THE FUTURE IS

Asmita Aggarwal

Manager, Product Management, PROS

In her current role as a Manager- Product Management, Asmita leads the GSO Product Management team and manages the strategic vision and design for PROS GSO. She has been instrumental in creating and demonstrating new product workflows and promoting them both within the company and to new client prospects. During her tenure at PROS she has also worked closely with other PROS products (e.g., PROS RMS 6 and PROS HROS), giving her a unique and customer-centric perspective of product usability, effectiveness, and efficiency. Prior to joining PROS, Asmita worked at Etihad Airways as a Senior Inventory Control Analyst, responsible for managing multiple dedicated airline routes and laying out revenue and yield optimization strategies for these routes by analyzing market trends, thereby helping to increase company revenue. Asmita is an alumna of London School of Economics (LSE), where she received a Master’s Degree in Operations Research.

Joe Cicman

Senior Analyst, Forrester

Joe helps eBusiness professionals assess, improve, and optimize B2B and B2B2C eCommerce technologies and strategies. As part of the digital transformation team, Joe provides a proven practitioner’s lens for organizations to understand how to deploy the economics of digital commerce that unleash best-in-class outcomes. His research also supports technical teams by covering the tools and software suites for driving online channels, digitally enabled selling, and new direct-to-consumer (DTC) initiatives.

Previous Work Experience
Joe has worked in B2B eCommerce since the late ’90s and lived through multiple technology cycles. Prior to joining Forrester, Joe was the product manager who owned IBM’s eCommerce offering. Joe joined IBM through the acquisition of Sterling Commerce, where he was a managing architect in Sterling’s professional service group and specialized in building and delivering asset-based and first-of-a-kind projects. Joe’s experience is as a hands-on leader who’s worked with hundreds of clients on projects small and large, both directly and through his teams of talented consultants.

Joe has run all sides of the value chain, from working to deliver client outcomes, to building the software those teams use, and then to running the business of building that software. He is particularly interested in the emerging technologies and techniques that offer to transform key parts of that value chain, how to truly unlock the business value of commerce APIs, and how the headless-versus-suite battle will play out.

Education
Joe attended The Ohio State University and holds a Bachelor of Science degree with a major in eBusiness from The University of Phoenix.

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Nicole France

VP and Principal Analyst, Constellation Research

Nicole France is Vice President and Principal Analyst at Constellation focusing on digital marketing, sales effectiveness, and customer experience. Her research examines the interrelationship between sales, marketing, and customer engagement and how to make it work effectively. France evaluates the tools as well as the principles and practices that generate the best results. She considers the customer relationship lifecycle to be one of the most critical aspects of digital transformation for any business. It’s also one that can easily go awry. Success requires a clear focus on the objectives as well as a thorough understanding of how technology tools help to achieve them—and where they can’t.

With over twenty years of experience as both technology analyst and marketer, she has a unique perspective on both the trends and the practicalities of effective customer engagement. Throughout her career, she has focused on successfully adopting technology capabilities and the transformative impact they have for customers.

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Justin Jander

Director, Product Management, PROS

Justin Jander is a director of product management for travel products at PROS.  Justin has been with PROS for 10 years, all within the product management group, focusing on the travel products including revenue management, distribution, and cargo products.  During that time, he has overseen the continuous improvement of the PROS O&D product, the flagship product at PROS.  These improvements have been through new features and functionality that improve the industry-leading Science as well as enhancements to the way analysts use the system.  In order to understand the needs of the always-changing industry, he has worked with airlines across the world, which allows him to understand the business problem and translate that into features that can improve the products.  His most recent accomplishment includes the successful launch of the new PROS RM Editions product, which includes launching RM Essentials and RM Advantage.

Justin earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics from Stephen F. Austin State University and a Master of Science degree in Statistical Science from Southern Methodist University.

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Dimitar Kamenov

Manager, Product Management, PROS

Dimitar Kamenov is a highly experienced travel industry technology professional with over 17 years experience in delivering solutions for the airline e-commerce and distribution. For the last 13 years his focus was on building PROS best of breed shopping and pricing engine and the products needed to enable airline path to digital transformation and direct distribution of their products.

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Ravi Kumar

Lead Scientist, PROS

Ravi Kumar is a Lead Scientist at the Science and Research group at PROS where his work involves building control, estimation and optimization algorithms for Revenue Management and Dynamic Pricing systems. His research focuses on reinforcement learning and contextual bandits for personalization and Dynamic Ancillary Pricing. Ravi completed his Ph.D. in Operations Research with focus area in Applied Probability and Statistics from Cornell University in 2015. He completed his undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, India in 2003 and Master’s degree specializing in Control Theory from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Brenden Young

Product Manager-Travel, PROS

A Revenue Management professional with over 17 years’ experience.

Experienced in both Commercial and Operational aspects of Revenue Management, which has been developed through various roles in both Aviation (commercial airlines) and the Hotel Industry.

The combination of a strong work ethic, ability to think outside the square, a thirst for knowledge and attention to detail have allowed me to constantly challenge myself and make a difference in everything I do both professionally and personally.

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Rachel Golden

Product Manager, PROS

Rachel Golden is a product manager for the Revenue Management products. She has been with PROS for 4 years, including a brief period as an intern, all within the RM product management team. During her time at PROS, Rachel has collaborated with airlines around the world to improve the products through new features that solve business problems across the dynamic airline industry. Much of her time has been spent working with the User Experience and Development teams to enhance the user experience of the RM products for end users. She is also the lead product manager for RM Essentials and has worked with many airlines to show the benefits of industry-leading science available in the RM Editions.

Rachel earned a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and a Minor in History from Cornell University. She is currently an MBA candidate in the Texas A&M Mays School of Business Professional MBA program.

