2016 keynote Speakers
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Robert Herjavec
Robert Herjavec is a dynamic entrepreneur and a leading Shark on ABC’s Shark Tank. Born in Eastern Europe, he arrived to North America on a boat with his parents after escaping Communism in the former Yugoslavia. From delivering newspapers and waiting tables, to launching a computer company from his basement, his drive to achieve has led him to the fulfillment of a better life for himself and his family. Robert has built and sold several IT companies to major players such as AT&T. In 2003, Robert founded Herjavec Group, and it quickly became one of North America’s fastest growing technology companies. Today, Herjavec Group is recognized as a global leader in information security specializing in managed security services, compliance, incident response, and remediation efforts for enterprise level organizations.
Robert released his third book, You Don’t Have to Be a Shark: Creating Your Own Success, published by St. Martin’s Press, on May 17, 2016. Robert’s motivational business advice has received millions of impressions through TV, print, radio, and digital media. He shares his expertise with other entrepreneurs each week as a leading Shark on ABC’s Emmy Award-winning hit Shark Tank. |
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Jeffrey Ma
CEO & Co-Founder, tenXer
The House Advantage: Playing the Odds to Win Big in Business As a member of the infamous MIT Blackjack Team, Jeff Ma created an ingenious method for counting cards—using talent, creativity, math, and teamwork to win millions in Las Vegas (card-counting, by the way, is not illegal; casinos just don’t like it). Ma was the inspiration for the best-selling book Bringing Down the House and the hit movie 21, which topped the box office in its first two weeks. He has since helped start four different companies including GolfSpan.com (sold to Demand Media), CircleLending (sold to Virgin), Citizen Sports (sold toYahoo), and tenXer (acquired by Twitter), and become a sought-after speaker. Ma shows companies how to harness the power of numbers to make better bottom line business decisions; decisions that, often, are the difference between winning and losing.
Beyond his work in the start up world, Ma has worked as a consultant to the San Francisco 49ers, the Portland Trail Blazers, and a major apparel brand, helping them to make better decisions using data and analytics. His most recent book, The House Advantage: Playing the Odds to Win Big in Business, was a business best seller and draws on his unique experiences at the table and in the sports world, creating a truly accessible work about business analytics. Ma's most recent startup, tenXer, was acquired by Twitter, where he now works as Senior Director of Business Insights, leading a team of talented Data Scientists and Engineers with the goal to drive data driven decision making. You can also see Ma on ESPN's SportsCenter where he serves as the Predictive Analytics Expert. |
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Oliver Ratzesberger
Executive Vice President & Chief Product Officer, Teradata Corporation
What's Next in Big Data? The Sentient Enterprise. Oliver Ratzesberger is Executive Vice President and Chief Product Officer of Teradata Corporation and leads all teams, activities and manages resources pertaining to Teradata’s many innovative solutions. This includes vision and direction for all research, development and sales support activities related to Teradata integrated data warehousing, big data analytics, and Teradata’s vast spectrum of products. He oversees a global organization including more than 1,400 technologists located in Silicon Valley, Southern California, Texas, Toronto, and international locations. He reports to Victor Lund, President and CEO, Teradata.
As head of Teradata Labs he directs research and development, and is highly regarded as one of the world’s leading experts in data analytics technologies. He is a pragmatic visionary, popular speaker and industry luminary on topics relevant to Teradata’s solutions. He has also held the leadership position with responsibility for the software teams at Teradata Labs, including the Teradata Database, Aster, client tools, and Viewpoint as well as Hadoop integration. Joining Teradata in early 2013, Ratzesberger has a powerful and impressive background in leading big data analytics initiatives and technology transformation for Fortune 500 organizations. For example, Oliver drove a large analytics effort to consolidate systems into a newly redesigned Unified Data Architecture. He has a successful background in driving analytics culture and advancing the value of high-volume and high-velocity analytics solutions. Ratzesberger spent seven years at eBay, where he was responsible for its data warehouse and big data platforms. During his tenure at eBay, he led the expansion of analytics and was responsible for the co-development of the Extreme Data Appliance as part of eBay's Singularity project, leading Hadoop engineering teams; driving the integration of Teradata and Hadoop. Prior to eBay, Ratzesberger worked for IT startups and in open source software development, where he is still active. In 1996, Ratzesberger joined NCR Corp in Vienna, Austria – and in 1999 moved to Orange County, CA where he led professional service engagements for Telecom and eBusiness. As director of professional services, he led projects at Verizon, ATT, T-Mobile, eBay, and Excite, among others. Ratzesberger earned his engineering degree in Electronics and Telecommunications from HTL Steyr in Austria. He lives in San Diego with his family. |
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Jill DycheVice President, Best Practices, SAS
Game Changer! Analytics Transforms the Orlando Magic Fan Experience Jill is an acknowledged speaker, author, and blogger on the topic of aligning IT with business solutions. As the Vice President of SAS Best Practices, she speaks, writes, and blogs about the business value of analytics and information. Prior to being acquired by SAS in 2011, Jill was a partner and co-founder of Baseline Consulting, where she combined the roles of best-practice expert, industry gadfly, key client advisor, and all-around thought leader. At both firms, she has led client strategies and market analysis in the areas of data governance, business intelligence, master data management, CRM, and big data. Jill has counseled executive teams and boards of directors on the strategic importance of their information investments. Executives from companies including Charles Schwab, Verizon, and Microsoft have relied on Jill’s counsel for data strategy planning and execution.
