Advisory Council

Sky Ammann is a Data Analytics Manager in the Corporate Finance Division at 3M. In his role, Sky manages the Data Analytics Team which focuses on improving finance productivity, financial statement accuracy and predictive analytics. Before 3M, Sky was a BI & Analytics Lead at Johnson Controls where he applied predictive analytics to key strategic business questions and Strategic Intelligence Assistant Director at Northwestern Mutual working in the Corporate Strategy area. Sky holds a BA degree in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a Masters in Quantitative Political Science from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and a PH.D. in Quantitative Political Science from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Sky’s personal time focuses on his wife, son and two dogs.

Shuba Balasubramanian is a Principal in the Deloitte Risk & Financial Advisory. Shuba is a Certified Fraud Examiner with extensive experience in helping client manage Enterprise Risks in the Digital era. Some of key areas of focus include Enterprise fraud management solutions, Continuous monitoring, regulatory compliance testing, internal audit support, cost recovery and business process optimization by leveraging cognitive technologies.

Jodi Blomberg is data scientist with over 15 years of experience in managing data science teams through the full lifecycle from problem scoping to model deployment. She thinks deploying data science models into real life solutions is often harder than finding novel solutions to hard problems, but just as much fun. She is currently theManaging Director of Analytic Strategy at Charles Schwab and previously was at the Advanced Analytic Lab at SAS.

Justin W. Bundick currently serves as senior manager of the corporate strategy data science practice for Southwest Airlines. Over the last three years, Justin established this practice and is responsible for driving business value through the use of advanced analytic techniques. Justin is also responsible for enabling a community of practice for data scientists at Southwest. More recently, Justin’s focus has centered on the use of advanced techniques combined with sensors and IoT to create data not available in traditional transactional systems.

Justin developed his personal brand as an innovator in analytics by continually introducing the organization to opportunities where analytics and data science can be a competitive advantage for the Company. Over the past 10 years at Southwest, he led enterprise initiatives in multiple areas of the business including financial planning, portfolio management, business analytics, and enterprise performance management.

Prior to joining Southwest, Justin worked for EDS, an HP Company, focusing on long-term financial planning and corporate strategy. He is a graduate of The University of Texas where he studied finance and corporate communication.

In addition to his professional life, Justin actively volunteers for several non-profit organizations that focus on LGBTQ advocacy, HIV/AIDS awareness, and HIV/AIDS direct-care services. Justin served for 4 years on the Board of Trustees of DIFFA/Dallas, one of the largest HIV/AIDS direct-care fundraising organizations in the country, and served as Board Chair of the organization in 2016.

Justin and his partner live in Dallas, Texas.

John Damalas currently serves as the Senior Director – Enterprise Data & Analytics for Walmart. In this capacity he is responsible for enterprise data strategy andoutcome-based data product development within the Global Business Services and Information Technology functions. Prior to joining Walmart, he held various roles within General Electric across EnterpriseData, Analytics, Data Science and Internal Audit functions.

Mike Flannagan is Senior Vice President of Intelligent Enterprise Solutions at SAP. He is responsible for products that accelerate innovation and enable digital transformation for the world’s largest companies. Previously, Mike was responsible for SAP’s Analytics products and SAP Leonardo, which includes technologies such as Machine Learning, Conversational Artificial Intelligence, the Internet of Things, and Intelligent Robotic Process Automation.

Prior to joining SAP, Mike was Global Vice President and General Manager of the Data & Analytics Software Group at Cisco. Mike is engaged with the start-up community as an angel investor, mentor and board member.

Mike is a National Association of Corporate Directors Board Leadership Fellow and is honored to serve on the Board of Directors for the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data (GPSDD), hosted by the United Nations Foundation. He also serves on the Board of Directors for The Data Coalition, the driving force behind the OPEN Government Data Act, which requires all non-sensitive US government data to be made available in open and machine-readable formats and establishes Chief Data Officers at federal agencies. Mike previously served on the Board of Directors for MammothDB, which was acquired by MariaDB, and as an advisor to DataRPM, which was acquired by Progress Software.

Mike earned his MBA from Auburn University, where he is now a guest lecturer and serves on the Dean’s Advisory Council for the Graduate School. He also serves on the Advisory Council for the University of Texas at Austin's McCombs College of Business.