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Paul Hohler

Product Manager II, PROS

Paul Hohler is a product manager on the Revenue Management product team. He has been at PROS for 4.5 years working exclusively in product management. During his time at PROS, he has worked on a number of innovation topics associated with Dynamic Pricing and Offer Optimization. While his focus has been on the RM product, these innovation topics have also allowed him to have some glimpse into the other travel products at PROS. Paul has also worked closely with the Science and Research team at PROS, bridging the gap between research and product. More recently, Paul has worked on bringing Willingness-to-pay Forecasting to the RM product.
Paul earned a Ph.D. in theoretical nuclear physics from the University of Maryland, and a B.A. from Washington University in St Louis while majoring in Chemistry, with a concentration in Biochemistry, Physics, and Mathematics. Before joining PROS, he spent 7 years as a Post-doctoral research assistant in the area of theoretical physics.

Karl Isler

Managing Partner, Karl Isler Consulting GmbH

Karl Isler is a freelance consultant on pricing, revenue management and distribution for airlines and IT providers.
While at Swiss International Air Lines, he developed the concepts for the integrated O&D pricing and inventory control strategy. He designed the dynamic pricing methods which are used by the Lufthansa Group Airlines today. He is author of several articles dealing with dynamic pricing and airline revenue management.

He received his Ph.D. degree in Theoretical Physics from ETH Zurich. Before joining Swiss Air in 1993, he was a post-doctoral research fellow in particle physics and quantum field theory at the Universities of Montréal and Utrecht.

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Dr. Stephan Liozu

Chief Value Officer, Thales Group

Stephan M. Liozu is Chief Value Officer of the Thales Group (www.thalesgroup.com). He is also an Adjunct Professor & Research Fellow at the Case Western Research University Weatherhead School of Management. Stephan holds a Ph.D. in Management from Case Western Reserve University (2013), an MS in Innovation Management from Toulouse School of Management (2005), and an MBA in Marketing from Cleveland States University (1991). He is a Certified Pricing Professional (CPP), a Prosci® certified Change Manager, and a Strategyzer certified Business Model Innovation Coach. Over the past few years, Stephan published academic articles in the Journal of Revenue & Pricing Management, Business Horizons, MIT Sloan Management Review, and Industrial Marketing Management. He has also written many articles on strategic pricing issues for the Journal of Professional Pricing. He authored six books, B2G Pricing (2020), Monetizing Data (2018), Value Mindset, (2017), Dollarizing Differentiation Value (2016), The Pricing Journey (2015) and Pricing and Human Capital (2015). He also co-edited four books, Pricing Strategy Implementation – Translating Pricing Strategy into Results (2019), Innovation in Pricing – Contemporary Theories and Best Practices (2012) and The ROI of Pricing (2014), and Pricing and the Salesforce (2015). Stephan sits on the Advisory Board of Professional Pricing Society and LeveragePoint Innovation.

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Dimitar Markov

Product Manager, PROS

Dimitar Markov is holding the position of a Product Manager at PROS. He has over 13 years of experience in the travel industry, taking different roles in the pricing, shopping, repricing and refund processes. Before joining PROS more than six years ago, Dimitar Markov has been working in the Reservations and Distribution Systems department of Bulgaria Air. His role at the airline was to organize trainings, to lead implementations of new airline products and to provide helpdesk support on the PSS capabilities.
As a Product Manager at PROS, Dimitar Markov is involved in the shopping products and is taking a leading role on the tax application and the repricing, the re-shopping and the refund capabilities.

Neli Radulova

Product Manager, PROS

Neli Radulova is a highly experienced aviation professional with over 25 years in various roles across the industry. Prior to joining PROS, Neli held key management positions in Bulgaria Air, leading the Revenue Management and Pricing Departments. In her role as the Product Manager for PROS Merchandising, Neli is developing the product that enables airlines to maximize ancillary revenue and is strongly focused on delivering the best retail practices across the solution. Her experience in pricing and revenue optimization processes is combined with thorough market and competitive knowledge to help better understand customers’ business needs and identify the key functionalities that bring added value to airlines. With her strong focus on delivering the best results, her expertise spans across a wide range of activities: from product development, positioning, pricing and go-to-market, through to extensive support for marketing launches and campaigns, sales enablement and customer trainings.

Mark Thomason

Research Director: Digital Business Models and Monetization, IDC

Mark Thomason is Research Director for IDC’s Digital Business Models and Monetization practice.

Mr. Thomason’s research coverage monitors business model trends for digital products and services (e.g., product-to-as a service, servicification, monetization of data) and tracks the technologies and best practices you need to monetize the digital economy, including subscription management, price management & optimization, and usage intelligence.

Mr. Thomason was formally the Head of Market Insights at Veritas Technologies, where he was responsible for market insights, market sizing, primary research, and secondary research vendor management. Mark had been working at Symantec/Veritas since 2012, but previously worked at companies that would eventually become Veritas from 1991-2004 working a variety of leadership roles in development, product management, competitive intelligence, strategy, and business alliances. In the “in between” years, Mark cofounded a SaaS company and was responsible for getting “1/4 of the Electric Vehicle Charging Stations installed in Orlando.”

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Lucille Cambon

Manager, Product Management Retail, PROS

Specialist in the Tourism industry with strong focus on retail and merchandising, Lucille has been working over 14 years in the Airline industry going through Portfolio strategy management, Product Management and Account management roles, in big groups or in startups environments, now leading the Product Management Retail group at PROS. Lucille’s main motivation is enabling PROS to become a game changer in the industry by making future of travel come true through its product offer.

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Sebastien Touraine

Head of Dynamics Offers, IATA

Complementing IATA New Distribution Capability (NDC) and ONE Order, this new IATA initiative aims at moving airlines away from 26 booking Classes to create , manage and distribute their offers. This last step in airlines retailing vision was described in this white paper.

Since 2010, drove the start of NDC vision and launched the ONE Order program
Specialties: Airline Business Strategic Planning, Pricing & Revenue Management, Airline Systems, Fleet & Network Management, Program Management, and Business Intelligence

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Vince Paperiello

Chief Solutions Officer, Hub Group

Vince Paperiello was named Chief Solutions Officer in 2019 after serving as Executive Vice President, Pricing and Yield Management, since 2016. Vince joined Hub Group in 1993, and has held a variety of operational, logistics management, business intelligence and yield management positions with the Company. In his current role, Vince is responsible for Hub Group’s go-to-market analytics organization, ensuring that we are developing and delivering solutions that propel our customers’ businesses.

