Day 1 Panelists

George Bezzera, Senior Manager of Data Science  |   TripAdvisor

Mr. Bezzera manages a team of data scientists on applying machine learning to a wide variety of industry problems, such as recommender systems, fraud detection, revenue optimization, online advertising, and user personalization.

Nadine Davey-Rogers, Senior VP Custom and Configurable Delivery, Data & Analytics |   MasterCard

Nadine Davey-Rogers heads global boots-on-the-ground analytics for Mastercard Advisors, the consulting arm of Mastercard.  In this role Nadine and her team develop and deliver analytical solutions to business problems for merchants, governments, issuers, and acquirers—all based on nine fields in the Mastercard transaction message.

Louis Gidel, PhD, MD Chief Medical Informatics and Quality Officer  |   Baptist Health South Florida

Dr. Gidel aligns clinical informatics and data with quality metrics from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, helping to establish evidence-based best practices across the system. He is responsible for performance improvement, analytics, telehealth, and medical informatics, and focuses on the clinical decision-making to have data-driven support. Prior to this role, Dr. Gidel served as Baptist Health’s chief medical informatics officer and helped spearhead the organization’s implementation of Cerner Millennium, a new integrated electronic medical record system. He also served as medical director of Baptist Health’s eHealth Center including telemedicine, the eICU, and transfer center, and as co-chair of the System-wide Adult Critical Care Committee.

Tomas “Tom” Helou, Senior VP for Analytics and Insights  | SAP Software Solutions

Tom Helou is the Senior VP for Analytics and Insights for SAP in Latin America. On that role, he leads the relationship with the biggest Customers in the Region and participates on large scale deployments around Analytics, IOT, and Big Data. Mr. Helou has over 25 years of experience leading B2B large scale projects. He held International Managerial positions working for Companies like BEA Systems, Business Objects, PeopleSoft, and MRO Software among others. He holds a Degree in Marketing, and is also an Agronomical Engineering with Postgraduate studies in Social Media and Community Management, and he is fluent in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and French.

Jeff Hutchins, Senior Program Manager  |  CCBSS Coca-Cola Bottlers’ Sales and Services Company, LLC

Jeff Hutchins has over 30 years of experience with The Coca-Cola system in a variety of roles starting as a FoodService reporting analyst with The Coca-Cola Company to his current role as Sr. Program Manager, Strategic Services supporting Data Services and leading the Alteryx implementation program at Coca-Cola Bottlers’ Sales and Services, LLC (CCBSS). Jeff has a degree in Electrical Engineering from Georgia Tech and has certifications as a Project Management Professional(PMP), Certified Change Management Professional and is a Six Sigma Black Belt.

Arthur Kordon, CEO  |  Kordon Consulting

Dr. Arthur Kordon is an internationally recognized expert and consultant in applying advanced analytics and computational intelligence in industry. In his previous position as Advanced Analytics Leader at Dow Chemical, Dr. Kordon successfully applied advanced analytics solutions in forecasting, business cycles analysis, price elasticity analysis, and fraud detection in auditing. He also successfully introduced several novel technologies for improved manufacturing, and new product design, based on computational intelligence (such as: robust inferential sensors, process optimization based on empirical emulators, automated operating discipline, and accelerated fundamental model building). He was granted a US patent and has published more than 70 papers and 13 book chapters in the area of applied computational intelligence and advanced analytics. Recently, he published Applying Computational Intelligence and is co-author of the book Applied Data Mining for Forecasting. He spoke on analytics and forecasting at Chevron and several SAS conferences, and was the keynote speaker at the Business Forecasting Summit.

 Matthew Pape, Director of Market Data Analytics and Customer Insights |  Ryder System

Matthew (“Matt”) Pape, serves as a member of the University of Miami’s advisory board for the Center for Computational Science. He is also the Director of Market Data Analytics and Customers Insights at Ryder System, a Fortune 500 company that is an international leader in fleet management and maintenance, dedicated transportation and supply chain solutions. Matt began his career as a marketing intern for Ryder in 1985, while going to night school at the University of Miami, where he graduated with his MBA in 1986. He worked his way up from analyst positions to marketing management for a variety of Ryder’s product lines including used vehicle sales, on-demand maintenance, transportation management, and vertical markets for supply chain solutions. In his current role, he directs the development of market and customer data warehouse solutions, procurement of prospect and contact information, and creation of analytical models and insights to target new business as well as share of wallet, customer value, churn, and next best offer opportunities with current customers.