Jill’s first book, e-Data (Addison Wesley), has been published in eight languages. Her book, The CRM Handbook (Addison Wesley), is the bestseller on the topic. With Evan Levy, Customer Data Integration (John Wiley and Sons) was the first book on the topic of master data management and discussed managing data as a strategic asset. Her latest book, The New IT: How Technology Leaders Enable Business Strategy in the Digital Age, profiles executives from companies including Comerica, Brooks Brothers, Mylan Pharmaceuticals, Canadian Tire, Union Bank, Mandalay Resort Group, Men’s Wearhouse, and Toyota Financial Services, highlighting the roles they played in transforming IT and driving strategy. |
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Anthony PerezExecutive Vice President of Strategy, Orlando Magic
Game Changer! Analytics Transforms the Orlando Magic Fan Experience Anthony Perez serves as Executive Vice President of Strategy for the Orlando Magic. He is responsible for overall corporate strategy, including analytics and digital marketing.
Anthony originally joined the Magic in 2004, working on the team’s efforts to finance and build a new arena. He then joined Goldman Sachs as an investment banker before returning to the Magic in 2008. Anthony has been a featured speaker, domestic and abroad, on the topic of analytics and digital marketing. He received his bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Central Florida in 2005, and a M.B.A. from the University of Florida in 2010. |
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Laurel BernardPresident, Entertainment Marketing, Simulmedia
How Advancements in Data and Analytics Can Improve the Performance of Television Laurel Bernard is President, Entertainment Marketing for Simulmedia where she is responsible for expanding Simulmedia’s marketing solutions for entertainment advertisers in tune-in, home entertainment, and theatrical. Prior to joining Simulmedia, Laurel held the post of EVP of Marketing at Fox Broadcasting where she successfully helped launch and maintain memorable network shows including Empire, American Idol, Glee, 24, The Simpsons, and Family Guy. During Ms. Bernard’s 27-year tenure at FOX, she worked across four different business units including 20th Century Fox Film, Fox Home Entertainment, Fox Searchlight, and two stints at Fox Broadcasting. She is based in Los Angeles.
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Eric FischerDirector of Global Brand Media, GoDaddy
How Advancements in Data and Analytics Can Improve the Performance of Television A 25+ year marketing, media, sales, and sponsorship veteran, Eric has created innovative, integrated marketing, media, and content platforms driving revenues for global media organizations. With a career spanning the agency, client, league, and vendor perspective, Eric has worked at a senior management level within several well-respected global marketing organizations including Clear Channel, Disney, Fox, McCann-Erickson Worldwide, MGM, the National Basketball Association (NBA), and Wyeth Pharmaceuticals. In these roles, he has been fortunate to work with several of the world’s leading marketers to develop, build, and execute media-based marketing solutions that drive business results.
At GoDaddy, Eric is responsible for brand media across the organization’s global business as well as spearheading the company’s efforts to develop a robust modeling and attribution platform ensuring marketing dollars are spent most effectively and efficiently. Eric is also an adjunct professor at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University where he teaches classes in sports marketing and the economics of media. |
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Lori NorianVice President of Marketing, Matrixx
How Advancements in Data and Analytics Can Improve the Performance of Television Lori leads all marketing efforts for Matrixx. Before joining in 2013, Lori spent over 10 years in the consumer packaged goods industry in a variety of brand management roles. Prior to her career in brand management, Lori worked for 5 years in management and process consulting with Andersen Consulting.
Most recently, Lori worked at Unilever where she marketed several of their largest foods businesses. On the Hellmann’s® brand, Lori was responsible for the renovation and communication behind the brand’s fastest growing variant along with brand and strategic planning, media strategy, and market development partnerships. Prior to this, Lori worked on the Ragu® and Bertolli® pasta sauce businesses where she drove communication, strategy, and innovation projects. Prior to her experience at Unilever, Lori worked at Kraft Foods in the Confections Division on Altoids® and Life Savers®. Before attending business school, Lori was a manager in the Process Competency Group at Accenture (formerly known as Andersen Consulting). Lori received her M.B.A from Columbia University Graduate School of Business in Marketing and Management, her M.S. in Cell Biology from Duke University, and her B.S. in Biology from Lehigh University. |
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Ken Elliott, Ph.D.
Global Director of Analytics, Hewlett Packard Enterprise
The Analytically Driven Organization Ken has been in the analytic field nearly 30 years. He currently heads worldwide analytics for Hewlett Packard Enterprise Services delivering analytic solutions to clients across manufacturing, supply chain, transportation, retail, media & entertainment, ecommerce, healthcare, banking, public sector, and more.