Vince is a member of the Professional Pricing Society and the Intermodal Association of North America (IANA), a leading industry trade association representing the combined interest of the intermodal freight industry.
Vince received a Bachelor of Arts degree in History from Western Illinois University and a Master of Business Administration – Finance degree from DePaul University.

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Joe Chamberlain

Global Practices, PROS

Solutions Architect with experience in sales and retail management. Currently a member of PROS Professional Services MDS team. During my career with Lowe’s I was promoted twice to Management positions. In both instances I had the privilege to train and mentor my replacement. I graduated cum laude with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing working full-time as a Sales Specialist and completed a Master’s Degree while working in Senior Management.

Greg Davoll

Senior Director, Product Management, PROS

Over twenty five years of enterprise software experience in product management and marketing leadership roles across an array of branded technology companies including Alteryx, IBM, NetIQ, Sybase, BMC Software and Quest Software.

Strong and experienced software executive who excels at managing a complex software portfolio across diverse, competitive markets. Detailed knowledge of sales, marketing and product lifecycles combined with a passion for launching new products, enabling worldwide sellers and scaling operations has resulted in dozens of successful products.

Accomplished public speaker at numerous worldwide conferences and talented company spokesperson with press/media & technology analysts.

Experienced in large-scale M&A integrations and go-private transactions.

Specialized Skills: Product Management & Product Strategy, Product Marketing, Solution Marketing, Messaging/Positioning, PR/AR, Corporate Spokesperson, Pricing/Packaging and GTM Execution.

Linda Havens

Director, Product Management, Shopping & Merchandising, PROS

Linda Havens currently directs the product management group at PROS and is responsible for various products in the Travel industry, including Group Sales Optimizer and the Shopping and Merchandising portfolio. Since joining the company in 1994, Linda has applied her talents to several roles across PROS airline, hotel, and cruise revenue management solutions. Before joining PROS, Ms. Havens spent five years at Lufthansa German Airlines working in the Revenue Management Department as a network and system administrator. In that role she was responsible for the successful operation of Lufthansa’s PROS systems. Ms. Havens pursued her studies in computer science at the University of Darmstadt in Germany. She has also studied modern languages and is fluent in Italian, German, and English.

Amol Modgi

Professional Services, PROS

Amol Modgi is a consulting professional with extensive experience in implementing enterprise software solutions to drive business strategy. In his current role, he specifically focuses on implementing pricing and CPQ (Configure/Price/Quote) solutions across manufacturing, distribution and chemical industries.

Hannae Samailovic

Manager, Professional Services, PROS

Hannae Samailovic is a Customer Delivery Manager in the Professional Services organization. Hannae’s focus at PROS is ensuring that the value promises made on the sales side of the relationship are delivered during the implementation. Hannae is passionate about Customer Experience, Value Attainment, and Adoption of pricing solutions.

Geoff Webb

VP, Solutions, PROS

Geoff Webb has over 25 years of experience in the tech industry and is the Vice President of Solutions at PROS. He works alongside marketing and product management to help define strategy for the business, including how to align technology capabilities to business challenges facing organizations in the move to digital business.

Webb often provides commentary on the intersections of technology, business, and society, and has written on a number of related topics for such journals and websites as: CNBC, USA Today, CIO Update, Healthcare IT News, The Tech Herald, Dark Reading, BankInfoSecurity.com, Wired, InfoSecurity magazine, HelpNetSecurity, and Forbes. He is a member of the Forbes Technology Council and writes on the subject of how IoT and AI will change global business practices. He speaks regularly at technical and business conferences around the world.

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Eunice Yang

Senior User Experience Researcher, PROS

Eunice Yang has been a User Experience Researcher at PROS for 4 years. She is passionate about research-driven product design and has conducted over 50 user research studies. Her Ph.D. in Cognitive Science led to 10 years of studying human behavior.

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Iztok Franko

Founder, DigginTravel

Iztok increases web sales by applying smart, data-driven eCommerce and digital marketing. He specializes in airline booking funnel conversion optimisation and advanced analytics.

He works with:
– Airlines looking to improve their website conversion rate and average order value (ancillary revenue)
– Airline agencies & partners by adding to their expertise (conversion optimization, advanced web analytics) they can offer their clients
– Airline B2B providers who want to reach the airline audience (ecommerce, digital, ancillary pros) via Diggintravel content platform.

Henry Harteveldt

President, Atmosphere Research

Henry Harteveldt, one of the travel industry’s most respected analysts, is President of Atmosphere Research Group, a San Francisco, CA-based independent, objective travel industry strategic market research and advisory firm. Henry started Atmosphere in September 2011, following a nearly-12 year career as Forrester Research’s global head of travel research. Atmosphere conducts worldwide consumer and industry research and forward-looking guidance on a variety of topics at the intersection of commercial functions and technology, with extensive focus on distribution and digital commerce, ancillary product strategy and retailing, and loyalty marketing. Before becoming an analyst, Henry spent more than 15 years in marketing, product, planning, and distribution roles at firms such as Continental Airlines, Fairmont Hotel Management Company, and GetThere. Henry is regularly quoted in media such as The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Reuters, and appears on CBS, CNBC, Bloomberg, and CNN. Henry is a graduate of the Tulane University School of Business in New Orleans, LA. Henry regularly shares his industry insights in LinkedIn and Twitter (@hharteveldt).

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John Bruno

VP, Commerce Strategy, PROS

John is Vice President of Commerce Strategy and industry thought leader in the areas digital transformation, digital experience, and eCommerce.

Prior to joining PROS, Bruno was the head of product for Elastic Path Software, a Vancouver based SaaS eCommerce platform, where he was responsible for product management, engineering, and user experience. Before Elastic Path, Bruno led the eCommerce research practice, specializing in B2B eCommerce, at Forrester Research. There he authored definitive works including the B2B eCommerce Playbook and the Forrester Waves on B2B and B2C eCommerce Suites. He has spoken and written widely, with expertise featured in Wall Street Journal, Adweek, Forbes, Business Insider and more.

