Dr. Victor Zitian Chen is the Head of the Science Excellence Center at Amazon People eXperience and Technology (PXT) Central Science. 

Prior to this role, he was the Director of Data Analytics and Insights, Experimental Design, and Causal Inference at Fidelity Investments since 2022, where he was leading the central efforts on causal science using experimentation, causal inference, and multi-touch attribution (MTA). He led the invention and deployment of a cross-enterprise analytics platform for causal analysis, including an in-house built digital twin methodology at scale for investors. 

He was recently peer-voted as among the World's Top 50 Data and Analytics Professionals (ONCON), nominated by the editor as a finalist for the World's Top 40 under 40 Data Leaders (CDO Magazine) in 2023, and most recently listed on the Business North Carolina Power List 2024.

Before industry, Victor was a tenured professor with a decade-long academic career. His most recent post was Associate Professor of International Business at Copenhagen Business School (2022-2022). Before that, he was an Associate Professor in Management at The Belk College of Business, and an Affiliate Faculty at the School of Data Science and the Doctoral Program on Organizational Science at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (2012-2022). At UNC Charlotte, he spearheaded the Global Tech Launch (GTL) courses, an incubator-style program to help born-global tech innovators accelerate their new product/business launch into the global market. He was named Charlotte Chamber Young Professional Educator of the Year in 2015.

Funded by a hybrid model from the National Science Foundation, private gifts, and commercialization among others, he founded the Global OpenLabs for Performance-Enhancement Analytics and Knowledge System (GoPeaks), a collection of research and technology development to accelerate and scale knowledge synthesis into real-world decision solutions. GoPeaks ended its commercial activities in 2022, but remains a personal website for Victor's personal publications, thoughts, and innovations outside work.

He was a thought and action leader in knowledge synthesis for decision analytics. With researchers in business meta-science, open science, information systems, applied machine learning, software engineering, and collective intelligence, he co-founded the Knowledge Integration, Synthesis, and Engineering (KnISE) working group at the Academy of Management, seeking to curate and synthesize fragmented knowledge in business research into decision tools.

Between December 2011 and August 2018, he was the Global Coordinator for the Emerging Market Global Players (EMGP) Program at Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment, where he led the development of a research network of emerging market researchers, consultants, and policy advisors to analyze emerging market ESG investments abroad. During his tenure, the project has built a global research network in 17 major emerging markets and produced three dozen research reports, including a special issue published by UNCTAD.

Victor’s research has been published or forthcoming in the Journal of Management, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Journal of Corporate Finance, and Global Strategy Journal, amongst others. He received the Academy of Management Meeting Best Paper Award in International Corporate Governance, the Academy of International Business Meeting Best Paper Finalist in Emerging Economies (twice), and the Asia Pacific Journal of Management 2014 Best Paper Award. His research has been quoted by the Financial Times (UK), CNBC (USA), The Globe and Mail (Canada), Valor Econômico (Brazil), RT (Russia), and Shanghai Daily (China), among others.

Victor completed a Ph.D. in Strategy (Business Economics) with High Distinction from Segal Graduate School of Business, Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada, where he was a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada Doctoral Scholar. While a Ph.D. student, he was also a Research Fellow at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, where he provided consulting and research support to some of the nation’s senior policymakers and business executives on international business. 

In addition, he finished a Master's in Information and Data Science at the UC Berkeley School of Information and has taken courses on Neuroscience at Harvard. He is interested in leveraging the breakthroughs from computer/data science and brain science to improve knowledge synthesis and decision tools. Before his academic career, he completed Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).

In addition to his academic career, Victor was active in both the international economic and commercial arenas, including serving as an economic officer at the central coordination directorate for the Asia Pacific Gateway and Corridor Initiative (APGCI) in 2010-2011, where his role included preparing Minister Stockwell Day for his Asian business missions. During 2008-2009, he was part of a global team to help the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) design China Goes Global surveys. In 2006, he co-founded Transco Global LLC–a Canada-based global investment knowledge platform, whose publication and intelligence arm was spun off to Taylor & Francis.

Victor served as an Inaugural Advisory Board Member for the Microsoft Azure for Research Community. He served on the 58th Charlotte Mayor Jennifer Roberts’s Charlotte-China Business Advisory Council from 2016 to 2017. He was a member of the inaugural advisory council of Telra Institute (a charter school for gifted education) and a member of the Rotary Club of Charlotte.

Victor firmly believes in the ideal of a Renaissance (wo)man. Since he was a child, he has maintained wide-ranging interests. While a child growing up in China, he won top prizes in national contests in physics, mathematics, foreign language, watercolor painting, and novel writing among others. 

Outside work, if Victor is not reading/writing academic papers, he might be playing golf with his daughter Paris  - the winner gets ice creams from the clubhouse, but he never figured out what they tasted like!