Prior to this, Ken spent 9 years in HP’s Global Business Intelligence IT, where he led the development of analytic solutions and platforms for HP’s own internal business groups and functions. Before joining HPE, Ken co-founded Cognicient Consulting, and served 14 years at SPSS Inc. where he led SPSS Professional Services and was the VP of Analytic Solutions. Ken holds a Ph.D. in Industrial Psychology with a focus on analytic methods. He currently lives in Austin, Texas with his wife and two teenage children where they enjoy helping ‘Keep Austin Weird’. |
2016 featured Speakers
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Lee AtchisonPrincipal Cloud Architect and Advocate, New Relic
Data Driven Software Teams Collaborate to Create Great Software. Do you? Lee Atchison is Principal Cloud Architect and Advocate at New Relic, a role that involves driving industry development and best practices in the areas of cloud architecture, microservices, scalability, and availability. Lee has 28 years of industry experience and learned cloud-based, scalable systems during his seven years at AWS and Amazon.com. At Amazon, he led the creation of the company’s first software download store, created AWS Elastic Beanstalk, and led the team that managed the migration of Amazon’s retail platform from a monolith to a service-based architecture. Lee is the author of the book Architecting for Scale published in 2016 by O’Reilly Media.
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Kimberly AugustManager, Disney Channels Worldwide Consumer Insights
Plugged In: Kids and Entertainment Technology Kimberly leads research on the evolving kids media and technology landscape, including Disney Channels’ flagship studies on kid and family trends, attitudes, and media behaviors: Kids Tech Pulse and Tween Scene. Her work helps inform distribution and product strategies for TVE, SVOD, and mobile apps. Prior to joining Disney Channels, Kimberly was a brand strategy consultant at Millward Brown Vermeer where she focused on consumer experience and innovation in the consumer goods and luxury retail categories. Kimberly graduated with an honors English degree and economics minor from Harvard University.
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Diwakar BedekarDirector, Consumer Data Mgmt, ESPN
Developing a Source of Truth for Media Intelligence Diwakar Bedekar is the Director of Product and Data Management for the Data Platforms group at ESPN. Diwakar manages a team of Product Managers providing Thought Leadership for leading the definition, vision, strategy, and tenets for a highly scalable customer-centric Data Platform for Consumer data and Sports data. The Data Platform team aims to build a single source of record for ESPN’s primary data assets, data models to help with both historical reporting as well predictive analytics, and supports the personalization and Ad sales systems in building data-centric offerings for 100 million fans per month.
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Teddy H. BensonDirector, Data Integration, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts
How to Quickly and Securely Ingest Data in an IOT World - Developed by the NSA Mr. Benson is a respected leader in software development. At 12 years of age, he attended his first college level computer course on operating systems. At 14, he began working in the programming department of the US Lackland Air Force Base Medical Center, using and designing database and client server mechanisms. He went on to attend Florida State University with a focus on programming ideology and artificial intelligence. After graduating, Mr. Benson started working in IBM as a developer of multimedia drivers, real motion video capture /playback software, and hardware as well as telephony voice recognition and response unit software.
Mr. Benson moved on to CEN, an Internet company, as the lead developer of their Internet front and back-end infrastructure. He designed secure credit card transaction software for use on the Internet and real-time data collection and storage of Internet based events. Mr. Benson moved to Siemens where he developed telephone switching architecture, intelligent call routing with real time desktop display, and real-time video conferencing to stream over ISDN lines and the Internet protocols. After eighteen months he was sought after by Lockheed-Martin’s e-commerce integration group, and hired to design and implement e-commerce solutions to their government commercial customers. Three years later he met up with five fellow technical associates and founded the company Channel Intelligence, Inc. developing a technology that connects shoppers with retailers through their brand website and digital advertising media. This company grew to 6 locations worldwide with 162 of the Internet fortune 500 as major clients. In 2012, Google began to notice and eventually purchase Channel Intelligence, Inc. Mr. Benson joined Google to assist in the migration of Channel Intelligence systems into Google’s infrastructure, as well as continuing the data integration and data analysis customers. In 2015, Mr. Benson joined Disney’s RM & A team as the Director of Data Integration. He has 4 patents, three pending, all in the field of computing and methodologies of computing; has written computer articles for various technical journals, spoken on computer security and computer forensics and is recognized as an expert witness in federal courts of the State of Florida. He is avid runner, fan of Star Wars, tinkerer of electronics, all about things being “green”, a hobbyist poker player, and amateur prestidigitation of magic. |
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Maarten BosResearch Scientist, Disney Research, The Walt Disney Company
Constructing Consumer Choices: Simple Nudges Improve Consumer Experiences and Decisions At Disney Research Maarten leads a group of behavioral scientists, with the mission to make people feel better and be better. While working on his Ph.D. in The Netherlands, Maarten studied decision-making, influence, and persuasion. Maarten started at Disney Research in 2013 after working as a research fellow at the Negotiation, Organizations, and Markets unit at the Harvard Business School. Through his group’s research and collaborations, they aim to contribute to our understanding of how individuals interact with the world, as well as developing ways to transfer and apply that knowledge.
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MiKE ChapmanManaging Director, Accenture Strategy, aligned to the Communications, Media, and Technology Industry Group in North America
Global Lead of Media & Entertainment and Accenture Digital Video Strategy Consulting, Accenture Cross-Channel Advertising Attribution—New Insights Into Multiplatform TV Mike works with clients on both U.S. coasts, as well as internationally. Mike focuses on corporate and growth strategy, product development, and operational strategy at the intersection of business and technology. His client experiences include global Media & Entertainment conglomerates, Television Programmers & Broadcasters, Cable TV Providers / MSOs, Film Studios & Exhibitors, Digital Services / OTT start-ups, Consumer Electronics and Hi-Tech OEMs, Telecommunications & Wireless Providers, U.S. Consumer Electronics Retailers, and National Sports Leagues.