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Brandon Robinson

UX Designer II, PROS

Brandon Robinson is a UX Designer at PROS and former Executive Director of Houston’s UXPA chapter. Six years ago, after earning his Bachelor of Fine Arts from University of Houston, Brandon began work as a Visual Designer on enterprise software. Since then, he has transitioned his career into UX design where he collaborates with talented teams to create impactful solutions that meet business and user needs.

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Ron Batey

Pricing & Economics Director, CHS, Inc.

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Issac Brady

Strategic Pricing Analyst, Digi-Key Electronics

I have been with Digi-Key for 6.5 years and spent all of that time in a pricing related function. In my new role as Strategic Pricing Analyst, I aim to collaborate with groups across the company, including Sales, Marketing, Asset Management and others, to conduct pricing trials, initiatives, and build a stronger connection and pricing mindset with the whole company.

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Scott Fisher

Senior Program Manager, PROS

Scott Fisher is a Senior Program Manager at PROS. For the past thirteen years, he has been helping PROS customers get the most value and usage from their solutions. Scott worked with customers in many different industries including medical distribution, energy, airlines, financial services, chemical manufacturing, and logistics. He is currently assisting PROS customers who have on-premise installs to modernize their solutions and shift to the PROS SaaS Advantage – working with both business and technical users to address their specific concerns. Scott is based out of Houston, Texas and graduated from Rice University with a degree in Electrical Engineering. Scott is a passionate supporter of the Houston Texans and enjoys the incredible food diversity available in Houston.

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Sarah Huster

Director, Revenue Management, American Hotel Register Company

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Kaavya Muralidhar

Product Analyst, PROS

I’m passionate about creating products that make a difference, through thoughtful and nuanced research. As a Product Analyst at PROS I co-lead product strategy and execution for Guidance, our flagship price optimization software, to create a delightful and powerful product experience for our customers.

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John Powell

Consulting Manager, PROS

John joined PROS in January 2014 as a Project Manager in the Travel Professional Services team. He led implementations and cloud migrations for multiple PROS products at airlines in Australia, North America, and Europe. Currently, John provides Change Management and business consulting services as well as managing the RTDP training program

Prior to joining PROS, John gained 34 years of airline experience that includes PeoplExpress, Continental Airlines, United Airlines, and consulting engagements with airlines in the Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East. He led large scale projects in Marketing, Operations, and Technology as well as several airline alliance implementations. John has 8 years of hands-on Revenue Management experience. He was directly responsible for managing $1B USD in inventory and supervised strategy for a team responsible for an additional $1B.

John has received multiple company and industry awards for his achievements. He is an FAA licensed pilot with multi-engine and instrument ratings.

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Tom Moushain

Principal Analyst, Forrester

Tom is a principal analyst for customer experience at Forrester Research, based in Singapore. His research mainly focuses on the role of customer experience in driving innovation, business growth and competitive differentiation. In addition, Tom works with businesses in various sectors, including travel, to help upgrade their technical CX management skills and to hardwire CX to financial performance (see full bio here).

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Manu Chaudhary

Senior Scientist, PROS

Manu Chaudhary is a Senior Scientist at PROS. He has been with PROS for seven years. At PROS, Manu has worked on a large variety of problems using techniques like Machine Learning and Optimization. He led the design and implementation of pricing and Revenue Management system for a major American bus company. More recently, he has led the design and development of PROS eCommerce pricing algorithm. This algorithm uses methods like reinforcement learning to quickly adapt to changing market conditions. Manu has Masters’ degree in Operations Research from University of Michigan and a Bachelor of Technology degree in Chemical Engineering from IIT Madras.

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Paul Benson

General Manager Optimisation Central Portfolio Management, Fonterra

An experienced dairy professional with a 30-year career covering the spectrum of Product Technical, Sales & Marketing, Portfolio Management, Optimisation Planning and Project Management.

Currently General Manager of Optimisation within the Central Portfolio Management Function of Fonterra Limited.  Responsible for the creation of the Optimised Sales and Supply Plan for Fonterra’s ex New Zealand business covering Consumer, Foodservice and Ingredient businesses.

Lead the implementation of the SignalDemand Product Mix Optimisation solution(subsequently PROS) for Fonterra from idea to everyday operation.  The SignalDemand Optimisation solution is now an integral part of Fonterra’s Sales Allocation Plannng process.

Bretania Forbes

User Intreface Designer, PROS

An IT creative with a strong computer science background. Passion for creating beautiful experiences through front-end development and good design.

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Kevin Mitchell

President, Professional Pricing Society

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Lauren Petty

Senior Manager Strategic Projects, PROS

Over 10 years of experience in program ownership and product management.  Contributes vast experience in agile product management, passion for customer success, and long history of delivering results. Uses data-driven insights, industry experience, and influencing skills to champion process and product improvements.

Oversees the standardization of travel product implementations and time of value for the customer. Works to improve customer experience in PROS projects and ensures product adoption Provides a perspective from both the customer and provider sides of the technology industry with unique experience in both.

Specialist in product management for airline inventory management connectivity, data & analytics. Experience as a PROS customer who led the airline team implementing PROS revenue management.

Head of Revenue Management at Virgin America developed pricing and revenue strategies and business processes to ensure accurate accounting. Led testing for all pricing and inventory solutions and supported website testing, integration with connectivity, and payments. Managed the Revenue Management team at Frontier Airlines mentoring analysts on PROS RM product to improve competency in the revenue management system.

LinkedIn

Abhi Shah

Chief Revenue Officer, Azul Airlines

Member of the startup team and currently leading the Network Planning, Revenue Management, Sales, Marketing and Loyalty teams at Azul Brazilian Airlines – Brazil’s largest airline by departures and destinations.

We currently have over 100 destinations, 900 daily departures and more than 230 nonstop routes. In 2019 we carried 27 million passengers.

Previously with JetBlue Airways, based in New York working in the areas of network planning and revenue management.

