Dean Abbott
President
Abbott Analytics, Inc.
Dean Abbott is President of Abbott Analytics, Inc. in San Diego, California. Mr. Abbott is an internationally recognized data mining and predictive analytics expert with over two decades experience applying advanced data mining algorithms, data preparation techniques, and data visualization methods to real-world problems, including fraud detection, risk modeling, text mining, personality assessment, response modeling, survey analysis, planned giving, and predictive toxicology. Mr. Abbott is also Chief Scientist of SmarterRemarketer, a startup company focusing on behaviorally- and data-driven marketing attribution and web analytics.
Mr. Abbott is a highly-regarded and popular speaker at Predictive Analytics and Data Mining conferences. He has served on the program committee for the KDD Industrial Track and Data Mining Case Studies workshop and is on the Advisory Boards for the UC/Irvine Predictive Analytics Certificate and the UCSD Data Mining Certificate programs. Mr. Abbott has taught applied data mining and text mining courses using IBM SPSS Modeler, SAS Enterprise Miner, Statsoft Statistica, Tibco Spotfire Miner, IBM Affinium Model, Megaputer Polyanalyst, Salford Systems CART, KNIME, and RapidMiner.
Mr. Abbott is a highly-regarded and popular speaker at Predictive Analytics and Data Mining conferences. He has served on the program committee for the KDD Industrial Track and Data Mining Case Studies workshop and is on the Advisory Boards for the UC/Irvine Predictive Analytics Certificate and the UCSD Data Mining Certificate programs. Mr. Abbott has taught applied data mining and text mining courses using IBM SPSS Modeler, SAS Enterprise Miner, Statsoft Statistica, Tibco Spotfire Miner, IBM Affinium Model, Megaputer Polyanalyst, Salford Systems CART, KNIME, and RapidMiner.
Case Study: My Five Predictive Analytics Pet Peeves
Panel Discussion: What is Big Data Analytics: A Canadian Perspective
Gary Anderberg
Practice Leader of Analytics & Outcomes
Broadspire
Gary received his BA from Pomona College and his MA and PhD from Stanford. After a stint as a college professor, he joined a consulting firm in management control and accounting systems. He later joined a regional and in 1986 started his own company providing group benefit plans. After selling his TPA, he moved to The Travelers to develop managed care services for workers' compensation.
Gary went to Zenith National in 1994 to design the SinglePoint program. He joined Prudential two years later to develop Prudential's managed care services for workers' compensation and later moved to Prudential Group Insurance to develop an Integrated Disability Management product. He retired from Prudential and joined Broadspire in 2007 in Data Analytics.
Gary has published on disability, workers' compensation, and benefit integration. In addition, Gary writes mystery novels and screenplays and belongs to the Mystery Writers of America.
Gary went to Zenith National in 1994 to design the SinglePoint program. He joined Prudential two years later to develop Prudential's managed care services for workers' compensation and later moved to Prudential Group Insurance to develop an Integrated Disability Management product. He retired from Prudential and joined Broadspire in 2007 in Data Analytics.
Gary has published on disability, workers' compensation, and benefit integration. In addition, Gary writes mystery novels and screenplays and belongs to the Mystery Writers of America.
Case Study: To Sue or Not to Sue: Predicting Litigation Risk
Richard Boire
Founding Partner
Boire Filler Group
Richard Boire, B.Sc. (McGill), MBA (Concordia), is the founding partner at the Boire Filler Group, a nationally recognized expert in the database and data analytical industry and is among the top experts in this field in Canada, with unique expertise and background experience.
Mr. Boire's mathematical and technical expertise is complimented by experience working at and with clients who work in the B2C and B2B environments. He previously worked at and with Clients such as: Reader's Digest, American Express, Loyalty Group, and Petro-Canada among many to establish his top notch credentials.
After 12 years of progressive data mining and analytical experience, Mr. Boire established his own consulting company - Boire Direct Marketing in 1994. He writes numerous articles for industry publications, is a well-sought after speaker on data mining, and works closely with the Canadian Marketing Association on a number of areas including Education and the Database and Technology councils. He is currently the Chair of Predictive Analytics World Toronto.
Mr. Boire's mathematical and technical expertise is complimented by experience working at and with clients who work in the B2C and B2B environments. He previously worked at and with Clients such as: Reader's Digest, American Express, Loyalty Group, and Petro-Canada among many to establish his top notch credentials.
After 12 years of progressive data mining and analytical experience, Mr. Boire established his own consulting company - Boire Direct Marketing in 1994. He writes numerous articles for industry publications, is a well-sought after speaker on data mining, and works closely with the Canadian Marketing Association on a number of areas including Education and the Database and Technology councils. He is currently the Chair of Predictive Analytics World Toronto.