Mike holds an M.B.A. majoring in Finance and Strategy and a M.S.-Management & Information Systems from the Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University. |
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Michael ChuangComics Engineer, Marvel Entertainment
Data Driven Software Teams Collaborate to Create Great Software. Do you? Michael is a mobile & data engineer within the digital media group at Marvel and tech lead for analytics on the comics track. He has spent the past few years architecting the new analytics infrastructure from the ground up and being a catalyst in transforming the internal team culture to become more data-driven. Prior to this role, he was a sports engineer on the mobile & international teams at ESPN where he worked on implementing mobile ad-tracking analytics (with a focus around video alerts) and prototyping ESPN content on new emerging mobile platforms.
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Maurice CheungSr. Decision Science Consultant, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts
Optimization 101 A Disney Cast Member since 2014, Maurice focuses on optimization modeling for Disney Cruise Line and for Disney Theatrical Group. Prior to joining Disney, Maurice worked on optimization problems for truck and rail transportation in roles at Norfolk Southern and Innovative Scheduling (now Optym). His research in the field of optimization has been published in the proceedings of conferences such as the IEEE Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science, and in the journal Mathematical Programming. His educational background includes undergraduate work in combinatorics and optimization at the University of Waterloo and a doctorate in operations research from Cornell University.
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Whitney ConnerManager, Operations Research, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts
Authentically Disney and Distinctly Chinese: Optimizing Shanghai Disney Resort Opening Training 'Whitney leads the Advanced Analytics Optimization team within the Experience Insights & Analytics organization at Walt Disney World Parks and Resorts. Her team focuses on providing prescriptive analytics solutions targeting operational challenges at the Disney Theme Parks and Resorts. She has been involved in a wide range of projects supporting clients from Transportation to Disney Cruise Line. Recently, she led the optimization work developing the master training plan for the opening of Shanghai Disney Resort. Whitney holds bachelors’ degrees in Math, Chemistry, and Mathematical Economics from the University of Kentucky and a master’s degree in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research from Penn State.
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Courtney Sherman DehnertSenior Manager & Insights Director, Doblin, Deloitte Consulting LLP
Tapping Into the Power of the Family Segment—Research, Insights, and Activation Courtney Sherman Dehnert is a New York based Senior Manager and Insights Director at Doblin, Deloitte Consulting’s Innovation practice.
Courtney focuses on working closely with senior leadership teams to solve growth related challenges. As an expert in human centered design, she brings the user to the forefront of an organizations’ initiatives, developing solutions that are mutually beneficial to the end user and the business. Her work includes innovation strategy, customer experience strategy, concept development, and innovation capability building. Courtney has worked over a wide range of sectors spanning Travel, Leisure & Hospitality, Retail, Media, Pharmaceuticals, Finance and Insurance, and Government, and is often solving for consumer-facing challenges. Recent engagements include designing the future of real estate strategy to enhance the employee experience for a global consulting firm; building the innovation capability framework, toolkit, and digital interface to drive new offers at medical device organization; defining a top 25 global retail bank’s innovation intent and strategy to support CEO prioritization of funding and set the direction for the Customer Group; developing the customer experience strategy and roadmap for a global insurance company to reduce attrition; unlocking new revenue streams for a major land developer through enhancements to both the shopper and tenant experiences; defining the strategy and then designing an omni-channel experience for a world renown print magazine to transition into the digital realm. Courtney has worked across the U.S. and Australia, living in New York and Sydney. Courtney holds a B.S. from Cornell University in Human Environment Relations, and a M.S. from Cornell University in Human Factors and Ergonomics. She currently lives in New York City with her husband Will and son Alexander Reid. |
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Erica DhawanCEO & Founder, Cotential
Get Big Things Done: The Power of Connectional Intelligence Erica Dhawan is the CEO of Cotential, a firm that helps organizations maximize collaboration across teams, business units, and with customers. She is also the coauthor of the bestselling book Get Big Things Done: The Power of Connectional Intelligence rated #1 on What Corporate America is Reading. An in-demand speaker, Erica has spoken worldwide to organizations and enterprises that range from the World Economic Forum at Davos to U.S. and global Fortune 500 companies. Her clients range from Deloitte, Fidelity Investments, Credit Suisse, and Pepsico. Her writings have appeared in dozens of publications, including Fast Company, Forbes, and Harvard Business Review. In 2015, Erica was shortlisted for the Thinkers50 RADAR award, for the management thinker around the world most likely to shape the future of business, management, and strategy, and was named one of Levo 100’s Transformers alongside Chelsea Clinton and Alexis Ohanian. She serves as a board member to Deloitte’s Inclusion External Advisory Council and Lufthansa Innovation Hub.
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Erika varis DoggettSr. Data Analyst, Walt Disney Studios
(I) Got a Pronoun! A Study on New Grammar in Twitter After completing her Ph.D. in Linguistics and teaching in academia, Erika transitioned to industry to pursue data science and computational linguistics. She currently provides linguistic data science expertise to the BI Analytics team at the Walt Disney Studios, with specializations in social media language, text processing, and machine learning.