Specialties: Revenue Management, Network Planning, Revenue Analysis, Marketing, Merchandising, E-commerce, Airline loyalty.

LinkedIn

Amber Weaver

Manager, Product Management, PROS

Amber Weaver leads the PROS product management team responsible for the PricingPRO solutions. She is dedicated to continuous learning about customers and their business needs in order to deliver products that make PROS customers more successful. Amber has 15 years of experience in developing, managing, and delivering enterprise software products and solutions.

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Craig Zawada

Chief Visionary Officer, PROS

Craig Zawada joined PROS in 2010 and serves as its Chief Visionary Officer. He is responsible for creating and articulating the vision for how PROS uses the latest technology to help companies drive incremental sales growth and profit improvement.

Zawada also works with new and existing customers to define the implementation path for these solutions to help them outperform in their respective industries. Prior to joining PROS, he was a partner and leader in the Marketing & Sales Practice at McKinsey & Company.

Zawada is a widely published author, with articles that have appeared in many high-profile publications, including Harvard Business Review, Forbes.com, Mergers and Acquisitions, and the McKinsey Quarterly. He has been interviewed by and quoted in Fortune, Canadian Business, Business 2.0 and CNBC.com publications. Zawada co-authored both the first and second editions of “The Price Advantage,” which has been recognized as one of the most pragmatic books available on pricing strategy. As a frequently sought-after presenter, Zawada has spoken at conferences around the world on next-generation sales and pricing improvement strategies.

He earned both an M.B.A. and bachelor’s degree in business administration from the Schulich School of Business at York University in Ontario, Canada.

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Jana Jumper

Trainer II, PROS

Experienced Trainer and Content Specialist with a demonstrated history of working in the Revenue Management Software Industry and Utilities Industry. Strong media and communication professional with a Master of Letters focused in Creative Writing from The University of Glasgow.

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Chris Hergesell

Managing Director, EY

Chris Hergesell is a Managing Director in EY’s Business Transformation Consulting practice and looks after the Sales Consulting business. He leads Front Office Transformations that leverage digital capabilities and new operating models to improve the lead-to-cash process across marketing, sales, pricing and service. He has executed front office change projects for 20 years across 70+ organizations in the High Tech, Media, Professional Services, Hospitality, Manufacturing, Financial Services, and Energy industries.

Chris hold a BSBA in International Management from Boston University and an MBA from Georgetown University.

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Bill Donlan

EVP, DCX and Salesforce Service Line Leader, Capgemini

Bill Donlan is Executive Vice President, DCX and Salesforce Service Line Leader at Capgemini. Bill has more than 26 years of experience helping companies improve customer and value chain relationships through a combination of business and sales strategy, process tuning and industry best practices, and technology integration. He is experienced with all of the leading software vendors in the CRM and CPQ space as well as several of the mid-market packaged solutions. Bill is based in Miami, Florida.

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Jean-Claude Viollier

EVP, Head of Capgemini North America Tech Unit

Jean-Claude Viollier is an Executive Vice President with Capgemini. Currently, Jean-Claude is the Head of the Tech Unit for North America – his main mission is to deliver Transformation Programs to our Tech clients. Under his vision, Capgemini helps our clients build a more agile enterprise to realize sustainable, profitable growth and tackle their toughest industry challenges.

Among his main priorities, Jean-Claude is focusing on:
1. Managing a full P&L for our North America Tech Unit – including management of Sales, Service Delivery for our Application Business Lines as well as our Global Business Lines, Large Deals, Partner strategies, Marketing and client events
2. Becoming THE long-term digital partner of choice for our strategic and growth Tech clients
3. Developing a very large number of accounts with >100m+ in revenue
4. Doing business with marquee logos and prestigious brands in Tech sector
5. Improving Capgemini revenue trajectory by growing existing accounts and acquiring marquee new logos in technology
6. Helping client organizations think differently and take a more humanistic view of technology.
7. Promoting and building a strong, diverse and High-Performance culture within our clients and within our Capgemini Sales and Account teams.

Before his current position, he has had several various executive positions within Capgemini such as the Chief Sales & Portfolio Officer for North America, Head of AppsOne Global Sales Office, Global Head of Channels and Partners, the leader of Capgemini’s High Technology & Manufacturing Sector Practice in North America Business Unit, as well as the Global Account Executive for Hewlett Packard (HP). He also managed High-Tech Manufacturing accounts for Capgemini in Europe from 1995 to 2000 before moving to the US in August 2000.

During his spare time, Jean-Claude is a violoncellist since the age of 8 and has played many concerts across Europe and in San Francisco Bay Area. He is also running Marathons across the globe – the most famous and recent ones being San Francisco, Austin, Kyoto, Singapore and Lyon/Marathon du Beaujolais. Jean-Claude and his wife Sarah Andree have 4 French-Californian boys and live in Sunnyvale, California.

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Prof. Dr. Nikolas Beutin

Managing Director, Pricing & Commercial Strategy Lead Europe, Accenture Strategy

Nikolas leads the for Pricing & Commercial Strategy Practice at Accenture Strategy in Europe.
Prior to this Nikolas led the “Customer Practice” at first at PwC Germany and then across all verticals at PwC Europe. Before this he was Executive Partner for “Management Consulting” at Ernst & Young J&M Management Consulting GmbH (former: J&M) the German Hidden Champion consultancy for Value Chains as well as CEO/President/Owner of Homburg & Partner the German Hidden Champion consultancy for Sales & Marketing.

He has achieved 50+ bn revenue and 20+ bn EBITDA growth for his clients in his projects. He has done Consulting in 32+ countries for DJ, EuroSToxx DAX, and MDAX companies as well as for numerous family-owned businesses.

Nikolas has taught and teaches Pricing, Sales & Marketing at many different leading universities and has 200+ national and international publications. He is also Professor at the Quadriga University where he is leading the MBA in Leadership & Sales Management.

He studied economics and law at the University of Bonn, completed his Ph.D. program at the University of Mannheim after studying at the WHU Koblenz and the Colorado State University. Nikolas is also alumni of the Harvard Business School.

