Michael B. Simon is an American

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entreprene ...

and analytics expert who notably led analytics efforts on

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

's 2008 presidential election campaign. He is the co-founder of the technology startup Elucd.

Early life

Simon reportedly got his first computer at the age of four and, as a fifteen-year-old high school freshman in 1996, had started an internet business with four friends. He attended

Seaholm High School Ernest W. Seaholm High School (simply referred to as Seaholm High School) is a magnet high school in Birmingham, Michigan, United States. It was established in 1951 and is part of the Birmingham Public Schools district. History Seaholm op ...

Birmingham, Michigan Birmingham is a city in Oakland County, Michigan, Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is a northern suburb of Detroit located along the Woodward Corridor (M-1 (Michigan highway), M-1). As of the 2010 United States Census, 2010 censu ...

, and earned BA and JD degrees from the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

Career

Political campaigns

After working as a field organizer for the

Michigan Democratic Party The Michigan Democratic Party is the affiliate of the Democratic Party in the state of Michigan. It is based in Lansing. Curtis Hertel Jr. is the party's current chair. Structure Residents of the state of Michigan at least 16 years of age are ...

in the 2000 presidential election, and then on

John Kerry John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is an American attorney, politician, and diplomat who served as the 68th United States secretary of state from 2013 to 2017 in the Presidency of Barack Obama#Administration, administration of Barac ...

’s campaign for president in 2004, Simon joined

's 2008 presidential campaign as the analytics director, based in the

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

headquarters. As a part of this campaign, he managed stockpiles of data on voter behavior and preferences. His strategy of precision targeting has been credited with helping to identify undecided voters who could be courted by Obama. Following the campaign, he was appointed in 2009 to serve in the Obama administration at the

Department of Health and Human Services The United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is a cabinet-level executive branch department of the US federal government created to protect the health of the US people and providing essential human services. Its motto is ...

, where he focused on healthcare reform and Medicare. Simon has been a guest speaker at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and the

World Economic Forum The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental organization, international advocacy non-governmental organization and think tank, based in Cologny, Canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German ...

Young Global Leaders Forum of Young Global Leaders, or Young Global Leaders (YGL), is a non-profit organization. The organization was created by Klaus Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum and is managed from Geneva, Switzerland, under the supervision of the Sw ...

HaystaqDNA

In 2013, Simon co-founded HaystaqDNA, where he worked with commercial and advocacy clients to utilize technology to identify targeted individuals using predictive analytics. This also involves matching public posts from social media on political issues such as

health care Health care, or healthcare, is the improvement or maintenance of health via the preventive healthcare, prevention, diagnosis, therapy, treatment, wikt:amelioration, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other disability, physic ...

to refine targeting of voters. As co-founder and president of HaystaqDNA, Simon was active in gaining data and interviewing US voters on subjects like gun safety and energy use. In December 2015, he joined CBS Radio as a senior advisor, to enhance their overall data analytics capabilities.

Elucd

Simon co-founded technology startup Elucd (pronounced e-loo-cid, as in "elucidate"), which launched in 2016 and is based in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

. He serves as CEO of the data analytics firm, which provides cities with an understanding of how citizens feel about their local government. By early 2018, the company had raised $1 million in a seed round backed by the

Y Combinator Y Combinator, LLC (YC) is an American technology startup accelerator and venture capital firm launched in March 2005 which has been used to launch more than 5,000 companies. The accelerator program started in Boston and Mountain View, Californi ...

accelerator, and the

Omidyar Network Omidyar Network is a self-styled "philanthropic investment firm," composed of a foundation and an impact investment firm. Established in 2004 by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pam, Omidyar Network has committed over US$1.5billion to no ...

. The

New York Police Department The City of New York Police Department, also referred to as New York City Police Department (NYPD), is the primary law enforcement agency within New York City. Established on May 23, 1845, the NYPD is the largest, and one of the oldest, munic ...

first approached Simon in 2014 to see if it were possible to measure public approval of local police. In 2016, Elucd began developing the underlying technology that became Elucd in collaboration with the NYPD. Elucd uses surveys obtained through digital advertisements to measure public perception of safety and police, providing real-time statistics. It was introduced by the NYPD in 2017. Elucd has also worked with the

Chicago Police Department The Chicago Police Department (CPD) is the primary law enforcement agency of the city of Chicago, Illinois, United States, under the jurisdiction of the Chicago City Council. It is the second-largest Law enforcement in the United States#Local, ...

, Grand Rapids Police Department, and South Bend Police Department.

Works

* Serge Grossman and Michael Simon. "And Congress Shall Know the Truth: The Pressing Need for Restructuring Congressional Oversight of Intelligence". '' Harvard Law & Policy Review'', pp. 435–447. 2008.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Simon, Michael B. Obama administration personnel Living people Year of birth missing (living people) University of Michigan Law School alumni People from Birmingham, Michigan Analytics