Keynote: The Challenge of Data (Big or Small) in Predictive Analytics
Mike Boyle
Co-Founder
Sports Analytics Institute
Mike has more than 13 years of Analytics, Business Intelligence and Information Technology experience spanning multiple industries. He is an Assistant Professor of Information Systems in the David Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah where he teaches courses on the application of analytics and related technologies within organizations. He speaks at industry conferences and leading universities covering topics from Sports Analytics and Information Systems. He is also an analytics consultant helping organizations define and execute on their analytics strategies and programs. During his career in industry, he has held consulting, management and executive positions in Analytics, Engineering and Product Management. Mike has a Master of Science from DePaul University and a Bachelor of Mathematics from the University of Waterloo.
Case Study: Succeeding with Analytics in Professional Hockey - Now and Into the Future
Dragos Calitoiu
Senior Modeler
TD Bank Group Canada
Dragos Calitoiu is a Senior Modeler with TD Canada Bank, designing, building and validating marketing and risk models related to credit cards. He obtained his Electronics degree from the Polytechnic University of Bucharest, Romania, and the Ph. D. in Computer Science from Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. Dragos has over 30 publications, which include book chapters and refereed publications, reflecting results in Data Mining, Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning.
Case Study: Marketing Predictive Models (Response, Survival and Premium Models) for Credit Card Insurance
John De Goes
CEO and CTO
Precog
John A. De Goes has been working professionally in distributed systems design and development for more than a decade. Author of multiple best-selling technical books, and a major contributor to open source, John has an extensive background in in scientific and distributed computing, and large-scale analytics. John is a frequent and well-received speaker at industry events. Recent engagements include DataWeek Conference, Glue Conference, Frontier Developers and NEScala. As CEO and CTO of Precog, John is responsible for leading the design and development of the company's data warehousing and analysis platform.
Case Study: The Productization of Predictive Analytics
Dr. John Elder
CEO & Founder
Elder Research, Inc.
Dr. John Elder heads the US's leading data mining consulting team -- with offices in Charlottesville Virginia, Washington DC, Baltimore Maryland, and Manhasset New York. Founded in 1995, Elder Research (www.datamininglab.com) focuses on investment, commercial and security applications of advanced analytics, including text mining, credit scoring, image recognition, process optimization, cross-selling, drug efficacy, 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 18 years at ERI, he spent 5 years in aerospace defense consulting, 4 heading research at an investment management firm, and 2 in Rice'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 was honored to serve for 5 years on a panel appointed by President Bush 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, was published in February 2010, and his book on Practical Text Mining, with Andrew Fast and 4 others, won the 2012 PROSE Award for top book in Computing and Information Sciences.
John is honored to be a follower of Christ and father of 5.
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 18 years at ERI, he spent 5 years in aerospace defense consulting, 4 heading research at an investment management firm, and 2 in Rice'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 was honored to serve for 5 years on a panel appointed by President Bush 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, was published in February 2010, and his book on Practical Text Mining, with Andrew Fast and 4 others, won the 2012 PROSE Award for top book in Computing and Information Sciences.
John is honored to be a follower of Christ and father of 5.
Special Plenary Session: General Lessons We Can Learn from Blackbox Trading
Joseph D. Fargnoli
Fellow
RITRE Corporation
Bio is forthcoming!
Case Study: Monkeys & Math: The New Intelligence Tradecraft: Case Studies of Activity Based Intelligence Enabled by the Application of Predictive Analytics Tools on Big Data - a Discussion of Experience and Future Potential
Larry Filler
Partner
Boire Filler Group
Larry Filler, B.Sc. (U. Wisconsin), MBA (York), is a partner at the Boire Filler Group. Mr. Filler has extensive experience developing marketing programs around data mining solutions, specifically thru his work at American Express and the Loyalty Group, and on the agency side (MacLaren McCann, Publicis BCP) with clients like General Motors (The GM Card), the National Post and Altamira.
Case Study: The Exploding World of Data: The Retail Impact
John Foreman
Chief Data Scientist
MailChimp.com
John Foreman is the Chief Data Scientist at MailChimp.com, an email marketing service. John's main focus is MailChimp's Email Genome Project, which analyzes millions of email lists - and hundreds of millions of email addresses - to find stories and trends in the data. This research helps MailChimp understand the email ecosystem, prevent abuse, and create better experiences for everyone.
Case Study: Monkeys & Math: How MailChimp Catches Bad Guys
Jane Griffin
Executive Advisor, Deloitte Canada
As Americas Leader of Deloitte Analytics, Jane brings her vast experience to help clients use business analytics to drive smarter decisions and better results. She assists and advises her multi-industry clients in designing, developing and implementing technology and processes to efficiently leverage their information.
Jane has more than 30 years of information technology experience, focusing primarily on business analytics, enterprise information management and business intelligence.
She speaks internationally on master data management, data warehousing, data quality and enterprise information strategy. Her experience also includes starting her own information management company and establishing the data management and business intelligence practices for two large consulting organizations.