Specialties: Strategy, Commercial & Sales Excellence, Pricing Excellence & Implementation, Service Excellence, Innovation and Market Research

LinkedIn

Bhargav Mantha

Principal, ZS

Bhargav Mantha is a partner at ZS and leads the B2B Pricing and Contracting Practice for the firm with a primary focus on Medtech. He works with companies across the entire B2B spectrum to enable and implement effective pricing and contracting strategies through analytics.

Bhargav has over 17 years of experience in leading several large-scale engagements involving global commercial ops and analytics strategy development and execution, across the entire gamut of commercial operations functions including pricing.

Before joining ZS in 2011, Bhargav was a Principal at an Information Management consultancy, where he led the firm’s business intelligence practice for the med tech industry.

Bhargav holds an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Missouri. He is also a Certified Business Intelligence Professional (CBIP) and a certified Project Management Professional (PMP).

LinkedIn

Ross Winegar

Manager, Science, PROS

Ross Winegar received his Ph.D. in Economics from Purdue University and has worked at PROS for 7 years in the Science and Research department developing data science models for airline revenue management.  He works daily with airlines across the world helping them recognize value through science.

Shawn Stolle

Senior Manager, Customer Success, PROS

Shawn Stolle is a Sr. Customer Success Manager at PROS for the Global Accounts Group. He has worked at PROS for 15 years starting with a role as Implementation Consulting then Project Management, before moving in to the Customer Success group. His pricing solutions experience has been across a varied group of industries including Industrial Manufacturing, Financial Services, and Food and Beverage. Shawn has experienced firsthand, the drivers of success for a software Pricing Solution, and is ready to share these learnings with PROS customers.

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Eldho Kuriakose

Senior Product Manager, PROS

Eldho Kuriakose leads an amazing team at PROS to build the world’s most advanced price optimization engine (PROS Guidance).
He blends insights from 20+ years in management consulting and product management with AI and ML to design practical, easy to adopt pricing solutions.

Eldho believes pricing can be a force for positive change, bringing fairness to exchanges and building resilient communities.
In his free time, he enjoys photography, volunteering, and blogging about product management, pricing, and economics.

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Richard Blatcher

Director, Industry Marketing & Business Intelligence, PROS

Global Marketing expert with extensive experience in cloud computing, enterprise software, and industry segments including Manufacturing, Distribution, Automotive, Airline & Oil & Gas. I currently lead a global team which owns and drives the strategy and relationships with key industry bodies, associations & influencers to support Go-to-marketing activities. Responsible for highly successful launches into the Product Lifecycle Management market with PLM 360 cloud based alternative and SaaS collaboration platform for designers & engineers, A360. Other launches include Reality Solutions, Fusion 360 the first complete cloud-based 3D CAD solution, and CAM products. I joined Autodesk responsible for manufacturing marketing, Northern Europe expanding this role to EMEA. In Nov 2010 I relocated with my family to San Rafael, California. I worked for a leading marketing communications company in the UK where I set-up heir direct marketing operation managing sales & marketing services to many blue-chip companies. I also worked on world class engineering publications ‘Eureka’, ‘Machinery & Production Engineering’, ‘Works Management’ & ‘Engineering Computers’.

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David Breaugh

Manufacturing Business Leader, Microsoft

Dave serves as the regional business lead for manufacturing industries across the Americas. He and his team develop and deliver business transformation strategies to empower our customers to create value and sustainable competitive advantage. Dave brings over 30 years of experience in automotive, aerospace, chemical, consumer goods, high tech, industrial, and medical device industries. His specialty is leading enterprise transformation, operational turnaround, and performance improvement programs enabled by technology.

Bill Dudziak

Lead Strategic Consultant, PROS

William (Bill) Dudziak is a Lead Strategic Consultant for PROS where he supports clients to develop their vision and execution plan for pricing improvement. With nearly two decades of pricing leadership at Fortune 50 organizations like Whole Foods/Amazon and Home Depot, Dudziak has expertise in defining pricing strategies, building out pricing Centers of Excellence, driving pricing transformation with artificial intelligence and change management. In addition to the companies listed above, Dudziak has set up Centers of Excellence within manufacturing and distribution companies. Finally, Dudziak is a frequent conference speaker and guest lecturer on topics of change management, data cleanliness, pricing strategy and analytics.

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Loretta Faluade

Solutions Strategy Director, PROS

Loretta Faluade is a solution strategy director at PROS where she leads the development and execution of the go-to-market strategy for their sales transformation solutions. She is instrumental in helping organizations understand how to develop impactful digital transformation initiatives which transform the buying experiences for their customers. Prior to PROS, she worked as a sales and business development manager at Texas instrument where she held roles in both sales and marketing.

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Robert Malanga

Senior Product Manager, PROS

Robert Malanga, Senior Product Manager at PROS, leads the product strategy for PROS agreements and deal desk solutions. Robert has a passion for providing solutions that enable customers to achieve high value results and to develop long-term partnerships. Robert brings 26 years of experience innovating and delivering solutions for enterprise companies in the areas on analysis, optimization, pricing, commerce, and operations. Robert holds a B.S. in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. He lives in Houston Texas with his wife and three children.

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Aditi Mehta

Solutions Strategy Director, PROS

Experienced product and digital marketer. Passionate about brands, strategy, and superior content.

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Priya Sapre

Product Manager, PROS

Priya Sapre manages the product strategy for PROS pricing solutions. She has a passion for pushing the bounds on how technology can be leveraged to empower sales and pricing professionals to deliver high impact results. For the past ten years, Priya has designed large-scale enterprise solutions that leverage artificial intelligence to help US and European manufacturers and distributors to achieve their digital transformation goals.

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Julie Shainock

Managing Director, Travel, Transport, Logistics & Hospitality (TTLH), Microsoft

Julie is responsible for developing Microsoft’s point of view and future strategy for our WW Travel and Transport industry. She is focused on leading the airlines, hospitality companies, cruise and freight logistics and rail Companies to driving innovation that will enhance the customer and employee journey, while driving increased productivity and cost reduction with the use of Microsoft’s technology and its eco-system of TTH solution partners.

