JIM ANDERSON:
President and Founder of Urban Science in Detroit. He leads the company’s global management team and sets its strategic direction. He formed Urban Science in 1977 to satisfy the growing need of automakers and car dealers for customer and demographic information. The company has been responsible for several firsts, including the first to draw dot maps on a computer in the late 1970s and the first geographic information system to print color images from a computer screen with laser technology in the early 1980s. Urban Science combines scientific analysis and marketing expertise to help companies evaluate structure and manage their retail sales channels. It employs 400 people worldwide and 170 at its Detroit headquarters. Anderson has been active in automobile dealer network planning for 30 years. He also provides expert legal testimony. He began his career in 1967 on the engineering faculty at Wayne State University, where he developed environmental models and computer mapping techniques to display data. He later expanded his capabilities to map census and employment data and other types of demographic information. He also developed statistical and mathematical models for location analysis of demographic data. Anderson was named Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year in 2002. In 2003, he developed the Engineering Ventures Program at Wayne State University (WSU) through an endowed chair in the College of Engineering, engineering student scholarships, and offices for the program. Anderson received WSU’s Arthur Carr outstanding teacher of the year award in 1972 and the distinguished engineering alumni achievement award in 1995, and the Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan’s humanitarian award in 2008. That same year,
Crain’s Detroit Business recognized Urban Science with its Small Business Award. Anderson received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in engineering from WSU.