Jane has more than 30 years of information technology experience, focusing primarily on business analytics, enterprise information management and business intelligence.
She speaks internationally on master data management, data warehousing, data quality and enterprise information strategy. Her experience also includes starting her own information management company and establishing the data management and business intelligence practices for two large consulting organizations.
Diamond Sponsor Presentation: Wading into big data waters: when to tread lightly and when to dive in
Sergo Grigalashvili
VP Architecture, Analytics, GSR
Crawford & Company
Sergo leads global efforts in enterprise technology architecture, analytics, and systems road mapping at Crawford & Company. His responsibilities include providing direction and leadership for development of business intelligence technology and statistical, data mining, and predictive analytic models for claim operations and client stewardship. Sergo has 16 years of technology industry experience; he has proven success in increasing maturity of enterprise technology architecture and in wide adoption of advanced analytics and business intelligence at organizations of various sizes; he earned a master's degree in management science and a bachelor's degree in applied mathematics and computer science.
Case Study: To Sue or Not to Sue: Predicting Litigation Risk
Bangalore Gunashakar
Senior Technical Consultant
Broadspire
Bangalore Gunashakar is the Senior Technical Consultant of Broadspire - a Crawford & Company, the world's largest independent claims management provider servicing the insurance industry and self-insured organizations through a global network of more than 700 locations in 63 countries. In this role he has architectural, development, implementation responsibility for e-Triage application. He has been involved with e-Triage since its acquisition by Crawford over four years ago and has been the IT evangelist of the e-Triage product.
Prior to his current position, Bangalore served as IT Director, at Broadspire and has been promoted to positions of increasing responsibility, from Senior Software Engineer through IT Director. Since 1993 he has been delivering sound IT solutions to achieve strategic business goals. He has spent last 10 years in Insurance industry, providing IT leadership and delivering numerous strategic Projects and Products. He's a 'Certified Document Imaging Architect' and holds the 'Project Management Professional' certification from Project Management Institute since 2005.
Prior to his current position, Bangalore served as IT Director, at Broadspire and has been promoted to positions of increasing responsibility, from Senior Software Engineer through IT Director. Since 1993 he has been delivering sound IT solutions to achieve strategic business goals. He has spent last 10 years in Insurance industry, providing IT leadership and delivering numerous strategic Projects and Products. He's a 'Certified Document Imaging Architect' and holds the 'Project Management Professional' certification from Project Management Institute since 2005.
Case Study: To Sue or Not to Sue: Predicting Litigation Risk
Jean-Paul Isson
Vice President of Global BI & Predictive Analytics
Monster Worldwide
Jean-Paul Isson recently co-authored a 2012 book : Win With Advanced Business Analytics : Creating Business Value from your Data. He is an internationally recognized speaker and an expert in advanced business analytics. Mr. Isson is global vice president of business intelligence and predictive analytics at Monster Worldwide, Inc..Where he has built his global business intelligence team from the ground up and successfully conceived and implemented global customer scoring/segmentation, predictive modeling, and Web mining applications building across North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. Prior to joining Monster, Isson led the global customer behavior modeling team at Rogers Wireless. He holds a master's degree in mathematics and applied statistics from the University of Paris 6 in France. He is a guest lectured at MBA programs including McGill Concordia Universities.
Isson has been a speaker for IDC Forbes TDWI (The Data Warehousing Institute), SAS® data mining conferences, the Premier Business Leadership Series, Measure Up, Predictive Analytics World, BusinessAnalyticsNews.com, IT World Canada, IT Business, 1to1 Media, IQCP, eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit/SMX, and at The Institute for International Research other SAS and IDC events.
He has over eighteen years of experience in advanced business analytics focusing on customer behavior modeling scoring and market segmentation.
He has several articles related to his successful implementation of BI solutions and he gave interviews on business news magazines and TV to cover Business Intelligence and Monster Employment Index.
Isson has been a speaker for IDC Forbes TDWI (The Data Warehousing Institute), SAS® data mining conferences, the Premier Business Leadership Series, Measure Up, Predictive Analytics World, BusinessAnalyticsNews.com, IT World Canada, IT Business, 1to1 Media, IQCP, eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit/SMX, and at The Institute for International Research other SAS and IDC events.
He has over eighteen years of experience in advanced business analytics focusing on customer behavior modeling scoring and market segmentation.
He has several articles related to his successful implementation of BI solutions and he gave interviews on business news magazines and TV to cover Business Intelligence and Monster Employment Index.
Case Study: Win With Advanced Analytics
Tom Kern
Risk Modeling Analyst
Paychex, Inc.
Tom Kern is a Risk Modeling Analyst at Paychex, Inc. Under the Risk Management umbrella, Tom helps to coordinate and execute a wide range of projects centered on predictive modeling, optimizing processes in all departments from sales strategy to internal operations and mitigating risk throughout the company.
