Mathias Frank is a Senior Product Delivery Manager at Lufthansa Systems and supports Benedikt Zimmerman’s team in developing and implementing revenue management solutions. Like Benedikt, Mathias learned about revenue management from a colleague. As a master’s student in financial mathematics, Mathias focused on forecasting methods and was familiar with Kalman filters, Bayesian forecasts, and other techniques. When his colleague from Air Berlin reached out to him to let him know they were transitioning from a leg-based to path-based forecasting system, Mathias saw a new way to apply his skills and jumped at the opportunity to join this team. Shortly after joining Air Berlin, Mathias attended an AGIFORS meeting and decided that revenue management “was a field of opportunity with endless research problems” and decided to pursue a career in this field.
One of the things that Mathias likes about revenue management is the ability to try out new algorithms and machine learning approaches to tackle classic RM problems in new ways. Mathias believes that “airlines that provide you with a lot of flexibility to try out new ideas” are great places to work, but that’s its also important to recognize that he airline industry is not very stable and like Air Berlin, can go bankrupt! Mathias also finds that students from a broad range of background can be successful in revenue management. For example, he’s worked with individuals with economics, mathematics, physics, and engineering background. “When you’re interested in numbers, then RM is more than just the methods you write – it’s about becoming an analyst” he explains.
Interested in learning more about Mathias? Check out his LinkedIn page.