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Jeremy DyerSolutions Engineer, Hortonworks
How to Quickly and Securely Ingest Data in an IOT World - Developed by the NSA Jeremy Dyer is a Solutions Engineer at Hortonworks and contributor to Apache NiFi. He has been involved with the Hadoop ecosystem since 2009 working in the application development space. Jeremy’s background includes Java/C/Python/Node.js system development, IoT devices, IOS and Android mobile development, modern web development, and the complete Hadoop ecosystem. When not geeking out on tech, Jeremy passes his time with woodworking, snow skiing, hiking, playing hammerschlagen, and hanging out with friends. Jeremy lives in Atlanta with his loving wife Carla and their awesome dog Zeke.
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Chad EngelgauVP: Global Head of Identity Services
Building Integrated and Open Marketing Stacks Product Management, Marketing and Sales \ Sales Engineering Executive focused on data driven digital and direct marketing technology and customer recognition software. Over his 20+ years in tech, Chad has had the amazing opportunity to work with distinguished clients as well as lead numerous cross-functional and international teams including partnerships with leading Enterprise software companies and startups to achieve successful product launches and transformations. The products, services and solutions he has sold and developed included Omni-Channel Marketing Technologies, Single Customer View solutions, Internet technologies and Systems Management platforms built across client server and SaaS architectures.
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Xavier FoussereauAnalytics & Optimization Manager, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts
Innovative Machine Learning with Genetic Algorithms Xavier Foussereau is a member of the Advanced Analytics and Optimization team in Consumer Insight, Measurement, and Analytics at Walt Disney Parks & Resorts. His current work focuses on optimizing marketing spend through the automation of marketing mix models using machine learning. Prior to joining Disney, he served as the senior corporate statistician at Darden Restaurants. Xavier holds a Ph.D. in environmental engineering from the University of Florida and an M.B.A. in international finance from the University of North Florida.
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Cathy GallantExecutive Director, Disney Channels Worldwide Consumer Insights
Plugged In: Kids and Entertainment Technology Cathy leads Disney Channels’ research on digital media and emerging consumer trends, helping to inform distribution strategies, and brand, content, and product development for Disney Channel, Disney XD, Disney Junior, and Radio Disney. Cathy joined Disney in 1997, working in Corporate Strategy and Disneyland Resort Guest Insights before joining Disney Channel.
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Andrew GelmanProfessor, Department of Statistics, Department of Political Science,
Columbia University The Statistical Crisis in Science, and How We Can Do Better Using Hierarchical Bayes Andrew Gelman is a professor of statistics and political science and director of the Applied Statistics Center at Columbia University. He has received the Outstanding Statistical Application award from the American Statistical Association, the award for best article published in the American Political Science Review, and the Council of Presidents of Statistical Societies award for outstanding contributions by a person under the age of 40. His books include Bayesian Data Analysis (with John Carlin, Hal Stern, David Dunson, Aki Vehtari, and Don Rubin), Teaching Statistics: A Bag of Tricks (with Deb Nolan), Data Analysis Using Regression and Multilevel/Hierarchical Models (with Jennifer Hill), Red State, Blue State, Rich State, Poor State: Why Americans Vote the Way They Do (with David Park, Boris Shor, and Jeronimo Cortina), and A Quantitative Tour of the Social Sciences (co-edited with Jeronimo Cortina).
Andrew has done research on a wide range of topics, including: why it is rational to vote; why campaign polls are so variable when elections are so predictable; why redistricting is good for democracy; reversals of death sentences; police stops in New York City, the statistical challenges of estimating small effects; the probability that your vote will be decisive; seats and votes in Congress; social network structure; arsenic in Bangladesh; radon in your basement; toxicology; medical imaging; and methods in surveys, experimental design, statistical inference, computation, and graphics. |
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Rob High
Vice President & Chief Technology Officer, IBM Watson
Cognitive Computing Rob High is one of the world’s leaders in artificial intelligence, as well as a distinguished architect and technical strategist with a long history in distributed system component models. As the Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for IBM Watson, High leads the IBM team responsible for bringing cognitive computing to the world, supporting the development of deep natural language processing and other cognitive computing capabilities in the areas of speech, language, vision, and reasoning. Under his leadership, Watson is ushering in a new era in computing in which systems are able to interact in natural language, analyze large volumes of unstructured data, respond to complex questions with evidence-based answers, and discover new actionable patterns and insights. High is recognized as one of the world’s most exceptional technical professionals and was named an IBM Fellow in 2008 for his pioneering work in the field of SOA and for his leadership of the SOA Foundation.
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dr. Thomas hill
Dr. Thomas Hill is Executive Director for Analytics at Dell’s Information Management Group. He joined Dell through the acquisition of StatSoft Inc. in April 2014, where he was Senior Vice President for Analytic Solutions for over 20 years, and responsible for building out Statistica into a leading analytics platform. Dr. Hill received his Vordiplom in psychology from Kiel University in Germany and earned an M.S. in industrial psychology and a Ph.D. in psychology and quantitative methods from the University of Kansas. He was on the faculty of the University of Tulsa from 1984 to 2009, where he conducted research in cognitive science and taught data analysis and data mining courses. He has received numerous academic grants and awards from the US National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Health, the Center for Innovation Management, and other institutions. Over the past 20 years, his team has completed diverse consulting projects with companies from practically all industries and has worked with leading financial services, insurance, retailing, manufacturing, pharmaceutical, healthcare, and other companies in the United States and internationally on identifying and refining effective predictive modeling solutions for diverse applications.