Tom joined Paychex in 2012. Prior to Paychex, Tom was a Predictive Modeling Analyst with a large digital marketing agency, servicing major clients in the financial services, insurance, and automotive industries. He holds a MA from Boston University in Applied Statistics, and a BA from Boston University in Applied Mathematics. Tom is a previous PAW speaker, presenting in Toronto earlier this year.
Tom joined Paychex in 2012. Prior to Paychex, Tom was a Predictive Modeling Analyst with a large digital marketing agency, servicing major clients in the financial services, insurance, and automotive industries. He holds a MA from Boston University in Applied Statistics, and a BA from Boston University in Applied Mathematics. Tom is a previous PAW speaker, presenting in Toronto earlier this year.
Case Study: Customer Retention: Pulling the Needle from the Haystack
Jan Kestle
Founder and President
Environics Analytics
Jan Kestle has been a leader in the marketing information industry for nearly forty years. An expert in using statistics and mathematics to help solve business challenges, she has worked with hundreds of clients in dozens of industries to help them solve their business challenges. In November 2003, she founded Environics Analytics, in partnership with the Environics group of companies, establishing a new marketing services company based in Toronto. She has since directed the initiatives creating the pioneering PRIZM CE and PRIZM C2 segmentation systems that combine geodemographics with psychographic Social Values to classify consumers by both their mindset and marketplace behaviour. In addition, she oversaw the development of a number of innovative marketing products by EA research and development teams: WealthScapes, GreenScapes, Envision and the Diversity Micromarketing Toolkit. Prior to founding EA, Jan was president of Compusearch and spent 19 years at the Ontario Statistical Centre, where she developed an expertise in the Canadian census and its applications in marketing and social research. She is the recipient of a Bachelor of Science degree in Applied Mathematics from the University of Western Ontario.
Panel Discussion: What is Big Data Analytics: A Canadian Perspective
Natalie Kortum
Marketing Decision Scientist
Dell
Natalie Kortum is a Decision Sciences Manager at Dell in Investment Optimization. She works in measuring and optimizing long-term impacts of difficult to measure influences such as brand campaigns, corporate social responsibility, product quality and customer service offerings and has recently received a patent for her cutting-edge modeling design. Recently, she has created an innovative method of modeling brand impacts and has expanded her scope outside of marketing to model total quality management projects and services initiatives.
In previous roles, she has worked in pricing analysis, promo management, web analytics, financial planning, and remote employee management.
She received her undergrad in Mathematics from Texas A&M and her MBA in Marketing and Financial Consulting from Southern Methodist University.
www.marketingmathgirl.com
In previous roles, she has worked in pricing analysis, promo management, web analytics, financial planning, and remote employee management.
She received her undergrad in Mathematics from Texas A&M and her MBA in Marketing and Financial Consulting from Southern Methodist University.
www.marketingmathgirl.com
Case Study: The Illusive Brand: How to Measure Brand and the Communications Focused On It
Eric Legrand
Marketing Data Consultant
Wells Fargo
Eric Legrand is a Marketing Data Consultant at Wells Fargo where he focuses on building tools to measure marketing performance. He has developed compelling analyses, visualizations, and dashboards that are used both by executives as well as operational managers. Previous to Wells Fargo, Eric managed pricing and cost models at Niman Ranch, a leading natural meat company. Prior to Niman Ranch, he worked as a software developer at a number of start-ups that are no longer with us. Eric studied mathematics and philosophy at Wheaton College, IL, received a certificate in Management Science and Engineering at Stanford, and is currently working on an MS in Predictive Analytics at Northwestern University. Eric lives with his wife and daughter in San Francisco, CA.
Dan MacKinnon
Director of Player Personnel
Pittsburgh Penguins
MacKinnon, 38, oversees the Penguins' scouting operations in North America and Europe. He works closely with the Penguins directors of professional and amateur scouting to ensure that the organization maintains its strategic and comprehensive focus in player scouting, evaluation and acquisition at all levels. MacKinnon also advises General Manager, Ray Shero, on all Penguins' player transactions.
MacKinnon served as the Penguins' Director of Professional Scouting when Pittsburgh captured the Stanley Cup in 2009. As part of his current duties, MacKinnon steers the Penguins' strategic direction in utilizing emerging hockey analytics to supplement their internal and external player evaluation.
MacKinnon served as the Penguins' Director of Professional Scouting when Pittsburgh captured the Stanley Cup in 2009. As part of his current duties, MacKinnon steers the Penguins' strategic direction in utilizing emerging hockey analytics to supplement their internal and external player evaluation.
Case Study: Succeeding with Analytics in Professional Hockey - Now and Into the Future
Erika McBride, CPA, Ed.D.
Risk Analytics Manager
Paychex, Inc.
