Keynote Speakers
Eric Siegel, Ph.D, Founder of Predictive Analytics World
Predictive Analytics: Delivering on the Promise of Machine Learning
The excitement over big data and machine learning has grown dramatically. But what is the value, the function, the purpose? The most actionable win to be gained from data is prediction. This is achieved by analytically learning from data how to render predictions for each individual. Such predictions drive more effectively the millions of operational decisions that organizations make every day. In this keynote, Predictive Analytics World founder and Predictive Analytics author Eric Siegel reveals how predictive analytics works, and the ways in which it delivers value to organizations across industry sectors.
Eric is the founder of Predictive Analytics World, a global conference series, the author of the award-wining book Predictive Analytics: The Power to Predict Who Will Click, Buy, Lie, or Die, and a former professor at Columbia University. Eric has appeared on Al Jazeera America, Bloomberg TV and Radio, Fox News, and NPR Marketplace. He and his book have been featured in Businessweek, Forbes, Forrester, Fortune, Harvard Business Review, The Huffington Post, The New York Times, Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post.
Bill Carmody, CEO of Trepoint
Be Irreplaceable In An AI World
Advancements in artificial intelligence continue to change the rules of the game. Machine learning, for example, is fundamentally changing the way companies access and analyze big data. Business intelligence, as we have come to know it, will continue to evolve. So what does this mean for you and the role you have today? How do you ensure that you are the benefactor of these changes rather than the victim of them? In short, how do you ensure that you are irreplaceable in an AI world? In this closing keynote, digital marketing disruptor, Bill Carmody, will help you build your action plan coming out of this conference so that you remain relevant, powerful and accountable despite the sea change all around you.

Bill Carmody has been in digital marketing since its inception in 1994. He built some of the first commercial websites for companies like AT&T, MasterCard, CBS, and Coors Brewing Company. He placed MasterCard’s very first banner ad on Yahoo!, designed the award-winning global promotion where Boeing’s 747 “Dreamliner” name came from. He helped Coca-Cola drive in-store purchase from its first major online promotion and outperformed its traditional media for a fraction of the cost. He Built Walmart’s first holiday shopping app to promote mobile commerce.
Bill Carmody founded two top-ranking marketing agencies including Trepoint, which was ranked the 83rd fastest growing private company in New York by Inc Magazine. He also co-founded Seismicom and managed a 75-person team across three offices (San Francisco, Chicago and New York).
As a 24-year career digital marketing expert, his passion is helping people discover their own super powers and unleash their unique natural gifts and tallents so that they may become unstoppable. Feel free to reach out on LinkedIn or use @BillCarmody to connect on Twitter.
Speakers
As Sales Director for the Great Lakes Region at DataRobot, Mark uses his 25 years of technology, sales, and management experience to help clients leverage their data assets with automated predictive analytics and machine learning. He previously filled a similar role for IBM Corporation as part of the Big Data & Analytics team. Before its acquisition by IBM, Mark ran Netezza's Healthcare and Life Sciences Sales for the central United States. He has served in various sales and management roles at Salion, Microstrategy, SAS, and ADP. Mark earned his BBA from The Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.
Dr. Ashwin Belle is the Analytics Architect at the Michigan Center for Integrative Research in Critical Care (MCIRCC). He is also a Research Scientist in the Department of Emergency Medicine at University of Michigan. Dr. Belle’s research interests have led him to investigate complex problems in medical sciences while developing solutions with an engineering perspective. His work is focused on developing and optimizing a fusion between medicine and engineering with an intention on commercially applying the inventions and discoveries towards improving healthcare and in-turn saving lives. His expertise is in the area of computational medicine using signal processing, image processing and machine learning. Learn more about his work in data science.
I’m a technology professional with 20 years of experience leading through change within both large and small organizations spanning several verticals. I’m passionate about data, about best practices, and about enterprise strategy. I understand the importance of data integrity and data management at the enterprise scale, and spend a lot of time promoting those concepts to my partners in technology and in the business.
Data is essential to an organization’s stability and success. We can talk about the window shutter colors all day long, but if there are cracks in the house’s foundation, we’re focused on the wrong things. Data is that foundation. Being able to serve as a senior leader and working very closely with business stakeholders to prioritize, drive change, and align on our strategy as an overall business is what I love to do.
Sarah Green is the Business Intelligence Team Lead at Consumers Energy. Sarah graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in Informatics, specializing in Data Mining, and has spent the last five years working on various data initiatives at Consumers, including leading a year-long benchmarking exercise within the IT department, leading the IT Measurement and Performance team, and most recently, establishing a Marketing Analytics Practice within CE. Sarah lives in Jackson and enjoys playing board games and spending time with family and friends in her free time.