Dr. Hill has published widely on innovative applications for data mining and predictive analytics and is also the author (with Paul Lewicki, 2005) of Statistics: Methods and Applications, the Electronic Statistics Textbook (a popular on-line resource on statistics and data mining), a co-author of Practical Text Mining and Statistical Analysis for Non-Structured Text Data Applications (2012) and Practical Predictive Analytics and Decisioning Systems for Medicine (Elsevier/Academic Press, 2014); he is also a contributing author to the popular Handbook of Statistical Analysis and Data Mining Applications (2009) . |
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Eric HunterTechnical Director of Solution Engineering, Information Advantage, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts
How to Quickly and Securely Ingest Data in an IOT World - Developed by the NSA Eric Hunter is the Technical Director of Solution Engineering within the Information Advantage team at Walt Disney Parks and Resorts. Information Advantage works across all segments of Parks and Resorts to support business partners through insight enablement and analytics solutions. Prior to joining Disney, Eric worked for over 15 years in the leadership and support of numerous data and analytics initiatives as an enterprise leader and consultant within Aerospace, Insurance, and Retail markets. Eric holds an M.B.A. from the Georgia Institute of Technology and a B.S. in Computer &Information Sciences from the University of Florida.
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John JensenDirector of North American Enterprise, Tableau
The Modern Approach to Enterprise Analytics: Bridging the Gap Between Business and IT John Jensen has been with Tableau over six years, joining as one of the first employees of the newly minted enterprise team in 2010. He has served in a variety of roles at Tableau, from Account Manager to regional and national leader. In his current role, John functions as the Director of North American Enterprise, focused on evangelism, culture change, and customer enablement. He has resided in Boston, New York City, and Dallas, Texas for Tableau to help customers with their analytics journey. Prior to Tableau, John functioned in a variety of sales and sales leadership positions, most notably at Informatica and Unica (now IBM).
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Amber JonesDecision Science Consultant, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts
These ARE the Visualizations You Are Looking For: Art and Science Join Forces As of a member of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts’ Decision Science team, Amber Jones creates innovative revenue management and pricing analytics models to promote data driven business decisions. Amber employs data visualization tools and techniques to champion analytical results, influence modeling decisions, and gain a deeper understanding of increasingly complex business problems. She holds a master’s degree in mathematical sciences from University of West Florida and a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from University of Florida.
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Dan JonesAdvanced Analytics & Optimization Manager, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts
Innovative Machine Learning with Genetic Algorithms Dan Jones is an Advanced Analytics and Optimization Manager within Walt Disney Parks and Resorts’ Consumer Insight, Measurement, and Analytics organization. For the last 5 years, Dan has been developing marketing mix models while working closely with experts from several lines of business and all media channels to identify, validate, model, and optimize media channel mix. Dan holds a master’s degree in data mining form the University of Central Florida and a bachelor’s degree in statistics from the University of Florida.
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Scott KeatingSenior Director, CRM, ESPN
Tapping Into Emotion and Moment With Data: Driving Advertising Results With Sports Fans' Passion Scott Keating is the Senior Director of CRM at ESPN. Scott’s team is charged with the collection and use of data generated by sports fans as they interact and consume content on all of ESPN’s digital assets. His team uses the data for audience analytics, ad and email targeting, and user engagement programs. Scott’s role at ESPN is often at the intersection of data, emerging technologies, and Digital Marketing applications. Scott has been with ESPN for 9 years and is a graduate of Syracuse University.
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Timothy KotnourProfessor, Department of Industrial Engineering & Management Systems,
University of Central Florida Why Do Projects Fail? Tim Kotnour, Ph.D., partners with senior management teams to develop solutions for sustained performance excellence for their organization. He is a Professor in the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management Systems at the University of Central Florida. He completed his doctorate in Industrial & Systems Engineering with an emphasis in Management Systems Engineering from Virginia Tech. He is the Director of the UCF Engineering Leadership and Innovation Institute and the Program Director of the Professional Engineering Management Program.
He delivers solutions through technical assistance, training, and research with industry, government, and universities. He focuses on strategic management, change management, organizational transformations, performance measurement, and solution delivery. He provides strategic conversation process development and facilitation to leadership teams. He has led groups ranging from five up to 200+ people in setting strategy. Past and current partners include NASA, NASA Kennedy Space Center, NASA Launch Services Program, NASA Glenn Research Center, NASA Wallops Flight Facility, Electronic Arts, Zynga, the Department of Defense/TARDEC, The Walt Disney Company, Lockheed Martin, Harris Corporation, Dynacs Engineering Inc., the U.S. Air Force, the Department of Energy, Orlando Healthcare System, and Carilion Healthcare System. He teaches Technology Strategy, Project Engineering, and Engineering Management both on and off campus for industrial partners. He has provided professional/executive management education to organizations such as Kennedy Space Center, Harris Corporation, Lockheed Martin, Fed-ex, The Boeing Company, Siemens Power Generation, Harris Corporation, and SAIC. In 2001 and 2005, he was awarded a NASA Public Service Medal for the partnership work with the Kennedy Space Center. He is a Fellow in NASA’s Center for Program/Project Management Research. He is also a Fellow of the American Society for Engineering Management. He is author of the book Transforming Organizations: Strategies and Methods and was the Editor of the Engineering Management Journal. |
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Louie KuzniaIn his four years at Disney, Louie has focused on leading the scientific development of forecasting-optimization systems for ESPN ad sales and for Disney Cruise Line. He has also contributed to research efforts for other optimization problems such as resort room assignment. Louie earned a doctorate in industrial engineering from the University of South Florida, where he conducted research on stochastic and large-scale optimization that was subsequently published in the Annals of Operations Research.
