Predictive Analytics World Conference: Speakers

Dean Abbott, President, Abbott Analytics

Dean Abbott is President of Abbott Analytics in San Diego, California. Mr. Abbott has over 21 years of experience applying advanced data mining, data preparation, and data visualization methods in real-world data intensive problems, including fraud detection, risk modeling, text mining, response modeling, survey analysis, planned giving, and predictive toxicology. In addition, Mr. Abbott serves as chief technology officer and mentor for start-up companies focused on applying advanced analytics in their consulting practices.

Mr. Abbott is a seasoned instructor, having taught a wide range of data mining tutorials and seminars for a decade to audiences of up to 400, including PAW, KDD, AAAI, IEEE and several data mining software users conferences. He is the instructor of well-regarded data mining courses, explaining concepts in language readily understood by a wide range of audiences, including analytics novices, data analysts, statisticians, and business professionals. Mr. Abbott also has taught applied data mining courses for major software vendors, including SPSS-IBM Modeler (formerly Clementine), Unica PredictiveInsight (formerly Affinium Model), Enterprise Miner (SAS), Model 1 (Group1 Software), and hands-on courses using Statistica (Statsoft), Tibco Spotfire Miner (formerly Insightful Miner), and CART (Salford Systems).

Case Study: Turning Member Satisfaction Surveys into an Actionable Narrative

Full-day Workshop: Hands-On Predictive Analytics

Dave Andre, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer and Chief Technology Officer, Cerebellum Capital

Dave Andre David co-founded Cerebellum Capital, Inc, where he is presently the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Technology Officer. He is also a research advisor to BodyMedia, Inc. Since 2006, Dr. Andre has been principal investigator on a multi-million dollar research grant to non-invasively predict blood glucose from a multi-sensor stream of physiological data. From 2002 until 2007, Dr. Andre was Director of Informatics at BodyMedia, where he and his team collected and analyzed clinical and user data and created state of the art statistical machine learning models that map sensor data to detailed and specific statements about human physiology and activity, such as energy expenditure and sleep state.

In 1996, Dr. Andre co-founded Blue Pumpkin Software, a workforce management software company that was sold to Witness Systems in 2005. He invented the scheduling engines utilized in the company's products that took historical time-series of call data of different types and human resource constraints and created schedules to maximize performance using innovative successive approximation and simulation techniques. Dr. Andre also co-founded and is a partner in Just Passing Through, LLC, a company that creates, runs, and films team-based puzzle races. Dr. Andre earned B.S. and B.A. degrees in Symbolic Systems and Psychology from Stanford University and a PhD in Artificial Intelligence from U.C. Berkeley, where he was awarded a Hertz Fellowship. In addition to holding numerous patents for his inventions, he is the author of more than 60 peer-reviewed publications in the areas of statistical machine learning, robotics, reinforcement learning, evolutionary computation, and parallel processing, as well as a book on automatic circuit design.

Black Box Trading: Analytics in the Land of the Vampire Squid

Sugato Basu, Ph.D., Senior Research Scientist, Google

Sugato Basu His areas of research expertise include machine learning, data mining, predictive modeling and optimization, with special emphasis on scalable algorithm design for text and social network analysis. He did his Ph.D. in machine learning from UT Austin, and worked at SRI International on the CALO project before joining Google. He has written multiple papers, book chapters, and encyclopedia articles on clustering, semi-supervised learning, record linkage, social search / routing, rule mining, and optimization, and has won best paper awards at the KDD, ICML and SDM conferences. He continues to serve on multiple conference / journal committees and NSF panels on machine learning and data mining.

Keynote: Lessons Learned in Predictive Modeling for Ad Targeting

John C. Brocklebank, Ph.D., Vice President, SAS Solutions OnDemand

John Brocklebank, VP of SAS Solutions OnDemand, oversees SAS' growing menu of hosted applications, directing product research and development, marketing, sales, program management, IT, quality assurance, and documentation. Current products and services address critical issues in marketing, fraud detection, drug development and education, as well as Advanced Analytics Lab and Education Value Added Assessment System (EVAAS) ASP educational testing (K-12).

Previously a Senior Research and Development Director for SAS' Analytic ASP, John joined SAS in 1981. He earned a Ph.D. in statistics from NC State University, where he was adjunct professor from 1999-2000. John holds six US patents and has published some 30 papers and presentations.

Sponsor Presentation: The Hefty Toll of Fraud: How to Leverage Predictive Analytics and Social Network Analysis

Tilmann Bruckhaus, Ph.D., Director, Risk and Analytics Engineering, Eventbrite

Tilmann Bruckhaus Tilmann applies web-scale analytics to make businesses, web sites, products and services smarter. He specializes in analytic challenges, such as social graphs, recommendations, content classification, fraud and spam prevention, search relevance, and highly scalable data architectures. Tilmann holds six US patents and a Ph.D. from McGill University with Summa Cum Laude distinction. He received the Sun Microsystems Innovation Award, and an IBM Advanced Research Fellowship. Tilmann enjoys speaking at conferences and events, and he published several book chapters as well as two dozen international papers. He is currently heading Analytics and Risk at Eventbrite. Tilmann previously worked at eBay-PayPal and Numetrics, and co-founded several analytics startups.

