Pete Benbow

I’m a technologist specializing in data engineering and business intelligence (BI). My work focuses on integrating large volumes of structured and unstructured information from disparate sources into centralized repositories like data warehouses, then discovering the stories within the data through visualization and analysis. I applied these skills professionally for more than a decade as a developer, team leader, and consultant, until I joined the Data Science faculty in 2024. 

In addition to my regular responsibilities, I have led local and virtual workshops and presented at national conferences on a variety of technical topics, and I teach online data skills courses for Davidson in partnership with edX. My courses on SQL databases and Microsoft Power BI have reached over 150,000 learners worldwide since 2020. 

Although data is my profession, my academic background is actually in the social sciences and humanities. I graduated from Davidson with a degree in political science, including a summer abroad at the University of Cambridge where I studied literature and political philosophy. I strongly believe a liberal arts education can create well-rounded technologists, and my classroom teaching aims to illustrate how people can use data to tell stories, solve problems, and build a more just and rational society. 

Outside of work, I enjoy fly-fishing, hiking, computer games, and traveling with my wife, and I’m a strong supporter of environmental and wildlife conservation causes.