Fred Hulting, Nominee for 2026 ASA President-Elect
It is a great honor to be nominated to serve as the President of the American Statistical Association. The ASA has been an important ingredient to my career success, and I am committed to ensuring the ASA is successful in serving its members and promoting the profession of statistics.
To learn more about the candidates and the election, visit amstat.org.
About Fred
Raised in California, I have lived and worked around the United States. I now live in Minnesota with my wife Karen, a statistician working in the medical device field.
As a statistical leader and ASA Fellow, the ASA has been an invaluable resource throughout my industry career. I am humbled and honored to be nominated to serve as ASA President.
I am recently retired from General Mills, where I led a large international and interdisciplinary team of statistics, computing, science, and information professionals, collaborating to solve problems in a data-rich science and engineering organization. I am still active as a consultant, but devote much of my time to community and professional service. If elected, I will be very committed to the role of President.
Away from work, Karen and I love traveling and the outdoors, and I share our adventures on Instagram and Substack. We also enjoy volunteering and spending time with our daughter and son, who live in San Francisco and Chicago.
I welcome your suggestions and questions. You may reach me at [email protected], or through LinkedIn.
ASA President Candidate Statement
[You may also view a video statement from the ASA Candidate Townhall.]
It is an exciting time to be part of this profession, with transformative changes in our world presenting us with new opportunities to make a positive impact on society by using data for discovery, problem solving, and decision making.
I am honored to be nominated as ASA President at this moment. I have long been committed to the success of ASA, serving as a Committee, Section, Chapter, and Council of Sections leader. If elected, I will partner with the Board, Committees, and Staff to serve the membership, ensure the health of the association, and implement the Strategic Plan, with an emphasis on:
Adapting and Responding to Change: We have all been impacted by the increasing scale and pace of change, whether it is the growth of AI, emerging risks to federal statistics, or the evolving needs of education. In addition to its advocacy work on behalf of the profession, the ASA will need to continue helping members acquire the necessary literacy, skills, and knowledge to adapt and thrive in this new environment.
Facilitating Career Growth: While leading a large international and interdisciplinary team at General Mills, I stressed the importance of helping professionals get off to a strong start in their careers and then navigate mid-career changes. We need to keep growing the ASA education, mentoring, and diversity initiatives that support career success for all members.
Connecting our Community: The ASA offers a tremendous opportunity to connect across academia, government, and industry. I have benefited from this personally; the ASA helped me expand my network and develop as a leader. We should keep promoting and expanding programs that help members leverage the diverse, global networks of the association.
I would be honored to work with all of you as ASA President, to strengthen our association and our profession. And I will need your help. Please feel free to contact me at [email protected] with your ideas and suggestions.
Professional Background
Industry Positions
As the Global Director for Knowledge Services for the General Mills R&D organization, I built a 75-person international team, comprised of statisticians, data scientists, information professionals, and scientists from different fields. Collectively, we leveraged myriad sources of internal and external data and information to facilitate decision making and problem solving for scientists, engineers, and business leaders.
Prior to this role, I worked as a technical leader and technical specialist in statistics for General Mills, Pillsbury, Alcoa, and General Mills.
List of Positions:
Global Director, Knowledge Services; Innovation, Technology and Quality Division, General Mills, Inc
Senior Technology Manager, Statistics and Knowledge Discovery; Innovation, Technology, and Quality Division, General Mills, Inc
Senior Research Scientist, Statistics; Research and Development, Pillsbury Inc.
Technical Specialist, Statistics, Research and Development, Alcoa.
Research Scientist, Statistics; Mathematics Dept, Research and Development, General Motors.
ASA Service
I have been an ASA member for over 35 years, and I was recognized as an ASA Fellow in 2004. I have volunteered in a wide variety of ASA roles, listed below.
In each of these roles, I sought to advance new ideas and bring improvements. For example, while Council of Sections Chair, we reinvigorated the process of creating special interest groups, and increased the visibility of section activities through new marketing.
Leadership Roles: Committee on Fellows, Member and Chair 2023-2025; Council of Sections Governing Board, Chair-Elect/Chair/Past Chair 2016-2018; Deming Lectureship Committee, Chair 2001-2004 (also Vice-Chair/Member, 2000,2005); Section on Physical and Engineering Sciences, Chair 2000 (also Chair-Elect, COS REP 2007-2009; Pubs Chair 1998); Twin Cities Chapter, President 1999; Pittsburgh Area Chapter, President 1995
Other Roles: Task Force on the Impact of Statistics, 2019-2020; Committee on Nominations, 2018-2019; 175th Anniversary Committee, 2011-2014; ASA-COPSS Special Awards Committee, 2006-2010; Technometrics Management Committee, 2007-2009; ASA-IMS Spring Research Conference (Chair 1999, Program Committee 2000-2003); Associate Editor, Technometrics, 1995-2001.
Sharing my Work
While much of the work in industry is internal and proprietary, I have sought to share my work more broadly whenever possible.
This includes over 20 theory, methods, and application papers in peer-reviewed journals such as JASA, Technometrics, Statistica Sinica, Naval Research Logistics, Food Quality and Preference, Journal of Manufacturing Science and Engineering, and Florida Entomologist; and a book chapter in Statistical Methods for Physical Science. Many of these came out of collaborations with scientists and engineers.
I have also presented my work at a variety of conferences and institutions. This has led to new collaborations, and the occasional opportunity to reach a broader audience. For example, in the early 2000’s my work was featured in some popular press, including Business Week magazine.