Julie was previously with IBM where she had a successful twenty-five plus year career managing and leading the Travel and Transportation industry. She is results driven Global Business Development Executive that is focused on delivering new technology solutions and increasing market share for her clients and her company. She has managed and engaged as a Subject Matter Expert (SME) in multi-million dollar engagements in the travel and transportation industry. The breadth and depth of Julie’s experience has been focused on integrating services with software solutions and working with partners. Her deep industry relationships with clients, partners, professional associations and working groups has helped in shaping successful and comprehensive strategies and solutions that have resonated with our leading T&T clients. Ms. Shainock has a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) from The University of Texas at Austin. She currently lives in Ponte Vedra Beach, FL with her husband – Scott and three daughters.

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Francis Tan

Senior Director, Revenue Management, Greyhound Lines, Inc

Responsible for evaluating Greyhound sales performance, assessing the competitive environment and formulating changes to revenue management strategy. Leads team of analysts tasked with the development of department-wide business processes, tools and reporting to support pricing operations; and the identification, execution and measurement of the impact of various macro initiatives to improve revenue.

Led the Greyhound commercial team in the design and successful implementation of its next generation pricing, forecasting and yield management systems. As part of this multi-year, multi-phase effort, provided leadership, analytical rigor and strong advocacy for commercial team interests in all interactions with IT, sales channels and external consultants. Project sales benefit is estimated at several million dollars.

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Dee K. Waddell

Global Managing Director, Travel & Transportation Industries, IBM

As Global Managing Director for IBM’s Travel & Transportation Industries, Dee Waddell is responsible for IBM’s global business in all industry segments within travel and transportation and leads IBM’s global accounts in developing and delivering industry-leading solutions and services. Industry segments include airlines, airports, railroads, freight carriers, logistics providers, port authorities, hotels, cruise lines, car rental companies, travel agents, and global distribution systems. Dee has served in global leadership roles at Amtrak and United Airlines. Most recently he served as Senior Vice President, Chief Digital Officer and Chief Information Officer at Universal Weather and Aviation, a global leader in the business aviation industry. At Amtrak, Dee served as Group Chief Information Officer and led the digital transformation of the paper-and-punch ticketing process with a next-generation iPhone eTicketing and reservation solution. At United Airlines, Dee served in leadership roles for united.com and MileagePlus, including responsibility for global ecommerce. He has also served in leadership roles in other major organizations including Motorola, Accenture and the U.S. Department of Defense. Dee holds a Doctorate in Management and BA in Information Systems from the University of Maryland University College and an MBA in Strategic Management from the Illinois Institute of Technology. He is also fluent in Japanese, having lived in Japan for six years. Dee currently resides in Houston, Texas, USA.

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Dieter Weeke

Product Manager Smart Pricing and Margin Management, BASF

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Eric Willig

CPQ Senior Manager, Avalara

I realize the untapped organizational potential found where Information Technology converges with Sales, Quoting, Marketing, and Operations to achieve increased bookings, revenue, profitability, market share and brand awareness.

For more than 10 years my work has been focused on the optimal utilization of the Salesforce ecosystem. I am Salesforce Certified.

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Sara Yamase

Partner, Simon-Kucher & Partners

Sara is a Partner at Simon-Kucher and works in both our Silicon Valley and Houston offices. Her consulting work focuses on new product pricing, product positioning and commercialization strategy, and price optimization for software and internet companies. She is an expert on pricing strategies, price model design, segmentation, advanced research design, and price implementation. At Simon-Kucher, Sara has guided executives on how to drive revenue and profit growth by identifying and building strategies around packaging, pricing, and communication. She has also designed and analyzed large-scale research studies to determine product bundling, price models, segmentation, and willingness to pay using advanced analytical methods and industry expertise. Sara earned her Master of Business Administration with honors from Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. Her undergraduate degrees include a Bachelor of Science in business administration and a Bachelor of Arts in operations research and management science from the University of California, Berkeley.

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Steven Tselepi

Head of Commercial Pricing, Winc

A goal-oriented Pricing and Commercial leader, Steven Tselepi is the Head of Commercial Pricing at Winc Australia. Steven has extensive Profit and Revenue Management experience in the highly transformational Private Equity space. He has a consistent track record of success in change management and the roll-out of large-scale Pricing solutions to drive improved commercial outcomes. With a passion for people, Steven invests in mentoring and developing commercial teams to ensure they thrive in today’s hyper-dynamic environment. Steven is a Certified Supply Chain Professional and earned a Bachelor of Commerce in Economics and Supply Chain Management from the University of Wollongong.

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Rajan Venkitchalam

General Manager - Product Management, Icertis

Catalyst for fast growing organizations, playing an entrepreneurial role within an existing business and in taking businesses to the next level of growth and profitability:

• Founding member of several successful start-up software companies and efforts.
• Successful architect and technical leader for several large software development efforts.
• Demonstrated success in attracting and growing high caliber talent at all levels.
• Effective motivator and leader for geographically and culturally disparate engineering teams.
• Advanced public speaking skills.
• Published author: SQL Server 7.0 Data Warehousing (McGraw-Hill).
• Proven senior executive.

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Banke Awofeso

Senior Product Marketing Manager, PROS

Banke Awofeso is a Senior Product Marketing Manager at PROS. She is responsible for evangelizing and messaging the benefits of Opportunity Detection and our Cloud solutions. She has a background in both product marketing and product management for various software companies. Banke holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and an MBA both from Texas A&M University.

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Benson Yuen

President, Travel, PROS

Benson Yuen joined PROS in 1988. His analytical and problem-solving skills have been instrumental in the successful installation and implementation of PROS software products in diverse customer environments. In addition, his practical pricing and revenue optimization experience has contributed substantially to the design of PROS software products.

Prior to joining PROS, he served as Director of Pricing and Central Reservations Control for a transportation company. During his tenure, Benson was responsible for the company’s revenue optimization function, which included marketing automation software development, pricing and tariff strategies, and the direction of the central reservations control system.

Benson graduated summa cum laude from the University of Central Florida, with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration.

