed and his wife, Katherine Farrar, moved to Chattanooga, and he began his work with Coca-Cola Refreshments in January 2012 as an inventory planning manager. In his current role as a manager of strategic initiatives for the COLD market North American portfolio he was tasked with implementing a strategic project that increases customer prospecting and reduces customer churn by leveraging predictive analytics.

In the summer of 2014 Reed connected with Rob Carrico at an alumni event, and expressed a need for help in the area of business analytics. Carrico sought out our department, and through this connection several new opportunities have evolved benefitting both Reed’s work at Coca-Cola and the students and faculty in the Department of Business Analytics.

The MSBA students worked with Coca-Cola on one of their capstone projects, and Michel Ballings has been given access to large amounts of data to provide research on Cocoa-Cola’s customer analytics. These projects lead to another research opportunity for one of the marketing department’s faculty, and all signs point to a long-range partnership between Coca-Cola and the analytics department.

This fall Reed will leave Coca-Cola to pursue an MBA at MIT’s Sloan School of Management. After graduating from MIT, Reeds goals are to improve the quality of care for dementia patients and to help spread fiber optic internet cable to ensure America’s competitiveness in the digital age. As you can see, regardless of what you studied while on campus, you are a part of the Tennessee community and you add value to our name. We are proud to have Reed representing Tennessee and can’t wait to see what his future holds. The business analytics and statistics department is grateful to Reed for embodying what it means to be a Vol for life. Thank you Reed for all your support.