Speaker Profile

Owner, Baseball Info Solutions Twenty-five years ago, just five years after receiving his Fellowship in the Society of Actuaries, John Dewan left a highly successful career as an insurance actuary to pursue a life-long dream, the development of the most timely and comprehensive computer database in sports. The fulfillment of that dream was Sports Team Analysis and Tracking Systems, Inc. , or STATS, Inc. During John's time as President and CEO, STATS grew rapidly and was recognized in Inc. Magazine's Inc. 500, a list of America's 500 Fastest-Growing Private Companies, ranking #144. In recognition of his leadership role in making real-time sports information available to consumers, John was named to the Crain's Chicago Business list of key technology players in Chicago and was a three-time finalist for the KPMG Illinois High Tech Awards. The success of the company culminated in its sale to an affiliate of Ruppert Murdoch's News Corporation and Fox Broadcasting, News Digital Media. John's new company is Baseball Info Solutions (BIS). BIS is totally focused on baseball and collects, analyzes and disseminates the most in-depth data in the industry with more than a dozen Major League Baseball teams as clients. John is also the co-publisher of ACTA Sports, a division of ACTA Publications, which publishes books on statistical baseball analysis, including the annual Bill James Handbook and other sports titles. As an author, John's latest books, The Fielding Bible and The Fielding Bible-Volume II, break new ground in an area that has been the least analyzed in baseball: defense. His new Plus/Minus System and Defensive Runs Saved developed in the books are a direct application of actuarial and sabermetric techniques. The Fielding Bible-Volume III is available now. John's slants on analytics in baseball can be seen at www. StatOfTheWeek. com. John graduated from Loyola University with a B. S. in Mathematics and Computer Science. He lives in Chicago with his wife Sue and their two children, Jason and Erica.