Erika P. McBride, CPA, Ed.D. is the Risk Analytics Manager at Paychex, Inc. Aligned within the Risk Management team, Erika oversees a team of data-mining and predictive modeling experts, while also facilitating cross-functional, objective teams of peers to assess risk throughout the company, resulting in millions of dollars contributed to the bottom line. Erika joined Paychex in 1997 as an Accountant, and worked her way through the ranks in various leadership capacities in financial and risk management roles. Prior to Paychex, Erika was a staff auditor with a regional public accounting firm, as well as a member of a regional HMO Finance team. She holds an Ed.D. in Executive Leadership from St. John Fisher College in Rochester, NY, an MBA from Rochester Institute of Technology, and a B.S. in Accounting from SUNY Geneseo. Erika is a five-time presenter and panelist at Treasury and Risk's Alexander Hamilton best practices summit, a presenter at the 2011 Risk and Insurance Management Society Conference and Exhibition, as well as a presenter at the 2011 PAW Conference in New York City.
Case Study: Customer Retention: Pulling the Needle from the Haystack
Jamie McDougall
Vice President
Personal Insurance Solutions
Jamie McDougall is Vice President, Personal Insurance Solutions at Gore Mutual Insurance Company. Established in 1839, Gore Mutual is Canada's oldest Property & Casualty insurance company. Jamie leads Gore Mutual's Personal Insurance team, overseeing the national underwriting operations as well as product development and pricing. His team has been recognized in the last 4 surveys conducted by the Insurance Brokers Association of Ontario (IBAO), for their achievement of excellent performance.
Jamie began his work with Gore Mutual in 2000 as an operational process improvement consultant and completed numerous projects detailing and analyzing operational processes in claims, finance and underwriting. Following on the success of these projects, he was promoted to the role of Director, Claims Analysis and Planning in 2001 and then Vice President of Claims in 2004. Facilitating the development of claims strategies, he established innovative reporting and analysis databases, and tools for evaluating claims handling effectiveness and efficiencies. Jamie transitioned to Personal Insurance in 2007, as Vice President. During an executive transition period, Jamie also took on the responsibility of Gore Mutual’s national commercial underwriting operation in 2011. He now dedicates his efforts to Personal Insurance and the numerous industry developments that are occurring , including exploration of predictive analytics and telematics. Jamie serves on various industry organizations including the iClarify Steering Committee for OPTA Information Intelligence.
Jamie holds his MBA degree from the Haskayne School of Business at the University of Calgary. His prior work experience includes coaching executives across multiple industries, as a Management Consultant in process improvement, performance management and strategy. Outside of the office, one will usually find Jamie, a certified SCUBA instructor, underwater enjoying a dive or helping others discover this fascinating hobby.
Jamie began his work with Gore Mutual in 2000 as an operational process improvement consultant and completed numerous projects detailing and analyzing operational processes in claims, finance and underwriting. Following on the success of these projects, he was promoted to the role of Director, Claims Analysis and Planning in 2001 and then Vice President of Claims in 2004. Facilitating the development of claims strategies, he established innovative reporting and analysis databases, and tools for evaluating claims handling effectiveness and efficiencies. Jamie transitioned to Personal Insurance in 2007, as Vice President. During an executive transition period, Jamie also took on the responsibility of Gore Mutual’s national commercial underwriting operation in 2011. He now dedicates his efforts to Personal Insurance and the numerous industry developments that are occurring , including exploration of predictive analytics and telematics. Jamie serves on various industry organizations including the iClarify Steering Committee for OPTA Information Intelligence.
Jamie holds his MBA degree from the Haskayne School of Business at the University of Calgary. His prior work experience includes coaching executives across multiple industries, as a Management Consultant in process improvement, performance management and strategy. Outside of the office, one will usually find Jamie, a certified SCUBA instructor, underwater enjoying a dive or helping others discover this fascinating hobby.
Panel Discussion: Predictive Analytics in Insurance Risk
Kevin Mongeon
Co-Founder
Sports Analytics Institute
Kevin is a principal owner of the Sports Analytics Institute, a company that provides analytical consulting services to professional hockey clubs, and an Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of New Haven. Kevin obtained his Ph.D. in economics from Washington State University, his MBA from the University of Windsor, and his mathematics degree from a Lakehead University. Kevin is originally from Iroquios Falls, Ontario, Canada.
Case Study: Succeeding with Analytics in Professional Hockey - Now and Into the Future
Brett Mooney
Vice President, Consumer Acquisition and Management
American Express
Brett Mooney has over 11 years experience leveraging data to create insights and inform actions that drive meaningful business results. He has spent the majority of his career in financial services and with American Express in roles which are grounded in data and analytics. Brett has experience across multiple international Markets and a diverse set of functions including Product Management, Consumer Lending, Information Management, Risk Management, New Product Development, Marketing Capabilities, and Acquisition. Currently, Brett is the Head of Consumer Acquisition and Management for American Express in Canada. In this position, Brett is responsible for the end to end customer lifecycle from the point of deploying investments to acquire new Cardmembers, to engaging them throughout their tenure to enabling retention activities. His Team heavily leverages data and analytics across the entire lifecycle to inform and optimize investments, gather insights to create new forms of value, and build more meaningful relationships with Cardmembers.
