How Veteran Andrew Lanouette Learned the Language of Data-Driven Decisions with UVA’s MSBA Program

Andrew Lanouette (M.S. in Business Analytics ’26) joined the U.S. Army Reserves straight out of high school. By age 19, he had deployed to Afghanistan. A second deployment followed in the Middle East, supporting Special Operations efforts countering ISIS.

While still serving, Lanouette began thinking seriously about what would come next post-military service. It’s a question familiar to many veterans navigating their next chapter as they transition into civilian life.

That inquiry led him to study international relations while working full time, taking classes at night and on weekends. For a few years, the plan worked. He leveraged the professional network and operational experience he gained in the military to secure work overseas, including several years living in the Middle East supporting Department of Defense and other U.S. government clients.

But then, his priorities shifted. “I realized I liked being home and having some stability,” he explains.

That desire led him back to the U.S., where he joined Babel Street, working as a Program Manager supporting government clients. The role gave him something he hadn’t had before: a seat closer to executive-level conversations.

“In my current role, I’m seeing things at a higher level,” he says. “A business analyst will be working through their models, and I see the end result, but I’m not well versed in the process.” That gap between outcome and process is what brought him to the M.S. in Business Analytics (MSBA), a 12-month program jointly delivered by the University of Virginia’s McIntire School of Commerce and Darden School of Business.

Choosing the MSBA Over an MBA

Before the MSBA program, Lanouette was largely self-teaching, but now the concepts he hears about at work have structure behind them.

“I wasn’t working with data in the way we’re working with data in class,” he says. It’s become increasingly important to him because at Babel Street data is central to what they do. “Babel Street has massive data libraries. A data scientist will mention coefficients or other data analytic concepts, and I think to myself ‘I know what that is’ because we’ve learned about it in class,” he says. “It’s exciting to apply what I’m learning in real time, sometimes even the next day at work.”

While weighing different options for a master’s degree, he heard about the UVA’s MSBA program from a friend, who was currently enrolled. What stood out to him about UVA’s program was the emphasis on learning analytics within a business decisions context.

The program’s format mattered too. “I liked that they had a campus in Rosslyn and in Charlottesville,” Lanouette says. “I’m familiar with both. It felt like a good fit.”

Learning Business Analytics through Real-World Cases

Lanouette values the case-based approach of the program most. “Rather than just learning complicated concepts and wondering how to apply them, I’m learning how to apply them in real-world examples,” he says.

The structure mirrors his professional life at Babel Street, which involves taking technical or operational complexity and making it actionable.

“A big part of my job is being a translator,” he says. “Whether it’s to my client or to my executive leadership, I have to break down super complicated concepts into what actually matters.”

One of his recent residencies in the program focused explicitly on that skill, interpreting and explaining data in “human terms for someone who doesn’t know anything about analytics.”

The diversity of Lanouette’s cohort is helping him learn different ways to communicate those outcomes both inside and outside the classroom.

“There is a mix of students, people younger than me, people older than me, from all different job roles,” he says. “Everyone adds something valuable from their perspective. You’re learning from all different avenues.”

Applying MSBA Skills to National Security and Government Work

Long term, Lanouette sees his career continuing in defense and national security, where he enjoys interacting with clients and working with data.

Before the MSBA program, dealing directly with the analytics was out of reach. “It was way over my head,” he explains. “Now, I think I’ll be in a good position to start navigating into that area.”

For veterans considering graduate school, Lanouette’s advice is direct: “Just do it. You might be busy, but the program is only one year.”

For its student support, structured coursework, and immediate applicability to his job, the MSBA program has done exactly what Lanouette had hoped it would: given him an understanding of how executive decisions are made and the tools to shape them.