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Mhel Lazo, Jr.Decision Science Consultant, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts
These ARE the Visualizations You Are Looking For: Art and Science Join Forces Mhel Lazo, Jr. is a Decision Science team member responsible for delivering creative, analytical solutions in the realms of revenue management and pricing analytics. Through the use of statistics and optimization, he builds data-driven tools to influence decision making processes within the Resorts line of business. He particularly enjoys exploring novel ways data visualization can enhance these models by providing more insight on analytical problems and communicating complex stories.
Mhel is a proud Tiger from Louisiana State University, holding a M.S. in Analytics and a B.S. in Mathematics. |
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Jure LeskovecChief Scientist, Pinterest
Associate Professor, Computer Science, Stanford University Viral Cascades in Social Networks Jure Leskovec is Chief Scientist at Pinterest and Associate Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University. His research focuses on large-scale analytics in social networks and social media. This research has won several awards including a Lagrange Prize, Microsoft Research Faculty Fellowship, the Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, and numerous best paper awards. Leskovec received his bachelor's degree in computer science from University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, and his Ph.D. in machine learning from the Carnegie Mellon University and postdoctoral training at Cornell University. You can follow him on Twitter @jure.
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Jason LovelandJason Loveland is the Director of Platform Engineering within ESPN’s Data Platforms group. He manages teams of engineers within the ESPN Technology Department to construct and support ESPN’s future state Data Platform. He is developing First Party, Analytical and Personalization Data infrastructures, tools, and systems. He provides key technical leadership and, along with the Data Management team, helps with the definition, vision, strategy, and principals around ESPN’s sports data, consumer data, and analytical platforms. The internet-scale platforms that he designs and builds will be core assets in delivering the highest quality sports content to over 100 million fans monthly. This will fundamentally evolve how ESPN delivers content and monetizes audiences.
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Alice MoonPostdoctoral Associate, Disney Research, The Walt Disney Company
Constructing Consumer Choices: Simple Nudges Improve Consumer Experiences and Decisions Alice is a behavioral researcher, currently working as a Postdoctoral Associate in the Behavioral Economics group at Disney Research. Before joining Disney Research in June 2015, Alice received her Ph.D. in Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, where her dissertation focused on when and why people like (vs. dislike) uncertainty. Alice's work broadly focuses on how to encourage better (e.g., healthier) choices, and how to improve consumer experience.
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Molly ParrSenior Director, Ad Platform Product Management, ESPN
Tapping Into Emotion and Moment With Data: Driving Advertising Results With Sports Fans' Passion Molly Parr is Senior Director, Ad Platform Product Management within the ESPN Global Data group. She leads data-driven ad products, including LiveConnect Heart: ESPN’s premiere data targeting product that taps into the emotion of consumers engaging with Sport. Prior to ESPN, Molly was a Director of Product Management at Oracle (acquired with BlueKai). She led Outbound Product Management including Strategy & Go To Market activities around for the Data Management Platform within the Oracle Marketing Cloud. Prior to Oracle & BlueKai, Molly was in the digital media department at Neo@Ogilvy, where her team launched the first programmatic media & data buying services unit within the agency.
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Albert Minguillon PlanellMajor Events Solution Manager, Atos Office of the CTO for Major Events and Olympic Games
Atos Delivers Disruptive Technologies to Address Olympic Games Challenges Mr. Minguillon Planell has been with the Atos Major Events team since 2006. He has ten years of experience with IT systems, security, and data analytics with a first-hand view of the operation and challenges of organizing events, including Olympics and non-Olympics. He has experience in varied roles and positions including Commentator Information System Specialist for Beijing 2008, Venue IT Manager for London 2012, Games Information Systems Manager for Glasgow 2014, and Web Results specialists for Toronto 2015 Pan American Games. He currently is working on the latest IT innovative solutions with advanced data analytics for the 2016 Paralympic Games.
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aldrin piriSenior Member of Technical Staff, Hortonworks
How to Quickly and Securely Ingest Data in an IOT World - Developed by the NSA Aldrin is a Senior Member of Technical Staff at Hortonworks working on the Hortonworks DataFlow(HDF) platform. Following the open source release of NiFi by the NSA in 2014, Aldrin became a PMCmember and contributor for Apache NiFi and its subproject MiNiFi. His current efforts focus aroundopen source efforts within the NiFi ecosystem to aid in tackling the complexities of managing dataflowfrom the time data is created through its consumption. Long time Apache NiFi developer and poweruser, Aldrin enjoys transferring lessons learned from his experiences and helping organizations solvetheir data integration challenges.
