Nicolas Padilla

Before joining London Business School, Dr Nicolas Padilla obtained his BSc in Industrial Engineering, a MSc in Operations Management from Universidad de Chile and a PhD Candidate in Marketing at Columbia Business School.

His research on using quantitative methods to inform marketing decisions focuses on studying the customer journey, and applying machine learning methods to infer consumers’ preferences and inform their customer management decisions.

Specifically, Dr Padilla studies how firms can use the customer journey path from search to transaction as a source of information, to complement often thin historical data, in order to identify customers’ preferences, assess conversion likelihood, predict products' choice, and inform the firm on product recommendation. Another of his papers proposes a solution to the so-called “cold start” problem of customer management whereby firms need to manage just-acquired customers for whom the information is limited.

Methodologically, Dr Padilla applies Bayesian econometrics, probabilistic machine learning, and Bayesian non-parametric models to estimate customer preferences and guide firms' actions.

Work experience

• London Business School Assistant Professor of Marketing
• CERET (Centro de Estudios del Retail), Universidad de Chile Director de Estudios
• Enjoy S.A. Analista de Proyectos Digitales
• Enjoy S.A.
  • Analista de Desarrollo de Canales
  • Practica Profesional 2
• Clinica Alemana de Santiago Practica Profesional 1

Education

• Columbia University - Columbia Business School Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) Marketing
• Universidad de Chile Magíster en Gestión de Operaciones Gestión y supervisión de operaciones
• Universidad de Chile Ingeniero Civil Industrial Ingeniería industrial
• Universidad de Chile Licenciatura en Ciencias de la Ingeniería, Mención Industrial Ciencias de la Ingeniería