Prior to American Express, Brett was employed by Kraft Foods in the Strategic Analytics department where he was responsible for improving the profitability of Product and Corporate level promotions. While at Kraft, Brett also supported new product development and was responsible for leveraging data to inform sales strategy and effectiveness.
Brett holds a Bachelors of Business Administration degree from Wifrid Laurier University and a Masters of Business Administration from Kellogg-Schulich School of Management. Brett and his wife, Nancy, live in Toronto and enjoy spending time with their two young children, Ethan and Chloe.
Prior to American Express, Brett was employed by Kraft Foods in the Strategic Analytics department where he was responsible for improving the profitability of Product and Corporate level promotions. While at Kraft, Brett also supported new product development and was responsible for leveraging data to inform sales strategy and effectiveness.
Brett holds a Bachelors of Business Administration degree from Wifrid Laurier University and a Masters of Business Administration from Kellogg-Schulich School of Management. Brett and his wife, Nancy, live in Toronto and enjoy spending time with their two young children, Ethan and Chloe.
Keynote: Enabling Data Driven Marketing in a Digital and Social World
Hasan Mytkolli
Lead - Statistical Modeling, Forecasting and Reporting
TD Bank Group Canada
Hasan Mytkolli is Lead - Statistical Modeling, Forecasting and Reporting at TD Canada Bank Group. He has a PhD in Applied Statistics and more than 20 years academic, research and industry (finance-related) experience.
Case Study: Marketing Predictive Models (Response, Survival and Premium Models) for Credit Card Insurance
Greta Roberts
Faculty Member
International Institute of Analytics
Greta Roberts is the CEO of Talent Analytics, Corp and a faculty member at the International Institute of Analytics. Her mission is to use technology to enable businesses to understand and value their employees in the language business and shareholders understand; the language of numbers. In addition to 20+ years working for world-class technology innovators like Lotus, Netscape, WebLine, Cisco and Open Ratings, Greta's vision has been enhanced by a keen ability to approach old problems through a unique and pragmatic business-first lens thereby capturing first mover advantage. This approach has led to the development and adoption of an analytics-driven talent platform that enables 450+ innovative companies to solve tomorrow's performance challenges years ahead of the curve. Greta is a sought-out thought leader, presenter, and author and a Faculty Member of the International Institute for Analytics. She has been published in the Harvard Business Review blog network and has recently been quoted in Forbes, Computerworld and VentureBeat.
Case Study: Using Analytics to Build Your Analytics Bench: Announcing 2012 Analytics Professionals Study Results
Hashmat Rohian
AVP Research & Development
Aviva Canada
Hashmat Rohian (MSc, MFEng, CFE, PMP, CISSP) is AVP of Research & Development at Aviva Canada, the country’s second largest property and casualty insurance company. Hashmat has over ten years of solid professional experience in improving business outcomes and business processes through the use of advanced analytics technologies such as predictive and causal modeling, Big Data, CRM, geo-spatial, social network and fraud analytics in a variety of senior roles.
Through a combination of his academic background and teaching experience in finance, information technology, machine learning, and applied mathematics as well as work experience in a broad portfolio of data-driven business solutions and decision-support services, Hashmat has a unique blend of business acumen, training & coaching skills and technical knowledge to help organizations achieve competitive advantage through expert data mining thus intensifying their strategic insight capabilities. He has consulted with clients to tackle challenging business intelligence problems in optimal pricing, fraud analytics, solution negotiation, loyalty marketing, process optimization and strategic initiatives for startups, large corporations and not for profits by bringing cutting-edge research into front-line practice.
Throughout his extensive international experience serving clients in Europe, Asia and North America, Hashmat has worked with several clients to determine analytics and business intelligence strategy, articulate solution objectives, set priorities and lead key business initiatives ensuring a long term view and incorporating the full analytical life cycle. He has consulted and helped develop and implement digital strategy for clients in a broad range of industries. Having worked in six countries, Hashmat is adept in handling cross-cultural and multi-disciplinary assignments. He has published articles in several academic journals and given interviews on business news magazines and TV to cover Data Mining and Web/Social Media Analytics.
Through a combination of his academic background and teaching experience in finance, information technology, machine learning, and applied mathematics as well as work experience in a broad portfolio of data-driven business solutions and decision-support services, Hashmat has a unique blend of business acumen, training & coaching skills and technical knowledge to help organizations achieve competitive advantage through expert data mining thus intensifying their strategic insight capabilities. He has consulted with clients to tackle challenging business intelligence problems in optimal pricing, fraud analytics, solution negotiation, loyalty marketing, process optimization and strategic initiatives for startups, large corporations and not for profits by bringing cutting-edge research into front-line practice.
