Quant evangelist? What in the world? This week our guest Dimitri Bianco tells us about a profession and field of discipline focused on developing and validating predictive models used to make important business decisions with potentially significant financial implications. Every wonder why the same person who approaches five lenders for mortgage quotes gets five different terms and rates? As Dimitri explains in this episode, it's because each one of those lenders has a different risk profile and a different model for deciding what to offer its prospective customers. And although the details of modelling can be very technical and complicated, Dimitri demystifies and simplifies what this work really involves, explains why it gets him out of bed in the morning (and sometimes in the middle of the night!), and provides priceless advice to those who love solving problems and are looking for opportunities to apply that talent in the real world.