Case Study: Market Penetration: Is Your Growth on Track?

Dustin Cannon, Manager of Advanced Analytics, TXU Energy

Dustin Cannon is currently a Manager of Advanced Analytics at TXU Energy in Irving, TX. His primary role on the TXU Energy market research team is to provide support for advanced analytics. Prior to joining TXU Energy Dustin was the Director of Advanced Analytics at M/A/R/C Research for 12 years.

Case Study: Message Optimization using Discrete Choice Analysis in the Energy Sector

Sameer Chopra, Vice President of Marketing Analytics, Orbitz Worldwide, Inc.

Sameer Chopra is VP of Marketing Analytics at Orbitz Worldwide, a leading online global travel company. He has 15 years of experience in applying data mining and predictive analytics across various business domains at both Fortune 500 firms and startups -- saving companies millions of dollars and boosting their top line. Sameer has led Analytical teams in areas including Revenue Management, Fraud Detection, Web Analytics, CRM, Internet Marketing, and Experimentation (A/B & Multivariate Testing).

Prior to Orbitz, Sameer was in the leadership team at Intuit's Small Business Group (SBG), where he was leading Marketing Analytics and Web Testing. He instilled a culture of test & learn and successfully helped SBG drive double-digit millions in annual incremental revenue from leveraging Test Analytics.

Sameer is an eBay Inc. veteran where he was Director of Analytics. He led Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Analytics for the firm, resulting in record ROI for eBay's Internet Marketing group. He led the foundational analytics effort in building Triton, eBay's automated SEM platform. Sameer was also a core member of the Trust & Safety Group in the formative years, where he applied predictive models to detect fraud proactively.

Sameer also ran eBay Inc's Global Experimentation Analytics Group -- the testing program was highlighted in the Feb 2009 issue ("How to Design Smart Business Experiments") of the Harvard Business Review (HBR).

Sameer holds a Masters degree in Operations Research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He holds an undergraduate degree (Summa Cum Laude) in Mathematics with a minor in Computer Science from Allegheny College, where he graduated valedictorian.

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/sameer-chopra/1/410/267

Case Study: Enhance Business Performance by Applying Analytics to Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

John Colias, Senior Vice President, Decision Analyst, Inc.

John Colias John leads the Advanced Analytics Group at Decision Analyst. In this capacity he designs, implements, and interprets custom quantitative research. His work is focused on applying advanced metrics and models in the areas of product optimization, market segmentation, competitive analysis, brand development, pricing strategies, predictive modeling, forecasting, and panel data econometrics.

John has more than 25 years of experience with econometric and simulation models. He has designed marketing research in a broad spectrum of industry categories, including prescription drug, packaged goods, high-tech and computer, telecommunications, insurance, restaurants, automobile, and retail gasoline. John holds a Ph.D. in Economics from The University of Texas at Austin with specializations in econometrics and modeling methods.

Case Study: Message Optimization using Discrete Choice Analysis in the Energy Sector

Thomas Davenport, President's Distinguished Professor, Babson College, Author, Competing on Analytics: The New Science of Winning;
Co-Founder, International Institute for Analytics

Thomas Davenport is currently the President's Distinguished Professor of Information Technology and Management at Babson College. He is the former director of research centers at SAS, Ernst & Young, and McKinsey, and has taught at Harvard Business School, Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business, and the University of Texas at Austin.

Thomas is a frequent contributor to Harvard Business Review and other leading journals. His recent article, "Competing on Analytics," was Harvard Business Review's most requested article reprint of 2006. He is the author or co-author of twelve books, including the bestsellers Working Knowledge: How Organizations Manage What They Know and Process Innovation: Reengineering Work through Information Technology. His latest book, Competing on Analytics: The New Science of Winning, has become a best-seller and is being translated into 10 languages.

Keynote: The New Quantitative Era: Creating Successful Business Change with Analytics

Anthony F. DeSantis, CFE, Senior Manager, Deloitte Financial Advisory Services LLP

Antony DeSantis Mr. DeSantis is a Senior Manager in the Data Analytics practice within Deloitte Financial Advisory Services LLP with more than 12 years experience specializing in the forensic analysis of electronic data. His technical experience includes the analysis of complex structured and unstructured data, management and implementation of small-scale information management systems, the design and operation of relational databases in investigations, litigations, claims processing and settlement administration environments and the use of databases and forecasting methodologies for identifying indicators of fraud. Mr. DeSantis is a Certified Fraud Examiner and has presented on International eDiscovery Issues, Investigative Data Considerations, Technology to Detect Potential Violations of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and Healthcare Data Mining.