Throughout his extensive international experience serving clients in Europe, Asia and North America, Hashmat has worked with several clients to determine analytics and business intelligence strategy, articulate solution objectives, set priorities and lead key business initiatives ensuring a long term view and incorporating the full analytical life cycle. He has consulted and helped develop and implement digital strategy for clients in a broad range of industries. Having worked in six countries, Hashmat is adept in handling cross-cultural and multi-disciplinary assignments. He has published articles in several academic journals and given interviews on business news magazines and TV to cover Data Mining and Web/Social Media Analytics.
Panel Discussion: Predictive Analytics in Insurance Risk
Stuart Rose
Global Insurance Marketing Manager
SAS Institute
Stuart Rose is Global Insurance Marketing Manager at SAS Institute. Stuart began his career as an Actuary, and now has over 20 years' experience in the insurance industry. Prior to working for SAS, Stuart worked for a leading global insurance company in both their Life and Property and Casualty divisions. He also worked for a variety of software vendors where he was responsible for marketing, product management, and application development. He has been responsible for the successful development and implementation of enterprise systems working with insurance companies in United States, United Kingdom, Europe, and South Africa. Stuart graduated from Sheffield University with a BSc in Mathematical Studies.
Moderator: Predictive Analytics in Insurance Risk
Gold Sponsor Presentation:
Analytics & Crunching the Future
Gary Saarenvirta
Chief Executive Officer
MakePlain Corp.
Gary leads makeplain professional services practice, and its research and development team.
As an internationally recognized expert in the profitable application of Business Intelligence and Advanced Analytics, Gary Saarenvirta has achieved hundreds of millions of dollars in bottom-line results for his clients in the banking, insurance, retail, telecommunication and manufacturing sectors.
Gary is the former head of IBM Canada’s analytics and data warehousing practices, and was also at the helm Loyalty Consulting Group, providing analytical services for one of the world’s most successful coalition loyalty programs, the AIR MILES® Reward Program. Prior to his leadership role at Loyalty Consulting Group, Gary built the company’s first generation data warehouse and BI platform.
Gary holds both a BASc and MASc in aerospace engineering from the University of Toronto.
As an internationally recognized expert in the profitable application of Business Intelligence and Advanced Analytics, Gary Saarenvirta has achieved hundreds of millions of dollars in bottom-line results for his clients in the banking, insurance, retail, telecommunication and manufacturing sectors.
Gary is the former head of IBM Canada’s analytics and data warehousing practices, and was also at the helm Loyalty Consulting Group, providing analytical services for one of the world’s most successful coalition loyalty programs, the AIR MILES® Reward Program. Prior to his leadership role at Loyalty Consulting Group, Gary built the company’s first generation data warehouse and BI platform.
Gary holds both a BASc and MASc in aerospace engineering from the University of Toronto.
Case Study: The Exploding World of Data: The Retail Impact
Rupen Seoni
Vice President, Practice Leader
Environics Analytics
Rupen Seoni is Vice President and Practice Leader for the consumer packaged goods, automotive, federal and provincial government, health care and not-for-profit sectors. He brings to the position more than 14 years of experience in geodemographics, both as a supplier and a user, and he served as an advisor on the development of PRIZM C2 and PRIZM QC. He specializes in helping private- and public-sector organizations understand population trends, segmentation and performance benchmarking. Having worked for financial, packaged goods and retail companies, Rupen has broad industry experience and holds a master's degree in urban planning from the University of Toronto.
Panel Discussion: What is Big Data Analytics: A Canadian Perspective
Wenlei Shi
Manager, Statistical Analysis
Scotiabank
Wenlei Shi has more than 15 years of financial services experience. She specializes in data integration, data mining and statistical modeling. With Scotiabank since 2006, she is responsible for applying the data mining techiques and statistical analysis to develop forecases, predictive models and other data mining projects to support various of business lines. She has extensive experience in all aspects of data mining and has solved many challenges in different fields both inside and outside of the bank. Wenlei has Masters degree in Statistics from University of Toronto and bachelors degree in Computer Science from HUST (Huazhong University of Science and Technology).
Case Study: Mortgage Liquidation Model Building and Application
Shel Smith
Senior Principal, Mobile Product Marketing
Shel is a visionary entrepreneur with over 25 years of marketing experience as a senior leader. He began his career in packaged goods at both Colgate and American Home Products. He co-founded Twenty-Ten in 1999, a market research firm built on a set of patented technologies which allow custom attitudinal segments to be connected to large populations of consumers and activated for improvements in direct marketing, digital marketing and media planning. As a co-developer of Twenty-Ten's patented targeting system, he leads the charge to develop and commercialize Twenty-Ten products and tools in the marketplace. He is experienced on both the client and agency side, and driven to help clients find and implement more powerful ways to deliver measurable ROI from their segmentation research while optimizing their marketing investment.
