ELDER RESEARCH - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Vice President of Commercial Services
Dr. Jennifer Schaff leads Elder Research's Commercial business unit where she advises organizational decision makers to help them realize maximum value from their analytics investments.
In her 20 years of management, data analysis, and business experience, Dr. Schaff has built her reputation as a "Barricade Buster" in the Data Analytics industry. Her experience has uncovered that business barriers - defining the right opportunity and consumer, delivering the pertinent results to guide data driven decisions, and implementing the change processes - rather than model building, is where analytics initiatives often fail. Dr. Schaff channels this approach into a passion for guiding organizations through these business challenges to maximize their analytics ROI.
Dr. Schaff began her analytics journey over two decades ago generating and exploring large biological data sets while earning a doctorate in Plant Pathology. Her appreciation for consulting came while leading and building North Carolina State University's genomics facility, she enjoyed helping professors and industry specialists design experiments that drove actionable results from their data. Love for analytics challenges led Jennifer to complete the Master's program at NCSU's Institute for Advanced Analytics.
True to her upbringing in the Pacific Northwest, you will find Jennifer in her free time in the great outdoors, where she enjoys running, long bike rides, photography field trips with friends and family, and strolls with her dog.
Job Titles:
- Vice President of Government Analytics & Innovation
Dr. Shree W. Taylor leads the Government Analytics & Innovation team at Elder Research. Formally trained as a computational mathematician, she has been delighted to create a rewarding non-traditional career centered around mathematics, business and innovation. She has served clients in the government, private and non-profit sectors for over 15 years, and is known for presenting highly technical analyses and topics to non-technical audiences in a format that is relatable and relevant to customers and stakeholders. Dr. Taylor loves to develop leaders; she is an authentic, empathetic and adaptive leader who engages with colleagues to help them reach their team and individual goals.
Dr. Taylor is a first-generation college graduate and is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University. She earned her BS and MS in mathematics from Clark Atlanta University and her PhD in applied/computational mathematics from North Carolina State University. After post-doctoral research at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Dr. Taylor joined the Center for Naval Analyses where she worked on challenges of interest to the US Navy and Marine Corps. She recently completed the Executive Master's in Leadership Program from the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University.
Shree enjoys gardening, performing random acts of kindness, and going on spontaneous explorations with her family. Dr. Taylor and her husband enjoy watching thrillers on date night, and seeing their two daughters, grow into beautiful, strong and compassionate young women.
Job Titles:
- Chairman of the Board
- Chief Executive Officer
- President
Gerhard enjoys predictive analytics and data mining, especially related to the areas of Fraud Detection, Financial Risk Management, and Health Care outcomes using various analytical methods, working with people, leading change, and timely management of complex projects. His work experience spans both private and government sectors including international experience.
Gerhard is coauthor of the popular book "Mining Your Own Business". The book targets executives and senior managers who desire to evolve their organizations with better data driven decisions. The book is designed to have dual purpose as an introduction to the subject of data science and as a useful reference for specific, daily guidance.
Gerhard previously taught at Georgetown University as an adjunct faculty member in the Math and Statistics Master's degree program. He has also been an instructor for the three-day SAS Business Knowledge Series course "Data Mining: Principles and Best Practices" and an invited speaker at domestic and international conferences.
Gerhard currently serves on the Institute for Advanced Analytics Advisory Board and George Washington University's Advisory Board for the Business Analytics graduate program. He was named to the NC State Computer Science Department's "Hall of Fame" in its inaugural year.
Gerhard Pilcher becomes CEO of Elder Research and Dr. John Elder moves to Chairman of the Board.
Job Titles:
- Vice President of Defense & Intelligence Sect
Dustin Hux has 15 years of applied statistical modeling and data mining experience. He has led teams solving problems in the commercial, financial, and scientific domains including fraud detection, cross-selling, customer profiling, product bundling, direct marketing, biometric identification, stock selection, market timing, text mining, and atmospheric modeling. Dustin is particularly honored to be a part of projects that apply data mining and advanced analytics to challenges facing the intelligence community.
Mr. Hux is expert with leading data mining software tools and advises vendors on enhancements. For KDD, he was on the 2004 Data Mining Standards, Services, and Platforms Program Committee and was 2006 Sponsorship Committee Co-chair. Dustin earned a Master's degree in Environmental Sciences from the University of Virginia and Bachelor's degrees in Biology and Economics from Emory and Henry College.
Job Titles:
- Chief Operating Officer
- President
Jeff Deal leads the operations at Elder Research including oversight of finances, contracting, regulatory and legal issues, and human resources. At Elder Research Jeff helps guide expansion as the company continues to grow and open additional offices to support our clients. Jeff has worked with dozens of clients to understand their business needs and organizational goals and, in the process, has gained insight into organizational obstacles to successful data mining engagements. His talk on the Top 10 Data Mining Business Mistakes has been well received at analytic conferences.
In 2016, Jeff and the Elder Research President & CEO, Gerhard Pilcher, published, Mining Your Own Business: A Primer for Executives on Understanding and Employing Data Mining and Predictive Analytics. Mr. Deal is also the Chair for the Predictive Analytics World - Healthcare conference which has been held each year since 2014. Jeff has more than 25 years of experience in business operations, planning, and government relations, primarily in the health care industry.
Prior to Elder Research, he was the President of a health planning consulting business that assisted hospitals and physicians with operational analysis, forecasting, and navigating through complex regulatory processes. Jeff has a Master of Health Administration degree from Virginia Commonwealth University and an undergraduate degree from the College of William and Mary where he was a member of the wrestling team.
