Brandon Arbiter
Brandon Arbiter graduated engineering management systems in 2006.
While enrolled at Columbia, he co-founded the newest Columbia Student
Enterprise in nearly 20 years, CU Snacks.com.
Brandon found his IEOR training (in service systems, transportation
logistics, pricing optimization, organizational management, inventory
control and information systems design) instrumental in enabling him to
work with the cross-disciplinary group of talented friends (from the
Engineering School and – believe it or not – the College) that created
this delivery business. CU Snacks served more than two thousand
students before Brandon graduated.
While studying management systems at Columbia University, the CU Snacks
team was written up in The New York Times, Forbes Magazine, and The
Columbia Spectator. Brandon was also interviewed live with
co-founder Jordan Davis on ABC News Now: Money Matters. Brandon
won prizes in consecutive Columbia University Business Plan
Competitions and earned the grand prize as "Bank of America's Youth
Entrepreneur of the Year" in 2005 for CU Snacks.
Upon graduating, Brandon passed the CU Snacks torch onto the successive
generation of student managers. He received job offers to enter
the fields of investment banking, consulting, and startups. After
deferring a banking offer from Citigroup, he began an opportunity to
work at New York's largest online food manufacturing service,
www.FreshDirect.com. As the finance department's information
systems analyst, Brandon works on teams with the company's founder/CFO
and the director of finance to build the FreshDirect’s budget and trend
models. He also works with the creative and marketing teams to
define and model market segmentation. Brandon currently
specializes in SQL-based modeling software called Business Objects that
he uses to create reports from aggregate customer feedback and sales
action data. These models, which go into the hands of
FreshDirect's department managers and senior executives, provide
company-wide trend lines and metrics ranging in scope from customer
experience to operational productivity.