2016 Huddle Leaders (USA)
Considered one of the leading digital measurement experts in the world, Gary leads EY’s Digital Analytics Practice. EY acquired Gary’s previous company, Semphonnic, in 2013. As President, Gary led Semphonic’s growth from a 2-person practice to one of the leading digital analytics practices in the U.S. Voted the most Influential Industry Contributor by the Digital Analytics Association, Gary writes an influential blog (http://measuringthedigitalworld.com), has published more than twenty whitepapers on advanced digital analytics practice and is a frequent speaker at industry events.
Theresa Locklear is the Director of Business Intelligence and Optimization at The National Football League. At the NFL, Theresa leads a team of analysts, data scientists and technologists, servicing the various enterprise stakeholders from user acquisition, social and mobile analytics, product development and optimization and other revenue generating NFL systems. Prior to the NFL, Theresa was the VP of Business Technology at the National Hockey League.
One of Theresa’s primary goals is to collect, normalize and summarize data across myriad platforms, providing quick view dashboards for executives and product owners. Another primary objective is to make integrated data available for deeper analysis which services product development, forecasting and business planning for NFL Digital and Broadcast Media.
One of Theresa’s primary goals is to collect, normalize and summarize data across myriad platforms, providing quick view dashboards for executives and product owners. Another primary objective is to make integrated data available for deeper analysis which services product development, forecasting and business planning for NFL Digital and Broadcast Media.
Tom Betts is Chief Data Officer at the Financial Times. He is a member of the FT Board and leads the FT’s data capability and strategy. This involves working with a global team to support all parts of the organisation in their use of data to improve and optimise their work.
Tom previously held positions at FT’s former parent – Pearson – as VP Analytics, building analytics teams across a range of educational businesses. Prior to that he was Head of Data Analytics for FT.com, having joined the FT in 2009. He was instrumental in establishing data as a core competency for the Financial Times and grew a team who have successfully catalysed the use of data in decision making right across the organisation.
Prior to the FT, Tom worked in a consultancy capacity delivering large scale data mining projects in a number of industry sectors.
Carrie Bolton is Head of Digital and Client Analytics at Vanguard Investment Group, focused on helping the business find opportunities to test and improve the customer experience across channels. She has over 15 years of professional experience in financial services, including wealth management, banking and mortgage, leading teams in analytics, digital marketing, website production, and strategic planning.
David McBride is an analytics and product leader focused on helping companies grow revenue by developing meaningful, data-informed customer relationships. His extensive knowledge and experience has been honed through 15 years of professional experience in industries as diverse as retail, telecom, consumer electronics and transportation. David's functional expertise is primarily in Analytics, A/B Testing and Data Product Management with additional expertise in Finance at companies like American Eagle Outfitters, Comcast and Dell. He is currently works in Intel's New Devices Group as Director of Wearable Data Products.
Dylan is the group manager of digital measurement and experimentation at Intuit and leads the TurboTax end-to-end experiment program. The team is focused on optimizing the TurboTax experience through analytics and experimentation. Dylan joined Intuit in 2005 from Visual Sciences. Before that, he worked at SmartDraw.com as the director of marketing.
Dylan earned his bachelor’s degree in psychology from UC Santa Cruz and his master’s degree in industrial organizational psychology from San Diego State University.
June Dershewitz has spent her career driving analytics strategies for major businesses. She is currently the Head of Data Governance & Analytics at Twitch, the world’s leading video platform and community for gamers (a subsidiary of Amazon). A key aspect of her role is to ensure that data is collected, understood and used effectively throughout the company.
Previously, she was the Director of Digital Analytics at Apollo Education Group, where she created an end-to-end view of digital customer behavior and enabled advanced marketing attribution. Prior to that she was a member of the leadership team at Semphonic, a prominent analytics consultancy (now part of Ernst & Young).
Previously, she was the Director of Digital Analytics at Apollo Education Group, where she created an end-to-end view of digital customer behavior and enabled advanced marketing attribution. Prior to that she was a member of the leadership team at Semphonic, a prominent analytics consultancy (now part of Ernst & Young).