 Sol Rashidi, Chief Data & Cognitive Officer  |   Royal Caribbean International

Driving connection and collaboration across Emerging Technologies such as Cognitive Computing, AI, Robotics, Strategy, Data, and Analytics, Sol bridges the gap between Business and IT to cultivate environments that are innovative, driven, and collaborative. As an evangelist in the AI, Robotics, Data & Analytics, Sol leverages her expertise to provide strategic guidance based on emerging technologies to enable businesses to push capabilities and enable positioning in the marketplace. Currently serving as Interim CDO of a $9B+ global corporation, Sol is defining this newly created function and framing capabilities required to enable the corporation’s digital transformation. As an executive who works closely with CEO’s, CFO’s, CIO’s, and CPO’s, Sol is often brought in to be the change agent and solve complex problems that drive transformations for organizations. Highly energetic and accomplished, Sol holds three (3) patents and is often called upon to keynote at conferences. A proven leader with operational, business development, and program management skills, she is well respected by Fortune 500 executives, clients, and peers and has a unique ability to merge internal strategic intent with market leading practices and movement.

 Linton Ward, Big Data Analytics, Power Systems  |   IBM

Dr. Linton Ward is an IBM Distinguished Engineer currently focusing on leadership open workloads on OpenPower systems. He has designed and optimized many hardware-software stack solutions and led hardware design teams for numerous integrated offerings, including Data Warehouse and Hadoop offerings. As a systems and solutions architect, Linton brings a unique combination of deep understanding of software needs, client experience and hardware capability. He regularly meets with clients to help them understand the solution space and their next steps.

Day 1 Panel Moderators

 Joseph Johnson, PhD   |  Associate Professor, Marketing,  UM School of Business Administration

Prof. Johnson teaches Marketing Analytics, New Product Development, Strategic Brand Management, and a PhD Seminar entitled “Quantitative Methods for Marketing Strategy”. His research focuses on the use of data and analytics as a decision aid for managers. He has developed and collaborated on a host of analytical models. His research on financial markets has been featured in Financial Times of India, MSNBC, and Kiplinger’s Personal Finance. He appeared on the Nightly Business Report to discuss how consumer decision making leads to financial bubbles. Dr. Johnson has over a decade of global industry experience through his work at Hindustan Petroleum, Tata Steel, and SSB, Oman, where he developed pricing and promotion response models for Toyota’s auto line up. In the US, he has worked on projects with Affinova, Miami-Dade County Asian-American Advisory Board, Dell, Eli-Lilly, eMpulse, Hope Foundation, Holy Rosary Church, Ocean Reef Club, Proton Data Security, SAS, UM Health, 20th Century Fox Studios, and CheapOAir.

 Pete Martinez   | CEO,   Game Changer Tec, LLC and SIVOTEC Analytics

Pete Martinez serves as Chairman and CEO of Game Changer Tec, LLC and SIVOTEC Analytics; high innovation enterprises at the intersection of Sports, Health, Technology, and Big Data Analytics. An international entrepreneur, he has led numerous high impact initiatives in the areas of high technology, business consulting, healthcare, and education. Previously, during his 32 year tenure with IBM, Martinez, Vice President of Global Business Services and the Senior Location Executive for IBM South Florida, led a 1,700-person organization composed of consultants, hardware and software developers, industry specialists and sales leaders. He led projects in the areas of advanced research, supercomputing, and information based medicine. In 2003, Martinez led the formation of IBM’s largest Business Transformation Multi-client Center that has opened a multi-billion dollar outsourcing business.  Read more

Moderator: Joseph Johnson, UM School of Business Administration, Marketing

PANELISTS

• Linton Ward, IBM
• Tom Helou, SAP
• George Bezzera, Trip Advisor
• Arthur Kordon, Kordon Consulting

Moderator: Pete Martinez, Chairman & CEO Game Changer Tec, LLC and SIVOTEC Analytics

PANELISTS

• Jeff Hutchins, Coca-Cola
• Louis Gidel, Baptist Health South Florida
• Matthew Pape, Ryder
• Sol Rashidi, Royal Caribbean
• Nadine Davey-Rogers, MasterCard

Day 2 Facilitators

Athina Hadjixenofontos PhD,  Director of Engagement  |  UM Frost Institute for Data Science and Computing

Dr. Athena Hadjxenofontos has attended educational institutions in four different countries: Cyprus, the U.K., Portugal, and the U.S.  Her interests evolved from biochemistry and structural biology to the –omics, which led her to pursue her PhD in Human Genetics and Genomics at the University of Miami. She is fascinated by the genetic architecture of polygenic diseases and its implications in the era of precision medicine. Dr. Hadjixenofontos has been honored with numerous academic awards, most recently with Who’s Who Among American Universities and Colleges, bestowed upon her by the University of Miami after being nominated by the Dean of the Graduate School, Dr. Brian Blake.