Gold Sponsor Presentation: Enhancing Rules-Based Approaches to Fraud, Corruption, and Bribery Detection with Predictive Analytics

John F. Elder IV, Ph.D, Chief Scientist, Elder Research, Inc.

Dr. John F. Elder Dr. John Elder heads a data mining consulting team with offices in Charlottesville Virginia, Washington DC, Mountain View California, and Manhasset New York (www.datamininglab.com). Founded in 1995, Elder Research, Inc. focuses on investment, commercial and security applications of advanced analytics, including text mining, forecasting, stock selection, image recognition, process optimization, cross-selling, biometrics, drug efficacy, credit scoring, market timing, and fraud detection.

John obtained a BS and MEE in Electrical Engineering from Rice University, and a PhD in Systems Engineering from the University of Virginia, where he's an adjunct professor teaching Optimization or Data Mining. Prior to 15 years at ERI, he spent 5 years in aerospace defense consulting, 4 heading research at an investment management firm, and 2 in Rice University's Computational & Applied Mathematics department. Dr. Elder has authored innovative data mining tools, is a frequent keynote speaker, and was co-chair of the 2009 Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining conference, in Paris.

John's courses on analysis techniques -- taught at dozens of universities, companies, and government labs -- are noted for their clarity and effectiveness. Dr. Elder was honored to serve for 5 years on a panel appointed by the President to guide technology for National Security. His book with Bob Nisbet and Gary Miner, Handbook of Statistical Analysis & Data Mining Applications, won the PROSE award for Mathematics in 2009. His book with Giovanni Seni, Ensemble Methods in Data Mining: Improving Accuracy through Combining Predictions, was published in February 2010. John is a follower of Christ and the proud father of 5.

Data Mining Lessons Learned – Technical & Business – From Applied Projects

Full-day Workshop: The Best and the Worst of Predictive Analytics: Predictive Modeling Methods and Common Data Mining Mistakes

Bill Franks, Chief Analytics Officer, Global SAS Program, Teradata Corporation

Bill Franks Bill is Chief Analytics Officer for Teradata's global SAS program. In this role, he provides thought leadership to clients on trends in the Advanced Analytics space, how clients can leverage those trends, and how Teradata and SAS can support those efforts. Bill also oversees the Business Analytic Innovation Center, which is an analytics think tank jointly sponsored by Teradata and SAS. Bill has extensive background helping clients derive value through the use of data analysis and modeling, with a focus on making results accessible to the business community. His work has spanned clients in a variety of industries ranging in size from Fortune 100 companies to small non-profit organizations. Bill is also a faculty member of the International Institute for Analytics.

Gold Sponsor Presentation: Let's Talk About Fleas!

Kaiser Fung, Senior Director of Strategic Analytics, Sirius XM Radio

Kaiser Fung is Senior Director of Strategic Analytics at Sirius XM Radio, and author of Numbers Rule Your World: the hidden influence of probability and statistics on everything you do (McGraw-Hill, 2010). At Sirius XM Radio, his team is responsible for applying advanced statistical techniques to solve business problems, such as multivariate testing and predictive modeling. Mr. Fung has over 15 years of experience building predictive models for the media, Internet and banking companies. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, and statistics and operations research degrees from Cambridge and Princeton. He teaches statistics for management at New York University.

Lab Session: Making Predictive Models Count

Anthony Goldbloom, Chief Executive Officer, Kaggle

Anthony Goldbloom Anthony is the Founder and CEO of Kaggle Pty Ltd, a global platform for data prediction competitions. Anthony assists companies with framing modeling tasks as data prediction competitions, ensuring competitions reflect real-life projects, and that the results can be integrated into their day-to-day operations.

Before founding Kaggle, Anthony worked in the macroeconomic modelling areas of the Reserve Bank of Australia and before that the Australian Treasury. In these roles, Anthony was responsible for building and maintaining macroeconomic models of the Australian economy. He used these models to generate economic forecasts and to simulate the impact of changes in interest rates and fiscal policy on the Australian economy.

Anthony holds a first class honours degree in economics and econometrics from the University of Melbourne and has published in The Economist magazine and the Australian Economic Review.

Case Study: Crowdsourcing Data Prediction

Christopher Hane, Ph.D., Director, Ingenix Innovation Lab

Chris Hane Christopher Hane, Ph.D. is Senior Scientist and Director in the Ingenix Innovation Lab. He has 20 years of experience designing and delivering decision support applications in supply chain and health care markets. As a Director in the Ingenix Innovation Lab, Dr. Hane is responsible for design and construction of leading edge analytic applications and services.

