Chris Anderson is a pioneer of soccer analytics and a sought-after football industry advisor. A former semi-professional player in his native Germany, Anderson is passionate about using rigorous and appropriate analysis to acquire, manage, and build and sustain clubs in the context of global competition for talent and success.Some of his past projects have involved bespoke football club acquisition due diligence and advice. Others have produced econometric models and algorithms useful for understanding, predicting, and improving team performance and valuing clubs’ player assets. Chris’ work can be used to build more effective teams while maximizing the impact of club expenditures.
Before co-founding Anderson Sally, Chris was a professor at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, a member of the famous Ivy League consortium of universities and one of the world’s leading research institutions, where he taught political economy and political sociology. In addition to his duties with Anderson Sally, Chris is currently a Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics. Through his academic research, Anderson has developed a global reputation as an expert on the application of multilevel statistical models to explain how economic and political structures shape citizens’ judgments and voting behaviors. This and other work has been recognized by peers, garnering Anderson a variety of scientific awards.
Anderson has held appointments at a number of elite universities, including Oxford University and Stanford’s Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences. He also has taught management strategy at prominent business schools, including Cornell’s Johnson School of Management and Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, and he has extensive management experience in academic settings.
Anderson has been a frequent commentator on the use of analytics in football and Big Data in high performing organizations. He also has been a speaker at a number of industry events, including the prestigious Sports Analytics Conference held annually in Boston by MIT’s Sloan Business School
All sounds very grand and important but what has he been brought in to do exactly?