As a long-standing advocate of the analytics community, June was the co-founder of Web Analytics Wednesdays; she's also a Director Emeritus of the Digital Analytics Association.
Sasha heads analytics and testing at clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch. Over the past five years Sasha has built from scratch a strong team, covering digital and customer analytics as well as testing, optimization and increasingly personalization. A&F now has a mature, robust, multi-brand and multi-platform integrated data strategy. Most of this data, including click stream, is consolidated in the data warehouse and A&F now mines for “customer” and “life time” level insights across multiple channels.
Prior to A&F, Sasha held various senior analytics positions with Land’s End, JP Morgan Chase and Victoria’s Secret.
Sasha holds science degrees in Mathematics from Kyiv National Taras Shevchenko University and Accounting & Finance from the University of Wisconsin-Platteville.
Amy Sample – Sr. Director, Digital Analytics, Public Broadcasting Service
Amy Sample has been analyzing digital consumer behavior for nearly 20 years. As Senior Director of Digital Analytics at PBS, she and her team support analytics and digital research initiatives for PBS.org, PBSKIDS.org, and PBS mobile and OTT apps. Her team also provides analytics and SEO consultations for PBS member stations. Prior to PBS, she conducted primary research and audience analysis at AOL for 8 years. She is a member of the Board of Directors for the Digital Analytics Association and co-leader of the DAA Washington DC chapter. Amy holds an MBA from Georgetown University and a BS in Marketing from DePaul University.
In her role at Best Buy Lynn leads the Digital Analytics team, which includes industry research, competitive analysis, web analytics and multi-channel data integration. She and her team are passionate about helping the business connect the dots by transforming data and information into insights and action plans that drive business results. Prior to Best Buy, Lynn worked for over ten years at Spiegel Catalog in a variety of marketing and merchandise planning roles.
Akhil Anumolu began a career in analytics at Symantec directly after graduation from college. For more than two years he helped to build the optimization & analytics program for the consumer eCommerce site focused on the Norton Anti-Virus brand. Following his dream to pursue a start-up, he then worked for a year at the children’s toy start-up Wonder Workshop, guiding their digital efforts from inception to a record breaking crowdfunding campaign. Following his start-up effort, Akhil returned to Symantec and led web development, analytics, and optimization for the paid search marketing team for almost two more years before joining Delta Air Lines to manage the eCommerce Optimization & Personalization teams.
In January 2016, Akhil was awarded the Digital Analytics Rising Star Award by the Digital Analytics Association. He is a graduate of the University of Georgia with a Bachelor’s degree in Management Information Systems.
Rusty Rahmer is an experienced digital leader, with over 10 years of experience driving digital strategy, technology program planning, and delivery at Vanguard. Since 2013 Rusty has been leading Vanguard’s enterprise digital intelligence program and has since built and managed the firm’s Digital Intelligence Center of Excellence. Rusty’s expertise is centered in developing digital program strategy, inspiring business leadership to invest, and providing program leadership through organizational construction and operational transformation. Rusty also serves on the Digital Analytics Association’s (DAA) Board of Directors and is a member of the Corporate Membership Advisory Council.
Shari Cleary has more than 17 years of experience in media analytics and is currently the SVP, Strategic Insights & Research for Comedy Central. As a key member of the senior leadership team, she is responsible for cross-platform analytics and providing key consumer insights to guide strategy for multi-platform development, programming, and marketing. She recently served 2 terms on the Board of Directors for the Digital Analytics Association (DAA), co-founded the DAA Media Special Interest Group, and has spoken at numerous industry conferences worldwide. She graduated from Binghamton University’s School of Management in 1997.
Kyle leads analytics research for all of Vox Media's brands in developing best practices to increase audience across all platforms. He also leads the data teams for other business units at the company, including revenue, finance, and product. He briefly served as Analytics Editor during the launch of vox.com to specifically research audience and content analytics for the brand to support quick growth. Prior to Vox, Kyle managed the analytics team at the Washington Post, and also worked for Dow Jones, comScore, as well as other non-media companies in a variety of different roles around data.