Lab Session: Large Scale Predictive Models for Chronic Illness using Fuzzy Logix's In-Database Analytics Technology on Netezza

Piyanka Jain, Senior Manager, NA Business Developement and Analytics, PayPal

Piyanka Jain Piyanka's strength and interest lies in deriving actionable insights from data to enable informed trade-offs and decision making. She never stops asking "Why" questions as customer behavior, action and attitude continuously intrigue her.

Currently, she is engaged in leading strategic analytics for PayPal that enables fact-based decisions on fine-tuning customer experience and product development. From building a recommendation engine for "Next Best product" for merchants to identifying the factors that indicates to an event happening in future, her role at PayPal is to lead the organization into learning more about their products and customers through rigorous understanding and mining of data.

Prior to this, Piyanka provided database driven analytical services to Adobe Product Marketing and Campaign Marketing. At Adobe, Piyanka designed and analyzed programs, used program learnings to drive planning for direct marketing communication programs, created segmentation and targeting strategy, mined data for predictors of campaign performance, built statistical models to identify top converters.

Prior to this, Piyanka founded Out of Box Media in 2003. The company's first Ad Campaign started with Chinese boxes and then grew to incorporate other types of containers including Pizza boxes, cake boxes etc. Her experience in advertising at Google, and her science and engineering degrees from Texas A&M and University of Minnesota enabled her to reach out to a wide variety of customers.

In her spare time, Piyanka likes to run, practice Yoga, paint, make pottery, and get an occasional game of Squash with her husband, Parth Sethia.

Case Study: Putting Predictive Analytics into Context: The Analytics Value Chain

Kathleen Kane, Principal Decision Scientist, Fidelity Investments

Kathleen Kane is a Principal Decision Scientist with the Modeling and Analytics Strategy team at Fidelity Investments in Smithfield, RI. The Modeling and Analytics Strategy team works with partners in marketing, distribution and product to answer business questions using statistical data analysis.
Kathleen has more than ten years of data mining experience in the financial services industry.
Kathleen received her BA in engineering from Dartmouth College, and her MS from the MIT Sloan School of Management.

True-Lift Modeling: Mining for the Most Truly Responsive Customers and Prospects

David Katz, Senior Analyst, Dataspora, and President, David Katz Consulting.

David Katz has been in the forefront of applying statistical models and database technology to marketing problems since 1980. He holds a Master's Degree in Mathematics from the University of California, Berkeley. He is one of the founders of Abacus Direct Marketing and was previously the Director of Database Development for Williams-Sonoma.

He is the founder and President of David Katz Consulting, specializing in sophisticated statistical services for a variety of applications, with a special focus on the Direct Marketing Industry. David Katz has an extensive background that includes experience in all aspects of direct marketing from data mining, to strategy, to test design and implementation. In addition, he consults on a variety of data mining and statistical applications from public health to collections analysis. He has partnered with consulting firms such as Ernst and Young, Prediction Impact, and most recently on this project with Dataspora.

Case Study: Social Networking Data for Churn Analysis

Joel Kleinman, Vice President, Internet Channel BI & Analysis, Bank of the West

Joel Kleinman Mr. Kleinman specializes in internet marketing analytics and finance. In his current role, he manages business intelligence and financial planning for the internet channel at Bank of the West.

Between 2002 and 2008, Mr. Kleinman managed internet research and analytics for Washington Mutual Bank. Prior to that, he spent several years at internet marketing agencies developing analytical solutions and marketing strategy.

Mr. Kleinman received his M.B.A. from UC Davis in 2008 and a B.A. in Psychology from San Francisco State University in 1998.

Case Study: Effectively Incorporating Internet in Customer Value Models

Rado Kotorov Ph.D., Director, SP Management & Competitive Strategy, Information Builders

Dr. Rado Kotorov, technical director of Strategic Product Management for Information Builders, is responsible for emerging reporting, analytic, and visualization technologies. He is driving the adoption of RIA, AJAX, search, and other Web 2.0 and mobile technologies to make BI and enterprise analytics more accessible, intuitive, and collaborative. Active Reports, Magnify, and Power Painter are just a few of the applications created through his efforts.

Prior to joining Information Builders he was chief financial officer with responsibilities in IMS and IT at DeBacker Management LLC. He was also BI director at CMI Marketing, where he managed the implementation of BI and financial reporting solutions, data warehouses, and custom applications. Dr. Kotorov has developed analytic models and applications for the pharmaceutical, retail, CPG, financial, and automotive industries. He has a Ph.D. in decision and game theory, and economics from Bowling Green State University. He has also published on business processes, emerging technologies, CRM, KM, innovation, and entrepreneurship.

Platinum Sponsor Presentation: Using Predictive Analytics To Reduce Credit Risk In Auto Dealer Financing

Max Kuhn, Director, Nonclinical Statistics, Pfizer

Max Kuhn is a Director of Nonclinical Statistics at Pfizer Global R&D in Connecticut. He has been apply models in the pharmaceutical industries for over 15 years.

