John Foreman is the Chief Data Scientist for MailChimp.com. He holds a degree in Operations Research from MIT and has worked as an analytics consultant for the Department of Defense, Coca-Cola, Royal Caribbean International, and Intercontinental Hotels Group. In his new book Data Smart, John explains many of the analytics techniques he uses in his work to novices using spreadsheets. For less formal rants on data science, see his blog.

Warren Hearnes is VP of Marketing Insights & Analytics at Cardlytics, an Atlanta-based advertising & technology company and the leader and pioneer in Card-Linked Marketing. Through partnerships with nearly 400 financial institutions, including Bank of America, Lloyds Banking Group and many others, the company has insight into consumer purchase behavior for 70% of U.S. households and 30% of U.K. households, capturing spending across all stores and categories. Cardlytics' patented technology allows advertisers to make a direct connection to millions of active buyers through multiple digital platforms, including their online banking and mobile banking applications.

Prior to Cardlytics, Warren held progressive analytics and data science roles at various companies in Atlanta. Most recently he led the Marketing Sciences group at The Home Depot, responsible for the insights and analytics of their direct mail and e-mail campaigns. Other previous roles include creating fraud detection, optimization, and pricing models in the Data Mining & Advanced Analytics group at UPS, and developing mixed-integer programming models to manage fiber inventory as a Member of Technical Staff at Lucent Technologies. Warren earned his BS in Mathematics from the United States Military Academy at West Point, and his MS in Operations Research and PhD in Industrial Engineering degrees from Georgia Tech. His research in machine learning combined the areas of dynamic programming and fuzzy sets to create reinforcement learning controllers for robotic systems. His work on fuzzy models for asset replacement won the 1999 Best Transactions Paper award from the IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society.

As Managing Partner and Chief Scientist of Revenue Analytics, Dr. Jon Higbie leads one of the world’s foremost groups of operations research scientists dedicated to pricing and Revenue Management. An expert in the science of Revenue Management, he has helped some of the world’s top companies increase revenue and profit through the application of sophisticated pricing, forecasting and Revenue Management techniques.

Jon Higbie is particularly known for his innovative work in the hospitality and advertising industries.  He has been recognized for his contributions to the science of group Revenue Management, real-time price management, and large-scale network management for companies such as ABC Television Network, The Coca-Cola Company, Ford Motor Company, InterContinental Hotels Group, Marriott International and Delta Air Lines.  In 2011, Dr. Higbie’s work with InterContinental Hotels, was recognized as a finalist for the prestigious Edelman Award for Analytics Excellence.

 Jon Higbie has served on The University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business MIS advisory board since 2001.  Prior to joining Revenue Analytics, Jon served as Chief Scientist for JDA Software, Inc. He also served on the faculty of the College of Management at Georgia Tech.

Molham Aref is the founder and CEO of LogicBlox and Predictix.  He has over 23 years of experience leading teams that deliver high value predictive and prescriptive analytics solutions to some of the world's largest enterprises. Previously, he was CEO of Optimi (acquired by Ericsson), a leader in wireless network simulation and optimization and has held senior leadership positions at Retek (now Oracle Retail) and HNC Software (now FICO). He received his Bachelors in Computer Engineering, M.S. in Electrical Engineering, and M.S in Computer Science from Georgia Tech.

Nelson joined Kinetic Ventures in early 1998.  His investment activities focus on IT infrastructure technologies (e.g., hardware systems and components, enterprise software), Internet software, database-related applications, and other emerging software and hardware technologies.  He has led and/or been actively involved with a broad range of Kinetic investments including BroadWare, VerticalOne, FoodBuy, Cardlytics, and Tower Cloud. 

Prior to joining Kinetic Ventures, Nelson was a management consultant with McKinsey and Company and prior to that he was a Development Manager with Oracle Corporation.  Nelson received his MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School, his MS in Electrical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his BS in Electrical Engineering from Virginia Tech.  Among his many technology and venture accolades in the Atlanta area, Nelson is the current President of the Southern Capital Forum and past Forum Chair of the MIT Enterprise Forum of Atlanta.