David N Williams is Digital Experience Director of ASOS, the global online fashion and beauty retailer. David leads the Digital Analytics, Conversion Optimisation, Data Science and Product Management & UX teams ensuring that the business makes best use of customer data to provide not only insight and analysis but also to design, build and deliver delightful and innovative experiences for the ASOS Customer.
Prior to ASOS, he was Operations Director and Co-founder of the visual search based fashion search engine, Pixsta (later Empora) and has over 10 years’ experience in Venture Capital backed eCommerce startups. David holds a BA and MA degrees in Mathematics from the University of Oxford.
Stéphane Hamel is a seasoned consultant, Faculty Chair, Digital Analytics for Simplilearn / MarketMotive and distinguished thought leader in the field of digital analytics. Recognized as Google Product Strategy/Expert (2016) and named Most Influential Industry Contributor by the Digital Analytics Association (2012), he has made significant contributions to the industry, including creating the Digital Analytics Maturity Model, the Web Analytics Solution Profiler (WASP) quality assurance tool as well as other tools and concepts throughout the years. Stéphane has previously held a leadership position with award winning Cardinal Path agency, board positions with the DAA and thought hundreds of students enrolled in the UBC Award of Achievement in Digital Analytics and graduate-level marketing classes at Laval University. In addition, Stéphane co-manages the largest Google Analytics user community on Google Plus and serve on a number of advisory boards for agencies, startups and vendors in the digital analytics industry. He is frequently called upon to speak at conferences around the world and an often-quoted media contributor on the topic of digital intelligence and analysis. Stéphane holds an MBA in eBusiness and work from home in a historical heritage area called Île d’Orléans, near Québec-city, Canada.
Gautam Madiman is currently the Director, Personalization and Digital Analytics at Lowe’s, the home improvement company. He is responsible for delivering relevant and personalized experiences to digital customers through advanced analytics and technology solutions. Some of the key personalization focus areas include search, product & content recommendations, digital marketing, customer segmentation and targeting. He also leads the Digital Analytics and Optimization practices to enable better data based decisions for key digital and eCommerce initiatives.
Prior to Lowe’s, he spent about 11 years combined at Autodesk and Dell in multiple leadership positions - Strategic Business Planning, CRM/Customer Insights and Digital Analytics and Optimization.
Gautam has a BS and MS in Industrial Engineering from Purdue University and a MBA from University of Michigan, Stephen M Ross School of Business.
Brandon Bunker is Sr. Director of Consumer Analytics and Intelligence at Vivint. Vivint is the leading home automation company in America. His team is responsible for creating real time digital products based on IOT data and data science. His team also provides analytics to drive sales, marketing and customer engagement. Prior to Vivint, Brandon worked at Sony, Nike and the Department of Defense. He holds an MBA from the University of Maryland and a BS in Electrical Engineering from Brigham Young University.
Rene is the Digital Analytics Senior Manager at Verizon Wireless. He has over 10 years’ experience building digital analytics infrastructure and capabilities that have enabled hundreds of analyst in supporting critical marketing, sales and service initiatives across multiple channels.
Rene’s primary focus has been driving innovation by expanding capabilities via implementation of new tools, standardizing data collection across digital channels and supporting the implementation of a unified data model that provides a 360 degree of the customer experience across all channels and platforms.
Kelly Wortham leads the Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) advisory practice at EY focusing her advisory services on digital CRO strategy and testing program and process design and development.
Kelly has more than 15 years of professional experience concentrated in digital analytics, testing and optimization, marketing, communications training, and social media. She has deep functional knowledge in CRO strategy, communication and digital analytics. She also has expertise in testing prioritization and roadmap strategy, organization and process design as well as quality management and tool selection and integration. Kelly’s clients are currently working with her to develop new or optimize existing testing programs, evaluate or improve test idea pipelines, and assess program maturity.
Kelly joined EY three years ago to help build out the former Semphonic team’s digital optimization practice with a goal of helping clients more closely align their analytics and optimization practices. Prior to joining EY, Kelly managed the award-winning global optimization program for Dell.