He is a leading R developer and the author of several R packages including the CARET package that provides a simple and consistent interface to over 100 predictive models available in R.

Mr. Kuhn has taught courses on modeling within Pfizer and externally, including a class for the India Ministry of Information Technology.

Full-day Workshop: R for Predictive Modeling: A Hands-On Introduction

Aaron Lai, Prior VP and Senior Quantitative Research Associate,
Bank of America

Aaron Lai, CFA, is the former VP and Senior Quantitative Research Associate for the Innovative Delivery Solutions team of the Bank of America in San Francisco. Aaron is now Senior Manager of Marketing Analytics for Blue Shield of California. He has over 10 years experience in consumer analytics and database marketing for financial institutions and has patents currently pending. He has published in academic journals and has presented in international data-mining conferences. He also served on the CFA examination curriculum committee and the CFA Magazine Advisory committee. He received a B.Sc.(Hons) in Finance (City University of Hong Kong), a B.Sc.(Econ)(Hons) in Management Studies (University of London), a MBA (Purdue University), and a M.Sc. in Sociology (University of Oxford).

Case Study: How Do Peers Evaluate Peer-to-Peer Lending?

Kim Larsen, VP of Analytical Insights, Market Share Partners

Kim Larsen is a VP of Analytical Insights at Market Share Partners, a leading marketing science company based in Los Angeles. Prior to Market Share Partners, he worked in the advanced analytics department of a Fortune 500 financial services institution. Kim has worked in the area of data mining and statistical modeling industry since 2001 and programmed in SAS since 1995. Throughout his professional career, he has worked on and managed a wide array of data mining and analytical problems including price optimization, media mix optimization, demand forecasting, customer segmentation, and predictive modeling.

Kim frequently speaks at data mining conferences around the world in the areas of segmentation and predictive modeling and has been an acclaimed keynote speaker at Predictive Analytics World and other conferences. His main areas of research include additive non-linear modeling and net lift models (incremental lift models).

Kim holds a B.S. in mathematics and economics and an M.S. in statistics.

Workshop: Net Lift Models: Optimizing the Impact of Your Marketing

Bill Lazarus, President and CEO, Seer Analytics, LLC

Bill Lazarus is President and CEO of Seer Analytics, LLC, a technology-based research and analytics company in Tampa Florida. Seer produces actionable intelligence to help clients make smarter decision and drive business performance.

Bill has worked in the non-profit and corporate sectors. He joined the Dun & Bradstreet Corporation in 1984 where he held positions of increasing responsibility at three divisions and the corporate office.

In 1994, Bill founded Lazarus Associates, a consulting firm specializing in the use of data and analytical tools to support strategy development. In January 2001 Bill and his partners formed Seer Analytics to provide consumer research products and services requiring a substantial technological infrastructure.

Since its formation Seer has developed proprietary software and processes to automate complex data collection, analysis and reporting. Seer reports embed sophisticated analytics yet are designed to be accessible and meaningful to a non-technical audience. They have been used at every level of the organization, from frontline operations to boardroom planning. Bill received his BA from the University of Wisconsin, his MA from the University of Toronto, and his SM and PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Case Study: Turning Member Satisfaction Surveys into an Actionable Narrative

Antonia de Medinaceli, Senior Business Analyst, Elder Research, Inc.

Antonia de Medinaceli has extensive experience in all aspects of the data mining process, and has solved challenges in many industries, including financial, crime analysis, and customer relationship management (CRM) industries. Her consulting experience is both domestic and international. Antonia is experienced with most of the leading statistical software packages. In addition to her consulting experience, she has taught data mining short courses with the Elder Research team. She has degrees in Computer Science and Systems Engineering from the University of Virginia.

Case Study: Fighting the Good Fraud Fight

Sha Hsing Min, SVP Director of Campaign Management, Sovereign Bank

Sha Hsing Min is SVP Director of Campaign Management at Sovereign Bank, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Grupo Santander, where he leads predictive modeling and cross-channel optimization functions. He has 26 years of experience in financial, marketing and economic analysis and specializes currently in continuous multichannel optimization through analytics, process automation, data integration and team structure. He led the development of predictive modeling infrastructure at Abt Associates, Upromise and Monster.com, acquisition scoring for the GM Card, and he led the development of online/offline optimization infrastructure at Hill Holliday. Mr. Sha earned a B.A. economics at Maryland University and pursued PhD studies at Harvard University.

Case Study: Holistic Predictive Analytics

Michael Murff, Senior Manager, Risk Decision Management, PayPal

Michael Murff is Senior Manager of Decision Management at PayPal. Previously he worked for eBay Fraud Analytics, and as a researcher in quantitative finance at BYU's Marriott School of Business. He is focused on automated fraud detection and on building next generation detection systems. Mike holds advanced degrees specializing in Applied Econometrics and research methods; and he enjoys statistical computing on big data. He is expert in SAS macro language and has since utilized many other data mining tools against massive datasets. Most recently his work on Rapid Model Refresh was featured at M2010, and on Methods of Model Monitoring at Predictive Analytics Innovation 2011.