Job Titles:
- Vice President of Operations
Jeffrey has more than fifteen years of experience in machine learning, analytics and predictive modeling. He has both led and been a vital technical member of projects in a wide range of disciplines including insider threat, fraud detection, churn modeling, text mining, credit scoring, crime analysis, and risk prioritization. Jeff is active in business development, operations, and recruiting for Elder Research.
Jeff received a BS in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Virginia, where he worked in the computational systems biology laboratory. Outside of work, Jeff enjoys spending time with his wife and two sons, playing all sports, hiking, and all things related to Boston and UVA athletics.
Dr. John Elder founded Elder Research, America's largest and most experienced data science consultancy in 1995. With offices in Charlottesville VA, Baltimore MD, Raleigh, NC, Washington DC, and London, they've solved hundreds of challenges for commercial and government clients by extracting actionable knowledge from all types of data. Dr. Elder co-authored three books - on practical data mining, ensembles, and text mining - two of which won "book of the year" awards. John has created data mining tools, was a discoverer of ensemble methods, chairs international conferences, and is a popular workshop and keynote speaker.
Dr. Elder earned Engineering degrees from Rice and UVA, where he's an Adjunct Professor. He was named by President Bush to serve 5 years on a panel to guide technology for national security. Lastly, John is grateful to be a follower of Christ and the father of five.
Jordan is passionate about strategizing ways to share the unique value that Elder Research brings in solving data and analytics problems. Prior to joining Elder Research, Jordan worked for a digital marketing agency where he gained experience in online advertising and search engine optimization, and was honored to win several marketing awards. He originally developed his interest in digital marketing as a participant in the Google Online Marketing Challenge while earning a B.A. in Marketing at James Madison University. Jordan holds professional certifications in Google Analytics, Google Ads, and Bings Ads.
During his free time, Jordan enjoys spending time with his wife and children, hiking, traveling, and doing anything that involves sports.
Job Titles:
- Vice President of Strategic Consulting
Robert Han is the Vice President of Strategic Consulting at Elder Research overseeing the data and analytics strategy consulting practice. Robert is passionate about building trusted partnerships with business executives and corporate leaders to drive impactful analytic and business value. Robert has worked on data science initiatives ranging from designing machine learning and unstructured text models, to leading data science and engineering teams, to overseeing large commercial and government client engagements.
In recent years, Robert has worked with commercial and federal government executives and analytics leaders to develop solutions for enterprise risk, financial services, healthcare, insurance, education, cyber, fraud and threat detection, marketing, retail, and public policy problems.
Robert holds a B.S. in Systems Engineering from the University of Virginia and serves on George Washington University's Advisory Board for the Business Analytics and Decision Sciences graduate program.
Job Titles:
- Vice President of Learning & Development
Saul believes that training is a fundamental element of every successful consulting engagement. As Managing Director of Training Services, Saul helps clients realize the full value of engagements and to maximize team member potential.
Prior to Elder Research, he served as COO and co-founder of Metis Machine, a machine learning and deep learning platform company focused on helping clients use machine learning and AI to solve business problems. Saul has served at several start-ups including General Electric's first cloud-based predictive analytics initiative. He is a frequent guest lecturer at the University of Virginia on topics such as operations, analytics, and strategy.
Saul earned an MBA at the University of Virginia and a BS in computer engineering from the University of Florida.
As a resident of Charlottesville, Saul enjoys exploring the Blue Ridge Mountains with his wife and children.
Job Titles:
- Vice President of Human Resources
After an early career in the mental health field, Siobhan transferred her training in psychology to the world of human resources, where she discovered a passion for helping employees navigate their work lives and for maintaining a person-centered culture of excellence and continuous improvement. Siobhan has a BA in Political Science from Boston University and an MA in Psychology from American University, along with senior certifications from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) and the Human Resources Certification Institute (HRCI).
With over 16 years of HR experience, Siobhan has worked in all functions of the field, including recruitment, benefits, leave, employee relations, and management. Her favorite aspects are making complex processes easier and more efficient, helping colleagues feel more comfortable and fulfilled at work, and contributing to the overall employee experience at ERI.
Outside of work, Siobhan enjoys hanging out with her husband and daughter, planning and taking trips, watching tv, crocheting, and working on all kinds of puzzles.
Job Titles:
- Managing Director, International
Stein Kretsinger has over 15 years of experience successfully growing online marketing and consumer credit businesses. He was the CEO of The Loan Page, an internet-based mortgage marketing company. Prior to that, Stein was an Entrepreneur-in-Residence with Battery Venture, where he developed the investment thesis around price value and growth of online mortgage marketing. Mr. Kretsinger was a founding executive for advertising.com, one of the largest online media networks, where he developed and implemented industry-leading optimization technology based on math programming. Prior to his work at Advertising.com, Mr. Kretsinger was a business manager at Capital One, where he used credit scoring to book over two million accounts presently valued at $160 million. Stein holds a B.A. in Economics and an M.S. in Systems Engineering from the University of Virginia.
Job Titles:
- Chief Technology Officer & BLACKMARKER CEO
Vic Diloreto leads the software engineering group at Elder Research. In this role, Vic is chartered with the continuing support of our data science service to clients where software is needed in data preparations and/or visualizations. Vic is also leading the efforts to convert select portions of Elder Research's intellectual property library into standalone products.
Prior to Elder Research, Vic was a Senior Director of Technology at MegaPath, where he led a team in charge of architecture, design and operations of advanced communication solutions. Prior to MegaPath, Vic was VP of Engineering and CTO of telecommunication start-up sentitO Networks, where he led hardware and software developments. In this capacity, he assisted in raising 60M in venture financing. Vic also had roles within BNR/Northern Telecom and Pulsecom in engineering and management positions - most notably leading the technical aspects of the sale of Pulsecom's Broadband division to ECI Telecom for 61M.