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Joe Kasenchak

Senior Manager, Product Management, PROS

I am a results-driven executive with proven experience leading organizations with innovative strategic planning and the application of technology to complex business issues. I have a record of achievement implementing new ideas, delivering innovative, industry-leading solutions and enabling change within an organization to support operating and financial objectives. I am skilled at analyzing existing operations and implementing the strategies, processes, and technology necessary to drive profitability; equally skilled at the salesmanship necessary to get these changes moving within an organization.

I pride myself on instilling a culture of continual improvement via scorecards and performance metrics and fostering an environment where the testing of hypothesis and ideas is encouraged as a means for moving the organization forward.

Specialties: Strategic Planning, Pricing, Yield Management, Revenue Management, Change Management, Marketing, Sales, Brand Development, Process Improvement, Capacity Planning, Inventory Management, Project Management, Training, Mentoring, Team-building.

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Philip Daus

Managing Partner, Pricing & Commercial Strategies, Simon-Kucher & Partners

Philip W. Daus is the Managing Partner of Simon-Kucher’s Houston office. He specializes in results-oriented pricing and sales excellence programs and has more than 16 years of consulting experience with a diverse background in both B2B and B2C industries, from commodities to quick service restaurants. His recent focus has been on B2B sectors such as drilling services, capital equipment, machinery, building materials, and B2B service companies. Philip’s areas of expertise include market segmentation and go-to-market strategies, pay-for-performance systems, discounting and peer pricing systems, as well as price negotiation support. He is the author of more than 30 articles and studies about pricing and sales strategy. Philip is an associate professor at I.E. Business School, where he teaches Strategic Pricing in the MBA program. Philip has an MBA from I.E. Business School. He also holds a MSc. (Dipl.-Kfm.) from WHU Vallendar, Germany, with studies in Spain (ICADE), Brazil (FGV) and India (IIMB). Philip was born in Germany but got to Texas as fast as he could. He and his wife now live in Houston.

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Bernard Kang

Global Pricing & Commercial Analytics Practice Leader, EY

Bernard Kang is a Partner with EY, and leads our Global Pricing & Commercial Analytics practice. He has over 20 years of experience working with clients globally in areas including Pricing, New Product Development, Sales Management and Post-merger Integration. Bernard has supported clients in industries including Technology, Professional Services, Chemicals, and Industrial Equipment. Prior to joining EY, Bernard held numerous leadership roles in client services and business development at strategic advisory firms, venture backed startups and industry. Bernard holds both an MBA and BA from the University of Chicago.

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Tim Meeker

Director of Pricing, Navistar, Inc.

Pricing professional with 18 years of industry experience serving transportation customers.

Ian Heller

Founder & Senior Partner, Distribution Strategy Group

Ian Heller is Founder & Senior Partner at Distribution Strategy Group, and has more than 30 years of experience executing marketing and e-business strategy in the wholesale distribution industry. He has written and spoken extensively on the impact of digital disruption on distributors.

Mike Jarrett

President, Jarrett Logistics

With an extensive background in transportation management, Mike Jarrett founded Jarrett in 1999. Mike views business ethics, employee character, and operational efficiency as keys to success for Jarrett. Under his leadership, Jarrett has been recognized for numerous awards, including those from Inc. Magazine (Inc. 5000), Entrepreneur Magazine, Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University (Weatherhead 100), Smart Business Magazine (Cascade Capital Growth Award), and The Plain Dealer (Best Places to Work in Northeast Ohio). Mike plans to keep growing Jarrett through heavy investment in two key areas: integrity-based, skilled people, and leading-edge supply chain technology.

Prior to Jarrett, Mike was Vice President of Carrier Operations for Hudson, Ohio–based Caliber Logistics (now known as FedEx Supply Chain Services), which he joined in 1991. During his eight-year tenure at Caliber Logistics, he was instrumental in initiating the company’s first centralized transportation management operation. He also managed multiple routing center operations, directed the implementation of new accounts, and was responsible for negotiating carrier contracts. Prior to Caliber Logistics, he spent two years as a Supervisor at Roadway Express. He graduated from the University of Mount Union with a Bachelor of Business Administration and received a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Akron.

Mike is also the founder of the parent company Jarrett, which includes PackShip USA, Inc., a packaging, transportation, and warehousing company that focuses on final mile supply chain solutions, Jarrett Warehousing, focusing on order fulfillment and inventory management and Jarrett Fleet Services, a full-service fleet maintenance company. Outside of the logistics industry, Jarrett includes Zephyrs Fitness, Crossfit Orrville, Baja West Coast Kitchen, and Old Carolina Barbecue.

Mike and his wife Diane reside in Orrville, Ohio, and have two daughters, Alexa and Madeline. He currently serves on the Heartland Education Community Board of Trustees, the Farmers National Bank Advisory Board, the Wayne County Community Foundation (WCCF) Board, and the University of Mount Union Board of Trustees.

Zeke Ziliak

Vice President, Transportation & Logistics, PROS

Zeke Ziliak has been at PROS for over 11 years spending time in both the Travel and M/D/S organizations.

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Frank Moore

Division Pricing Manager, Wilbur-Ellis

Joined Wilbur-Ellis in 2019 to lead the Agribusiness division into the dynamic pricing space. Experienced pricing leader with a demonstrated history of working in the ag and food production industry. Strong professional skilled in Pricing Strategy, Cost Modeling, Network, and Asset Utilization, and Analytic Problem Solving.

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Shane Mayer

Refined & Renewable Fuels Pricing Manager, Energy RF Pricing & Economics, CHS Inc.

Shane has spent over 26 years in the commodity industry, most recently in his current role as Refined and Renewable Fuels Pricing Manager for Cenex. His team is responsible for daily pricing of almost 3,000 individual gas and distillate price items. He is driven by a desire to build system and process efficiencies through creating and using the latest tools and analytics to find volume and margin growth opportunities. Shane has also held positions in refined fuels account management, sales, and training. He has also worked extensively with grain, livestock, and energy trading. He holds an MBA and is a proud graduate of North Dakota State University.