Case Study: Ensembles for Online Analytic Scoring Engine

Robert O'Keefe, Corporate Senior Vice President,
Heritage Provider Network

Robert O'Keefe is a Corporate Senior Vice President for HPN. Mr. O'Keefe is also the CEO of HPN's affiliates Bakersfield Family Medical Center and Coastal Communities Physician Network. Through the years, he has helped implement and been the executive in charge of many of the HPN's Chronic Disease Management and Utilization Management programs.

Exclusive Announcement: The $3 million Heritage Health Prize: New Announcements on Contest Structure

Dipesh Patel, Senior Manager, Product Marketing, ParAccel

Dipesh Patel joined ParAccel in 2010 after a varied career at IBM, Intel, NetApp and CommVault. He is an enthusiastic champion of new and emerging technologies that can be put into solving real-world problems today and tomorrow. From Big Analytics, to Linux, to Data Deduplication, he's able to highlight connections across multiple technologies and solution stacks to understand what approaches yield the most value at the lowest level of risk.

Gold Sponsor Presentation: The Power & Promise of Big Data Analytics

Jack Phillips, CEO, International Institute for Analytics

IIA marks the sixth successful start-up venture for Jack Phillips over the past 20 years. Jack specializes in spotting emerging job functions, and building successful information publishing and research firms to help those professionals make better decisions. Prior to joining IIA, Jack held operating and founding roles at INFONXX (now kgb USA), ISI Emerging Markets (now Euromoney, PLC), CCBN (now Thomson/Reuters) and the Institute for Applied Network Security (recent private sale).

Jack began his career as an investment banker at Morgan Stanley & Co. in New York, and at the Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan in Tokyo, and held senior operating positions at various McGraw-Hill business units in 1994 before becoming an entrepreneur. Jack is a graduate of Harvard Business School and Williams College

Case Study: Health Insurance: Analytics by Industry/Role

Steven J. Ramirez, CEO, Beyond the Arc, Inc.

Steven Ramirez Steven is the CEO of Beyond the Arc, Inc. a management consulting firm recognized by Forrester Research as a leader in the field of customer experience.

Steven leads teams of analysts and strategy consultants that help clients use data mining and text analytics for customer acquisition, retention, and growth.

Lab Session: Bank On It! Use all your data to maximize customer satisfaction, loyalty and retention

Partha Sen, President & CEO, Fuzzy Logix

Partha Sen is the Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Fuzzy Logix. Partha has a passion for solving complex business problems using quantitative methods, data mining and pattern recognition. Since 1995, Partha has pursued this passion and has developed numerous high-performance quantitative algorithms. Today, these algorithms and models are the basis for the products being brought to market by Fuzzy Logix.

Before founding Fuzzy Logix, Partha worked at Bank of America where he held senior management positions in the commercial and investment bank and in the portfolio strategies group. Prior to working at Bank of America, Partha held managerial positions at Ernst and Young and Tata Consultancy Services. He has a Bachelor of Engineering degree from the Indian Institute of Technology and an MBA from Wake Forest University.

Lab Session: Large Scale Predictive Models for Chronic Illness using Fuzzy Logix's In-Database Analytics Technology on Netezza

Jerry Shan, Ph.D., Principal Scientist, Hewlett-Packard

Jerry Shan Jerry is a Principal Scientist in the Business Optimization Lab, focused on developing software and services based on decision sciences and data mining that will bring personalized experiences to individuals and operational efficiencies to the enterprise. Jerry earned a PhD in Statistics from Stanford University in 1995. Jerry has a successful track record of leading technology creation and transferring solutions to businesses. Jerry has presented numerous papers at, Joint Statistical Meetings, International Symposium on Forecasting, Forecasting Summit, CPG (Consumer Packaged Goods) Forecasting, and INFORMS. Jerrry has numerous publications in IEEE journals and International Journal of Forecasters. Jerry has 12 granted patents and more than 20 open applications on predictive analytics, change-point detection, and econometric analysis and modeling.

Case Study: Customer Repurchase Analysis - B2B Context: A Bayesian Framework

Colin Shearer, WW Industry Solutions Leader, IBM

Colin Shearer is Worldwide Industry Solutions Leader for the SPSS brand at IBM. With a background in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence at the University of Aberdeen, specializing in machine learning, he has been involved since 1984 in applying advanced software solutions to business problems. Previously with SD-Scicon and Quintec Systems, he was one of the founders of Integral Solutions Ltd. (ISL) in 1989, and was a pioneer of data mining in the early 1990s. He was creator and architect of ISL's award-winning Clementine system (now IBM SPSS Modeler) which introduced the visual workbench approach for data mining. Shearer's team at ISL tackled numerous successful data mining applications in areas including finance, broadcasting, market research and defense, and from 1996 to 1998 he jointly let the international initiative to create and publish the CRISP-DM methodology. In 1998 SPSS acquired ISL, and Shearer became responsible for a worldwide team of data mining consultants and for SPSS Advanced Data Mining Group. He subsequently held various positions at SPSS including global head of Product Marketing and Senior Vice President for Market Strategy. SPSS was acquired by IBM in October 2009, and Shearer moved to his current position in January 2010.