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Mo RhimHead of Industry, Media & Entertainment, DoubleClick, Google
Tapping Into the Power of the Family Segment—Research, Insights, and Activation Mo Rhim is the Head of Industry for DoubleClick at Google, Media & Entertainment. Mo leads a team working with senior executives in the entertainment industry on strategic ways to leverage evolving platform technologies to drive innovation in film and television marketing. Before leading a team on the DoubleClick, Mo developed new teams and helped open new offices in Ann Arbor and Boston for Google.
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Daniel Rios-DoriaAnalytics & Optimization Manager, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts
Interactive Storytelling With R: A "Shiny" Tale of Optimization and Scenario Planning Daniel Rios-Doria is an Analytics and Optimization Manager within Walt Disney Parks and Resort’s Consumer Insight, Measurement, and Analytics organization. In his role, Daniel develops creative ways to showcase modeling and optimization scenario results to clients with the use of various visualization tools. He holds a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from Arizona State University. His interests include marketing, social media analysis, and data visualization.
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Megan Siems
Sr. Operations Research Engineer, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts
Authentically Disney and Distinctly Chinese: Optimizing Shanghai Disney Resort Opening Training Megan Siems is a Senior Operations Research Engineer on the Advanced Analytics team at Walt Disney Parks and Resorts. Since joining Disney in 2010, she has supported a variety of analytical projects to provide custom, innovative solutions for internal Disney clients including Creative Costuming, Disney University, and Adventures by Disney. She also developed and implemented training schedule optimization models for the opening of Aulani, a Disney Resort and Spa, the launch of the Disney Fantasy, and the grand opening of Shanghai Disneyland. Megan holds a B.S. in Management Science and a M.S. in Operations Research from Southern Methodist University.
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Mark SingerPrincipal, Deloitte Consulting LLP
Tapping Into the Power of the Family Segment—Research, Insights, and Activation Mark is a Principal at Deloitte Consulting LLP and leader of the Digital Agency offering within Deloitte Digital. There, he works alongside many talented and creative individuals that help drive meaningful solutions for clients, including work in customer experience, data and insights, design, content creation, digital media, servicing, scaled production, and technology-based engagement platforms.
Mark is a former big agency lead in digital marketing with more than 19 years of experience in marketing, user experience, and customer engagement. He has led award-winning user experience and technology programs for several of today’s leading brands. He has been at the forefront of the customer engagement ecosystem since the beginning of his career, focused on helping clients define and implement effective customer experience platforms for awareness, engagement, acquisition, and loyalty at scale. Mark brings a powerful combination of practical creative abilities mixed with marketing know-how and technological acumen. He has helped transform several of today’s brands into modern multi-dimensional marketers. He has broad industry experience with globally diverse clients in the Financial Services, Media and Technology, and Consumer Products industries. He earned his undergraduate degree from The George Washington University and his Masters of Fine Arts degree from Parsons School of Design. He is currently based in New York. |
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Suresh VittalVice President, Product Marketing & Strategy, Adobe Marketing Cloud, Adobe
The Power of Great Experiences - Mapping the Customer Lifestyle As the vice president of Adobe Marketing Cloud, Suresh Vittal oversees product marketing and marketing strategy for the industry leading Adobe Marketing Cloud and its eight integrated solutions and core services. He is responsible for driving the strategic marketing efforts of Adobe’s Digital Marketing technologies.
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Kimberly weller
Senior Director, Analytical Services, ESPN
Developing a Source of Truth for Media Intelligence Kim Weller is the Sr. Director, Analytical Services for ESPN’s Research and Analytics group. She and her team are responsible for optimizing the collection, organization, and utilization of ESPN's digital audience and behavioral data for ESPN's wide-ranging digital media platforms. Since Kim joined ESPN in 2010 she has been passionate about making the vast amount of data collected by ESPN more useful by unleashing data sets from limiting point solutions and integrating disparate data sources together for more powerful analyses. Prior to joining ESPN, Kim worked at SAS and Walt Disney Parks and Resorts.
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Josh WeyburneEnterprise Sales Consultant, Tableau
The Modern Approach to Enterprise Analytics: Bridging the Gap Between Business and IT Josh Weyburne is an Enterprise Sales Consultant at Tableau. He is passionate about Tableau and helping IT and the business come together to bring modern analytics to organizations. He believes that we are in the “2nd Phase” of disruption as it pertains to self-service analytics. Phase 1 is about technology and Phase 2 is about the people and processes needed to scale a data driven culture in organizations.
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Steve WhittingtonExecutive Director, Consumer Data & Analytics, Disney | ABC Television Group
Cross-Channel Advertising Attribution—New Insights Into Multiplatform TV Steve Whittington leads the team responsible for empowering data-driven decisions and innovation across Disney | ABC Television segments. His team is building a data platform that will serve as the source of truth for consumer intelligence and leading R&D efforts for advanced analytics capabilities. Steve has over 15 years of consulting and leadership experience with The Walt Disney Company. During his tenure at Disney, he has worked in various roles related to analytics, marketing, sales, operations, and engineering across Disney’s media networks and theme parks. He also holds several patents for his development work on FASTPASS+ and other inventory optimization solutions.
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