Case Study: Using Attitudinal Behaviour to Determine Media Spend
Colin Smith
Senior Vice President of Operations
Opta Information Intelligence
Colin has more than 18 years of experience in business planning, execution, operations and information technology in continuously progressive management positions. He is recognized for his creative, innovative and collaborative approach to business and brings a well-rounded perspective to the value of information in the insurance industry.
Colin currently holds the position of Senior Vice President of Operations at Opta Information Intelligence, an SCM company dedicated to helping drive profitable growth for clients by creatively deriving and delivering business value through information and innovation.
Colin currently holds the position of Senior Vice President of Operations at Opta Information Intelligence, an SCM company dedicated to helping drive profitable growth for clients by creatively deriving and delivering business value through information and innovation.
Panel Discussion: Predictive Analytics in Insurance Risk
Dr. Patrick Surry
Global Solution Owner for Customer Analytics
Pitney Bowes
Dr. Patrick Surry is a leading global analytics practitioner, with a wealth of experience in real-world delivery of customer insight, predictive analytics and behavior modeling, as well as a recognized expert in uplift modeling research. One of the founders of Quadstone (acquired by Pitney Bowes Software), he has been responsible for many high profile success stories with blue-chip B2C organizations spanning applications such as response, risk, attrition, value, customer profitability, and targeting for direct marketing. Patrick holds a PhD in mathematics and statistics from the University of Edinburgh, where he studied optimization based on evolutionary algorithms, following an HBSc in continuum mechanics from the University of Western Ontario. He is currently involved in guiding the development of our next generation of visual insight and analytics applications.
Case Study: Uplift Modeling in Theory & Practice
Paul Tyndall
Advanced Analytics Team Lead
RBC
Paul Tyndall has spent almost 20 years helping companies leverage their customer databases, systems and technology to generate increased business value to their organizations.
Paul currently leads the Advanced Analytics team at RBC and supports the Canadian Banking group by mining their extensive databases to drive the creation of customer insights.
Paul currently leads the Advanced Analytics team at RBC and supports the Canadian Banking group by mining their extensive databases to drive the creation of customer insights.
Panel Discussion: What is Big Data Analytics: A Canadian Perspective
Case Study: Data Visualization Design Using Shneiderman's Mantra: Overview First, Zoom and Filter, Then Details-On-Demand
Emma Warrillow
President
Data Insight Group
A marketing strategist with a talent for numbers, Emma Warrillow uses analytics as the foundation for customer-centric marketing strategies. Emma has worked in both the corporate and consulting side of customer management and marketing analytics for more than two decades.
Through her company, DiG (Data Insight Group Inc.), Emma and her team of senior database and analytics professionals help companies understand their customer data and what it is saying about their customers.
With a Masters degree in Management Sciences (Waterloo) and an undergraduate degree in Mathematics and Statistics (Queen's), Emma is uniquely qualified to understand the analytics and business of customer relationship strategies.
Prior to DiG, Emma worked for Royal Bank and Bank of Montreal, IBM and Ernst and Young. She has developed and taught post graduate courses at George Brown College, has judged awards for both NAMMU and the CMA, and has served as Vice Chair of the CMA's Council on Marketing Intelligence and Database Technology.
Through her company, DiG (Data Insight Group Inc.), Emma and her team of senior database and analytics professionals help companies understand their customer data and what it is saying about their customers.
With a Masters degree in Management Sciences (Waterloo) and an undergraduate degree in Mathematics and Statistics (Queen's), Emma is uniquely qualified to understand the analytics and business of customer relationship strategies.
Prior to DiG, Emma worked for Royal Bank and Bank of Montreal, IBM and Ernst and Young. She has developed and taught post graduate courses at George Brown College, has judged awards for both NAMMU and the CMA, and has served as Vice Chair of the CMA's Council on Marketing Intelligence and Database Technology.
Case Study: Divide and Conquer: Enhancing Predictions through Segmentation
Jane Zhong
Senior Manager
Scotiabank
Jane Zhong is Senior Manager of Predictive Analytics team at Scotiabank. She leads the team to provide advanced analytical services for retail banking, and is responsible for predictive modeling, segmentation, data mining, and optimization. Jane has over 10-years analytical experience in marketing, risk management and business groups, and over 5-years research experience at various universities. Prior to Scotiabank, she worked for TD bank and Sears Canada. Jane holds both B.S. and M.S. in engineering from Northwestern Polytechnical University in China and Ph.D in Automation from the Institute of Automation Chinese Academy of Sciences. She was a Postdoctoral Fellow at University of Toronto.
Case Study: Mortgage Liquidation Model Building and Application