Diamond Sponsor Presentation: The Analytical Revolution

Expert Panel: Kaboom! Predictive Analytics Hits the Mainstream

Eric Siegel, Ph.D., Program Chair, Predictive Analytics World

Eric Siegel, Ph.D. The president of Prediction Impact, Inc., Eric Siegel is an expert in predictive analytics and data mining and a former computer science professor at Columbia University, where he won the engineering school's award for teaching, including graduate-level courses in machine learning and intelligent systems - the academic terms for predictive analytics. After Columbia, Dr. Siegel co-founded two software companies for customer profiling and data mining, and then started Prediction Impact in 2003, providing predictive analytics services and training to mid-tier through Fortune 100 companies.

Dr. Siegel is the instructor of the acclaimed training program, Predictive Analytics for Business, Marketing and Web, and the online version, Predictive Analytics Applied. He has published over 20 papers and articles in data mining research and computer science education, has served on 10 conference program committees, has chaired a AAAI Symposium held at MIT, and is the founding chair of Predictive Analytics World.

Keynote: Persuasion by the Numbers: Optimize Marketing Influence by Predicting It

Marc Smith, Ph.D., Chief Social Scientist, Connected Action

Marc Smith is a sociologist specializing in the social organization of online communities and computer mediated interaction. Smith leads the Connected Action consulting group and lives and works in Silicon Valley, California. Smith co-founded the Social Media Research Foundation (http://www.smrfoundation.org/), a non-profit devoted to open tools, data, and scholarship related to social media research.

Smith is the co-editor with Peter Kollock of Communities in Cyberspace (Routledge), a collection of essays exploring the ways identity; interaction and social order develop in online groups. Along with Derek Hansen and Ben Shneiderman, he is the co-author and editor of Analyzing Social Media Networks with NodeXL: Insights from a connected world, from Morgan-Kaufmann which is a guide to mapping connections created through computer-mediated interactions.

Smith received a B.S. in International Area Studies from Drexel University in Philadelphia in 1988, an M.Phil. in social theory from Cambridge University in 1990, and a Ph.D. in Sociology from UCLA in 2001. He is an affiliate faculty at the Department of Sociology at the University of Washington and the College of Information Studies at the University of Maryland. Smith is also a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the Media-X Program at Stanford University.

Social (Media) Network Analysis with NodeXL

James Taylor, CEO, Decision Management Solutions

James Taylor James is the CEO and Principal Consultant of Decision Management Solutions. James is the leading expert in decision management and decisioning technologies. James is passionate about using decisioning technologies like business rules and predictive analytics to help companies improve decision making and develop smarter and more agile processes and systems. James has over 20 years developing software and solutions for clients and has led Decision Management efforts for leading companies in insurance, banking, health management and telecommunications. He is also an active speaker, blogger (primarily at JTonEDM) and author.

James delivers webinars, workshops and sales training for clients and vendors. He is a keynote speaker at conferences such as the Business Rules Forum, Predictive Analytics World and IBM's Business Analytics Forum. James was co-author of "Smart (Enough) Systems" (Prentice Hall, 2007) with Neil Raden, and has contributed chapters on decision management and business rules to multiple books including "Applying Real-World BPM in an SAP Environment", "The Decision Model", "The Business Rules Revolution: Doing Business The Right Way" and "Business Intelligence Implementation: Issues and Perspectives". James is a faculty member of the International Institute for Analytics and has experience at FICO, PeopleSoft R&D, and Ernst & Young.

Full-day Workshop: Driving Enterprise Decisions with Business Analytics

Case Study: Deploying Analytics with a Rules-Based Infrastructure

Astro Teller, Ph.D., Director of New Projects, Google

Dr. Astro Teller is currently Director of New Projects for Google, working to help the company explore new potential business areas. Astro is also a co-founder and a current Director of Cerebellum Capital, a hedge fund management firm whose investments are continuously designed, executed, and improved by a software system based on techniques from statistical machine learning. Astro is also co-founder and a current Director of BodyMedia, Inc, a leading wearable body monitoring company. From 2007 to 2010, Astro was the founding CEO of Cerebellum Capital, Inc. From 1999 to 2007, Dr. Teller was the founding CEO of BodyMedia, Inc. Prior to starting BodyMedia, Dr. Teller was co-founder, Chairman, and CEO of Sandbox Advanced Development, an advanced development technology company. Before his tenure as a business executive, Dr. Teller taught at Stanford University and was an engineer and researcher for Phoenix Laser Technologies, Stanford's Center for Integrated Systems, and The Carnegie Group Incorporated. Dr. Teller holds a Bachelor of Science in computer science from Stanford University, Masters of Science in symbolic and heuristic computation, also from Stanford University, and a Ph.D. in artificial intelligence from Carnegie Mellon University, where he was a recipient of the prestigious Hertz fellowship.

