BIG DATA - Key Persons

Job Titles:

• Founder & Principal, SimaFore

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. Eric Siegel, Ph.D., is a leading consultant and former Columbia University professor who makes machine learning understandable and captivating. He is the founder of the Predictive Analytics World and Deep Learning World conference series, which have served more than 17,000 attendees since 2009, the instructor of the acclaimed online course "Machine Learning Leadership and Practice - End-to-End Mastery", a popular speaker who's been commissioned for more than 110 keynote addresses, and executive editor of The Machine Learning Times. He authored the bestselling Predictive Analytics: The Power to Predict Who Will Click, Buy, Lie, or Die, which has been used in courses at more than 35 universities, and he won teaching awards when he was a professor at Columbia University, where he sang educational songs to his students. Eric also publishes op-eds on analytics and social justice. Follow him at @predictanalytic. Dean Abbott is President of Abbott Analytics 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.

Job Titles:

• Information Architect / Sussex Health Informatics Service

Job Titles:

• President
• Co - Founder and Chief Data Scientist of SmarterHQ
• President of Abbott Analytics in San Diego, California
• President, Abbott Analytics
• President, Chief Data Scientist, SmarterHQ

Dean Abbott is Co-Founder and Chief Data Scientist of SmarterHQ, and President of Abbott Analytics in San Diego, California. Mr. Abbott is an internationally recognized machine learning and predictive analytics expert with over three decades of experience applying advanced algorithms 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 the author of Applied Predictive Analytics (Wiley, 2014) and co-author of IBM SPSS Modeler Cookbook (Packt Publishing, 2013). He is a highly-regarded and popular speaker at Machine Learning conferences and meetups, and is on the Advisory Boards for the UC/Irvine Predictive Analytics Certificate and UCSD Data Mining and Advanced Analytics Certificate programs. He has a B.S. in Mathematics of Computation from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (1985) and a Master of Applied Mathematics from the University of Virginia (1987). Dean Abbott is President of Abbott Analytics 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.

Job Titles:

• Executive Editor
• Executive Editor, Machine Learning Times
• Founding Conference Chair
• Leading Consultant

Eric Siegel, Ph.D., is a leading consultant and former Columbia University professor who makes machine learning understandable and captivating. He is the founder of the Predictive Analytics World and Deep Learning World conference series, which have served more than 17,000 attendees since 2009, the instructor of the acclaimed online course "Machine Learning Leadership and Practice - End-to-End Mastery", a popular speaker who's been commissioned for more than 110 keynote addresses, and executive editor of The Machine Learning Times. He authored the bestselling Predictive Analytics: The Power to Predict Who Will Click, Buy, Lie, or Die, which has been used in courses at more than 35 universities, and he won teaching awards when he was a professor at Columbia University, where he sang educational songs to his students. Eric also publishes op-eds on analytics and social justice. Follow him at @predictanalytic.

Job Titles:

• Chairman
• Founder
• Instructor
• CEO & Founder, Elder Research, Inc

John Elder leads America's most experienced Data Science consultancy. Founded in 1995, Elder Research has offices in Virginia, Washington DC, Maryland, North Carolina, and London. Dr. Elder co-authored books on data mining, ensembles, and text mining - two of which won book-of-the-year awards. John was a discoverer of ensemble methods, chairs international conferences, and is a popular keynote speaker. Dr. Elder is an (occasional) Adjunct Professor of Engineering at UVA, and was named by President Bush to serve 5 years on a panel to guide technology for national security.

Job Titles:

• Lead Data Scientist, Microsoft
• Senior Data Scientist

"The best workshop I've ever attended. Lots of new very useful knowledge about deep neural networks and reinforcement learning!" Leo Betthauser works at Microsoft Research in Redmond, Wash. Leo has a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Florida where he studied applied algebraic topology. Leo is currently exploring the application of deep neural techniques to cyber security. In his spare time, Leo enjoys traveling, cooking, and skiing.