 Hector Irizarry  |  Partner, AnalytixIQ.com

Hectory Irizarry is also a Founding Partner of Thinergistics, LLC.  Thinergistics is a solutions provider that designs, procures, and deploys advanced data solutions that reduce complexity, minimize risk, and optimize return on invested capital for organizations with mission critical data to support enterprise storage, data protection, business continuity & disaster recovery, compute virtualization, network engineering, business intelligence, big data analytics, and IoT initiatives and requirements. Hector has more than 45 years of sales experience in the IT solutions industry including roles in systems engineering, territory sales, target account sales, major account sales, national account sales, international sales, and sales management across a broad range of verticals in the private sector and in the public sector in the municipal, county, K-12 education, hospital taxing districts, state agencies, and state university system areas via direct and indirect sales channels.

 Justin Irizarry  |  Partner, AnalytixIQ.com

Justin Irizarry has more than 15 years of experience acting as a trusted advisor and interim executive for a wide range of companies, agnostic of industry. His diverse business experience has led him to advise boards of directors and senior management teams in the education, information, digital real estate, medical, and technology industries. The South Florida Business Journal has named Justin as an honoree on their 2016 40 Under 40 list. This prestigious annual program receives hundreds of nominations each year and the publication selects only the best and brightest young professionals in South Florida who have “made waves in both the business world and the community”.

 Joseph Johnson, PhD   |  Associate Professor, Marketing,  UM School of Business Administration

Prof. Johnson teaches Marketing Analytics, New Product Development, Strategic Brand Management, and a PhD Seminar entitled “Quantitative Methods for Marketing Strategy”. His research focuses on the use of data and analytics as a decision aid for managers. He has developed and collaborated on a host of analytical models. His research on financial markets has been featured in Financial Times of India, MSNBC, and Kiplinger’s Personal Finance. He appeared on the Nightly Business Report to discuss how consumer decision making leads to financial bubbles. Dr. Johnson has over a decade of global industry experience through his work at Hindustan Petroleum, Tata Steel, and SSB, Oman, where he developed pricing and promotion response models for Toyota’s auto line up. In the US, he has worked on projects with Affinova, Miami-Dade County Asian-American Advisory Board, Dell, Eli-Lilly, eMpulse, Hope Foundation, Holy Rosary Church, Ocean Reef Club, Proton Data Security, SAS, UM Health, 20th Century Fox Studios, and CheapOAir.

Arthur Kordon, Senior Vice President for Analytics and Insights  |  Kordon Consulting

Dr. Arthur Kordon is an internationally recognized expert and consultant in applying advanced analytics and computational intelligence in industry. In his previous position as Advanced Analytics Leader at Dow Chemical, Dr. Kordon successfully applied advanced analytics solutions in forecasting, business cycles analysis, price elasticity analysis, and fraud detection in auditing. He also successfully introduced several novel technologies for improved manufacturing, and new product design, based on computational intelligence (such as: robust inferential sensors, process optimization based on empirical emulators, automated operating discipline, and accelerated fundamental model building). He was granted a US patent and has published more than 70 papers and 13 book chapters in the area of applied computational intelligence and advanced analytics. Recently, he published Applying Computational Intelligence and is co-author of the book Applied Data Mining for Forecasting. He spoke on analytics and forecasting at Chevron and several SAS conferences, and was the keynote speaker at the Business Forecasting Summit.

Luis Pintado, Chief Operating Officer  |  SIVOTEC Analytics

Mr. Luis Pintado serves as Chief Operating Officer of SIVOTEC Analytics. He brings to our team over 20 years of recognized leadership in the high-tech and mobile sector, with strong experience in conceptualizing, building and operating businesses inside major corporations and start-ups, as well as in strategic management advisory roles. He has broad hands-on experience in most aspects of running technology enterprises – from conception to divestiture – covering strategic planning and modeling, market sizing, team forming and leadership, solution sales, portfolio lifecycle management, product development, marketing and strategic alliances.