As a respected scientist and seasoned entrepreneur, Teller has successfully created and grown five companies and holds numerous U.S. patents related to his work in hardware and software technology. Dr. Teller's work in science, literature, art, and business has appeared in international media from the New York Times to CNN to NPR's "All Things Considered." Teller regularly gives invited talks for national and international technology, government, and business forums on the subject of the future of intelligent technology.

Making Technologies Intelligent: Data, Patterns, Access, and Architecture

Wayne Thompson, Analytics Product Manager, SAS

Wayne Thompson is an Analytics Product Manager at SAS. His primary efforts are centered on bringing relevant product/solution feedback from customers to the SAS data mining development teams to extend SAS Institute's leadership position in the data mining market. SAS products that Wayne brought to market include SAS Text Miner, SAS Model Manager and SAS Scoring Accelerator for Teradata. Current focus initiatives include easy to use self-service data mining tools for business analysts and in-database analytics. He has been employed at SAS since 1992. During his tenure at SAS, Wayne also served as a Statistical Services specialist for the Education Division in which he developed and taught applied statistical courses as well as collaborated on several data analysis projects for clients from many industries. Wayne received his Ph.D. and M.S from the University of Tennessee in 1992 and 1987, respectively. During his PhD program, he was also a visiting scientist at the Institut Superieur d'Agriculture de Lille, Lille, France.

Expert Panel: Kaboom! Predictive Analytics Hits the Mainstream

Noe Tuason, Research Manager, California State Automobile Association

Noe Tuason Noe is currently the Customer Research Manager for insurance at the California State Automobile Association (CSAA). Prior to joining CSAA, Noe worked for Deloitte Consulting as a project lead at the Advanced Quantitative Services Group and for the Allstate Research and Planning Center data mining and modeling Groups as a senior researcher. He has published papers on research methods in various journals and presented in conferences. Related to the current topic, Noe presented a paper at the Advanced Research Techniques Forum comparing the use of logistic regression, decision trees, and hybrid combination of the two on predicting short-term defection. He also taught research methods at the Cal State University East Bay and was a research co-investigator at the UCSF Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Case Study: Addressing Analytics Challenges in the Retail and Insurance Industries

Hui Wang, Director of Decision Management, PayPal

Hui Wang is Director of Decision Management at PayPal for last 7 years. Prior to that she worked for FICO as an Analytics Lead. Her education includes advanced degrees in Statistics and Computer Science from UC Berkeley. Dr. Wang leads the fraud modeling team at PayPal, and is expert in many analytical technologies; additionally, she plays an designer role in architecting many next generation analytic products to enable Ensemble modeling for real time fraud systems.

Case Study: Ensembles for Online Analytic Scoring Engine

Andreas S. Weigend, Ph.D., weigend.com, Former Chief Scientist, Amazon.com

Andreas Weigend Andreas S. Weigend, Ph.D. was Chief Scientist at Amazon.com, where he specialized in understanding how people behave online, helping Amazon build its customer-centric, measurement-focused culture.

He now works as an independent consultant with firms including Alibaba, Lufthansa, MySpace, and Nokia, helping some of the most brilliant executives around the world leverage user data to produce innovative products and business models. He also teaches at Stanford and UC Berkeley, and is often invited to speak at international events.

The State of the Social Data Revolution

Expert Panel: Kaboom! Predictive Analytics Hits the Mainstream

Bill Zanine, Business Solution Executive for Analytic Solutions, Netezza

Bill Zanine is the Business Solution Executive for Analytic Solutions at Netezza, an IBM Company. Throughout his career he has focused on designing and developing innovative technology solutions for complex business problems in the areas of defense, manufacturing, financial services and healthcare and life sciences. Today, he uses that experience to help customers leverage Netezza's advanced database and analytic technologies to solve their problems in ways they never thought possible.

Lab Session: Large Scale Predictive Models for Chronic Illness using Fuzzy Logix's In-Database Analytics Technology on Netezza

Jane Zheng, Principal Decision Scientist, Fidelity Investments

Jane Zheng is a Principal Decision Scientist with the Modeling and Analytics Strategy team at Fidelity. Jane has more than 15 years experience in modeling, data mining and market research in financial services and consulting.
Jane received her BA in engineering and her MS in mathmatical statistics.