Meet the Founder
Throughout her career, Deb repeatedly witnessed how siloed data created unnecessary work and hampered business visibility across organizations. In her previous role, she saw how inaccurate ship dates rippled through the entire organization, impacting everything from customer satisfaction and inventory management to revenue forecasting and production planning. The constant juggling of shifting variables - from production schedules and supply chain disruptions to order modifications - highlighted the need for a better solution. This experience, combined with her expertise in data analytics and AI, inspired her to found Quant Fusion, with the mission of bringing clarity and confidence to the order management process. Since founding the company, she has discovered that data chasing and Excel work arounds are pervasive in most industries for a multitude of tasks.
Deb Friar's cross-functional experience spans multiple industries: Retail, Consumer Packaged Goods, Marketing Technology, Commercial Equipment, and SaaS. She has held key roles in data heavy functions including Sales, Marketing, Product Innovation, and Supply Chain at companies like Target, Pillsbury, Pepsi, and Welbilt. A BBA and MBA graduate of the University of Wisconsin, Deb is also an early adopter of generative AI, applying its capabilities to over 100 business use cases and enhancing data-driven decision tools that span departmental fiefdoms. To bolster her knowledge, she completed an Applied Data Science certificate from MIT in 2023.
Building Blocks
Cross-Industry Vantage & Silo-Busting Mindset
Having led Sales, Marketing, Product Innovation, and Supply Chain initiatives within Retail, CPG, Marketing Technology, Commercial Equipment, and SaaS, I’ve witnessed firsthand how fragmented data and disjointed processes undercut efficiency and profitability. This broad experience equips me to quickly pinpoint and address margin-stealing operational bottlenecks. By examining an organization’s full value chain—rather than focusing on one department alone—I see beyond conventional silos and unify them under a single strategic vision.
Advanced AI & Data Integration Mastery
Throughout my career, I’ve “begged and borrowed” siloed data from Sales, Finance, Supply Chain, and other departments to build integrated analytics tools that reveal and eliminate hidden inefficiencies. For example, I created a system that recaptured 20% of an operation’s wasted capacity by automating a formerly manual process hampered by disconnected data feeds. Equipped with MIT Applied Data Science and AWS Generative AI certifications, as well as thousands of hours of prompt engineering for hundreds of business use cases, I leverage Python, Google Cloud, and emerging multi-AI agent technologies to transform raw information into actionable insights, ensuring every data source plays a role in measurable, bottom-line impact.
Real-World P&L Accountability & Transformational Implementation
In roles where I carried P&L responsibility I experienced the costly effects of guesswork in cases where the right data was not available. By building processes that connected disconnected teams and data sources, I consistently drove revenue gains, streamlined forecasting, and implemented frictionless workflows. My firsthand understanding of budgetary pressures, combined with a knack for operational design, positions me to create software that delivers substantial ROI.