Jennifer Horne is the Senior Digital Marketing Coordinator at iDashboards. A Michigan native, she studied Psychology at Northwestern University, and has split her professional life between marketing and the culinary arts. As head of content for iDashboards, she has immersed herself in the world of data and data visualization, striving to unpack how clients can create the most effective and engaging dashboards and data vizzes. She lives in Detroit and works to restore her historic home in her free time.
Derek Huffman is an Executive Director in Ernst & Young LLP’s Detroit office. With over 15 years of experience helping clients across all sectors solve complex business problems through analytics and machine learning in forecasting, product development, supply chain, marketing and risk. He currently serves as the Automotive and Transportation sector leader for EY’s Advisory Data and Analytics practice.
Kevin is an Enterprise Sales Consultant at Tableau as the technical lead for enterprise accounts in Michigan. He joined Tableau in early 2014. Kevin has a Masters in Computer Information Systems Management from Ferris State University and in addition to working in various roles in the high tech industries, Kevin also managed the business intelligence at John Deere for the JD Landscape division. In his spare time, Kevin enjoys spending time with his wife riding their SxS and camping.
David Knox is the Senior Vice President of Worldwide Sales Engineering at MicroStrategy. He brings over 20 years of IT sales experience to his work at MicroStrategy, where he leads worldwide sales engineering efforts, drives technical sales-readiness, and promotes best practices, training, and productivity across the analytics, mobility, security, and services product lines.
Jordan Martz is the Director of Technology Solutions at Attunity, a leading provider of data integration and data management software. In this role, Jordan works closely with both the alliances team and the product management team at Attunity with Big Data/Hadoop, IoT and cloud solutions.
Murthy Mathiprakasam is a Director of Portfolio Marketing at Informatica and responsible for outbound marketing activities with Informatica’s Big Data products. Murthy has a decade and a half of experience working with emerging high-growth software technologies including roles at Mercury Interactive/HP, Google, eBay, VMware, and Oracle. Murthy holds a Master of Science in Management Science from Stanford University, and two Bachelor of Science degrees in Management Science and Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Alejandro has over 20 years of consulting experience with primary focus on Enterprise Data Management solutions. He has hands-on experience architecting solutions on data governance, master data management, data quality, data security, metadata management, data integration, big data, cloud, and business intelligence. In his tenure helped over 100+ organizations through their digital transformation journey using a broad variety of technologies.
Albert Pardilla is a Solutions Consultant with Alteryx, helping data analysts and data scientists alike go from the end of their ropes to the edge of their seats. He was an Alteryx customer for seven years prior to joining, and has 16 years of experience in database marketing.
Chris is Senior Solution Architect for Amway’s connected experiences team. In his role, Chris is working to architect Amway systems to support data-driven decisions and customer experiences.
Jim Smith has been in the software industry for 30 years, and has spent the last 20 years supporting Business Intelligence products. Jim’s has worked directly with Oracle, SAP, ExactTarget, Salesforce and BI solutions vendors such as Birst and Qlik. His experience is both as a technical sales engineer and also a product trainer. He is looking forward to working with the attendees at the Great Lakes BI Summit and showing how organizations can see the whole story that lives in their data.
Ben Snively is a specialist solutions architect on the Amazon Web Services public sector team, where he specializes in big data, analytics, and AI/ML. Previously, Ben was an engineer and architect on DoD, IC and Federal contracts, where he worked with Hadoop and big data solutions. He has over 13 years of experience creating analytical systems. Ben holds both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in computer science from Georgia Institute of Technology and a master’s in computer engineering from University of Central Florida.
Kevin is a Senior Manager of EY's analytics consulting practice and has experience in machine learning and intelligent process automation. He has helped design and implements various projects with rapid development and ongoing industrialization needs. His experience includes process improvement within finance, marketing, risk management, and product development. In addition, he has helped companies assess their analytics organization and prepare strategies to accelerate realizing value from analytics.
Alex is a Principal Data Architect for Amway’s connected experiences. In his role, Alex is working on data, integration, and visualization solutions to support Amway’s diverse product portfolio.
Michelle is the Chief Technology Officer & Chief Information Officer for The IMA Financial Group, Inc., leading the company in enabling innovative business solutions through supporting technologies and partnering with The IMA Financial Group’s business units and subsidiaries to facilitate growth, scalability and operational efficiencies.
Her career includes driving revenue growth, transformative technology implementations, asset creation, client management and delivery excellence - with an inclusive focus on helping companies solve challenging problems and create effective solutions to increase customer value. Her clients have included companies in the telecommunications, high-tech, banking, fast casual restaurants, and energy industries.