Job Titles:

• Co - Founder & CEO, Talent Analytics, Corp

Greta Roberts is an acknowledged influencer in the field of predictive workforce analytics. Her continued vision is to bridge the gap between the business, predictive analytics and workforce communities. Since co-founding Talent Analytics in 2001, Greta has established Talent Analytics, Corp. as the globally recognized leader in predicting an individual's performance, pre-hire. Naturally pre-hire predictions lead to dramatic and measurable business ROI. Greta has a unique approach for innovating and staying ahead of the curve. This is evident in the firm's early decision to use predictive analytics to solve "line of business" challenges instead of "HR" challenges and model business outcomes instead of HR outcomes. Talent Analytics continues to be one of the only firms in the world directly predicting business outcomes (sales performance, # of calls, errors, and the like) instead of HR outcomes. Additionally, she leads the company in developing predictive solutions that can be easily and elegantly deployed into employee operations, to teams without a background in analytics, statistics or math. This strategy has led to the development of Talent Analytics'; award winning cloud platform Advisor. In addition to being a contributing author to numerous predictive analytics books, she is regularly invited to comment in the media and speak at high end predictive analytics and business events around the world. Through recognition of her commitment and leadership, Greta was elected and continues to be Chair of Predictive Analytics World for Workforce, an innovative, annual predictive analytics event dedicated to solving workforce challenges. Since 2012 she has served as a faculty member with the International Institute for Analytics (IIA). Follow Greta on twitter @gretaroberts.

Job Titles:

• Engineer
• Instructor
• Senior Scientist
• Senior Scientist Engineer, Microsoft Research

leads Microsoft Research's CEO-mandated initiative to transfer deep learning intelligence into all products, services, and supporting systems across the enterprise. Workshop participants will access much of the same state-of-the-art training material used for this work at Microsoft. Along the way, James will cover case studies detailing large-scale deployments for their internal clients that have generated astounding ROIs. James McCaffrey works for Microsoft Research in Redmond, Wash. James explores applied deep machine learning and AI. James has a PhD in cognitive psychology and computational statistics from the University of Southern California, a BA in psychology, a BA in applied mathematics, and an MS in computer science. James learned to speak to the public while working at Disneyland as a college student, and he can still recite the entire Jungle Cruise ride narration from memory.

Job Titles:

• CEO
• CEO of Decision Management Solutions

James Taylor is the CEO of Decision Management Solutions and is a leading expert in how to use business rules and analytic technology to build decision management systems. He is passionate about using decision management systems to help companies improve decision-making and develop an agile, analytic and adaptive business. He provides strategic consulting to companies of all sizes, working with clients in all sectors to adopt decision-making technology. James is an expert member of the International Institute for Analytics and is the author of multiple books and articles on decision management, decision modeling, predictive analytics and business rules, and writes a regular blog at JT on EDM. James also delivers webinars, workshops and training. He is a regular keynote speaker at conferences around the world.

Job Titles:

• Director of Analytic Services at Activision

Josh Hemann is the Director of Analytic Services at Activision where his team builds data tools to support video game studios and embed analytics within the games they create. Prior to this his industry experience spanned diverse settings such as air pollution research, aerospace, retail loyalty programs, recommendation systems for grocers. Josh has an

Job Titles:

• Chief Revenue Officer

Job Titles:

• Founding Partner at the Boire Filler Group
• Founding Partner, Boire Filler Group

Josh Hemann is the Director of Analytic Services at Activision where his team builds data tools to support video game studios and embed analytics within the games they create. Prior to this his industry experience spanned diverse settings such as air pollution research, aerospace, retail loyalty programs, recommendation systems for grocers. Josh has an Greta Roberts is an acknowledged influencer in the field of predictive workforce analytics. Her continued vision is to bridge the gap between the business, predictive analytics and workforce communities. Since co-founding Talent Analytics in 2001, Greta has established Talent Analytics, Corp. as the globally recognized leader in predicting an individual's performance, pre-hire. Naturally pre-hire predictions lead to dramatic and measurable business ROI. Greta has a unique approach for innovating and staying ahead of the curve. This is evident in the firm's early decision to use predictive analytics to solve "line of business" challenges instead of "HR" challenges and model business outcomes instead of HR outcomes. Talent Analytics continues to be one of the only firms in the world directly predicting business outcomes (sales performance, # of calls, errors, and the like) instead of HR outcomes. Additionally, she leads the company in developing predictive solutions that can be easily and elegantly deployed into employee operations, to teams without a background in analytics, statistics or math. This strategy has led to the development of Talent Analytics'; award winning cloud platform Advisor. In addition to being a contributing author to numerous predictive analytics books, she is regularly invited to comment in the media and speak at high end predictive analytics and business events around the world. Through recognition of her commitment and leadership, Greta was elected and continues to be Chair of Predictive Analytics World for Workforce, an innovative, annual predictive analytics event dedicated to solving workforce challenges. Since 2012 she has served as a faculty member with the International Institute for Analytics (IIA). Follow Greta on twitter @gretaroberts.