Kelly has more than 15 years of professional experience concentrated in digital analytics, testing and optimization, marketing, communications training, and social media. She has deep functional knowledge in CRO strategy, communication and digital analytics. She also has expertise in testing prioritization and roadmap strategy, organization and process design as well as quality management and tool selection and integration. Kelly’s clients are currently working with her to develop new or optimize existing testing programs, evaluate or improve test idea pipelines, and assess program maturity.
Kelly joined EY three years ago to help build out the former Semphonic team’s digital optimization practice with a goal of helping clients more closely align their analytics and optimization practices. Prior to joining EY, Kelly managed the award-winning global optimization program for Dell.
Chip Streiff heads the US eCommerce digital analytics at global sports brand Adidas. With over 10 years’ experience in various eCommerce organizations, Chip has enabled businesses to make better decisions, learn faster and increase revenue in an evolving digital world.
He is currently responsible for building analytics solutions to optimize the business and inform the business strategy. Prior to Adidas, Chip spent five years in multiple roles at Nike building its analytical organization from implementation through business reporting to sharing consumer insights that changed how the brand came to life.
Jose leads digital analytics and optimization efforts for ASICS Global. During the last two years Jose has led the building of a new global analytics structure and conversion optimization program across the ASICS organization working with 5 teams in 4 continents focused on ecommerce sites across ASICS, Onitsuka Tiger, ASICS Tiger and Haglofs brands.
Jose's background covers over 8 years of brand and agency experience in Canada and Japan.
On the personal side, Jose likes playing squash but since becoming a parent this year he is now reassessing time commitments to the sport.
Jose's background covers over 8 years of brand and agency experience in Canada and Japan.
On the personal side, Jose likes playing squash but since becoming a parent this year he is now reassessing time commitments to the sport.
Jim Sterne is an international consultant focused on measuring the value of the online marketing for creating and strengthening customer relationships since 1993. Sterne has written seven books on using the Internet for marketing, produces the eMetrics Summit - www.emetrics.org and is co-founder and current Chairman of the Digital Analytics Association - www.DigitalAnalyticsAssociation.org.
Dean Abbott is Co-Founder and Chief Data Scientist of SmarterHQ. Mr. Abbott is an internationally recognized data mining and predictive analytics expert nearly three decades experience building and deploying advanced analytics algorithms and data preparation techniques to real-world problems, including customer analytics, fraud detection, risk modeling, donation modeling, text mining, and more.
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 Predictive Analytics and Data Mining conferences and meetups, and is on the Advisory Boards for the UC/Irvine Predictive Analytics Certificate as well as the UCSD Data Mining Certificate programs.
He has a B.S. in Mathematics of Computation from Rensselaer (1985) and a Master of Applied Mathematics from the University of Virginia (1987).
Alex Destino serves to develop and deliver actionable digital insights for all lines of business at Humana. His responsibilities include driving analytics strategy and managing an analytics portfolio that includes multi-channel, voice of customer, multivariate testing, and advanced analytics learning agendas. He is passionate about developing analytical talent and technology solutions and driving action and results through presentation of data-driven findings and implications put into business context.
He has a proven track record of helping achieve customer success through innovative analytics at Fortune 100 brands including Fidelity, USAA, TIAA, Humana, and UPS. Alex has been featured in Forrester for his leading work in Analytics Governance and is comfortable leading change and managing complexity.
Alex has a BS in Industrial Engineering from Georgia Tech and an MBA from Georgia State University.
Steve Harris is the Head of Digital Analytics at Capital One. He is responsible for defining and executing on an enterprise strategy for how Capital One captures, analyzes, tests, monetizes, and visualizes customer interactions across our entire digital footprint. During his five-year tenure at Capital One, Steve has been responsible for building a Digital Analytics organization from the ground up, which now supports a robust suite of products and services. He is a relentless innovator in the financial services sector and constantly pushes the boundaries of what is possible, driving real-time, open-source and cloud-based implementations.
Prior to Capital One, Steve was the Director & Global Head of Digital Analytics at Hilton Worldwide, again building the organization and capabilities from the ground up. He has also held digital analytics leadership roles at AddThis (now Oracle), AOL and comScore.
Steve holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Maryland and an MBA from the Stern School of Business at New York University.