Twitter: @mikeflannagan LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeflannagan/

Terrick Green is the Sr. Director of Business Analytics for the YETI inc., joining January 2019. Prior to YETI, Terrick spent 8 years with the Hershey Company. His final role, Director of Transformational Analytics, was responsible for developing and deploying Hershey’s Hadoop Cloud environment as a scalable cloud data warehouse enabling the operationalization of Data Science. Terrick spent 10 years in Walmart’s IT Division where he implemented the first Business Intelligence Organization. Terrick is currently responsible for leading YETI’s Data Science Strategy while partnering with Infrastructure to utilize cloud capabilities to fast track the Corporate Strategy for Business Analytics.

Terrick reports to the CFO to transform YETI into a “Digitally Native” company. He works to establish the Data Science Capability and deploy operational Data Science in E-Commerce and Marketing to enable the company with standardized insights delivered through data visualization and dashboards. Terrick’s Data Science team is developing predictive and prescriptive analytics to transform how YETI engages and markets to our customers to grow sales, revenue, and overall brand awareness for YETI in all channels (E-Commerce, Amazon, Wholesale, and Yeti Retail Stores). Customer trends in the market drive DTC performance - YETI will be at the forefront of Consumer Trends and Analysis through our strategic Data Science capability.

As Director of Hershey’s Business Intelligence and Analytics Terrick was responsible for engaging directly with executives across corporate functions of Finance, HR, Supply Chain, Sales, Marketing, and R&D to integrate data and insights to grow sales through intelligent business decisions. Terrick was instrumental in delivering multiple strategies in Sales, CSI, IDP, Supply Chain, and Data Strategy. Terrick designed and implemented Hershey’s Data Lake environment that delivered key projects to enable End-to-End supply chain visibility. He directed his teams transition implementation of Market data from Nielsen to IRI’s UNIFY platform that drives Wall St. market share analysis.

Terrick earned a Master of Business Administration from the University of Arkansas. He also completed his undergrad with Bachelor of Science in Computer Science through the University of Arkansas as well.

Jim Griffin is the Americas Director of Cartesian DataSciences, specializing in machine learning and advanced marketing analytics. He has twenty years of analytics, CRM, and loyalty experience in the USA, Latina America, Asia, and the Caribbean. He holds an MBA in Marketing from the University of Minnesota, is Six Sigma Black Belt trained, and did post-graduate work in Statistics.

Jim is a 2018-2019 MSBA Advisory Council Member. 

Lynda Jarrett leads the Procure to Claims organization within PSO IT. Her organization has responsibility for Procure-to-Pay functions supporting supply chain operations, including Global Trade, Customs, and Returns. In addition, she manages the SAP integration team. Her organization manages the global buy-sell process, strategic costing for products, all manufacturing (inhouse and outsourced), transportation planning & management, and visibility of all carrier and logistics activity for HP. In this role, her organization runs the systems responsible for $10.9B of component spend, $3.5B of strategic buys, and $20M in savings from SC optimization tied to visibility. Her organization owns multiple systems critical to day-to-day supply chain operations at HP, including Velocity, XI, PI/PO, GTS, eClaims, iCost, GT Nexus, HP Supplier Portal, and WWCOA. She is also the Procure-to- Pay IT tower lead for the Simplify program currently rolling out the new SAP S4 ERP system.

Prior to moving to this role, Lynda was the Director of Information Management Architecture and Analytics. Her team had responsibility for the end-to-end information management strategy, enterprise architecture, new technologies, research and development, and data architecture. She was also responsible for starting and implementing the Advanced Analytics practice within HP IT, which deployed enterprise wide predictive and prescriptive analytics solutions and was considered an industry leader in this field.

Lynda has been with HP since 1997, and originally joined Compaq Computers as a consultant in the Information Services team, working for EDS. Since joining HP she has worked in multiple roles and teams within the IT organization, spanning both front-end and back-end functions. Prior to HP Lynda worked for Elliptus software and held multiple roles as a consultant, writer, and EDI developer.

Lynda attended Texas A&M University and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration, a Stanford University certification in Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and a Master’s in Project Management from George Washington University. She is a certified Customer Advocate and a member of both PMI and Mensa. She currently resides in Houston, Texas. Outside of work, Lynda’s interests include running, reading, travel, water sports, and skiing. In addition, she spends time writing, spending time with family, and is involved in animal advocacy, and other charity work.

Brian Lakey works as a Data Scientist with HomeAway.com. He is a 2017-2018 MSBA Advisory Council member. 

Justin Lo leads Chevron’s Data Science Engineering Center of Excellence. His organization of data scientists and machine learning engineers focuses on scaling the use of data science solutions across the enterprise. This includes rapidly building and delivering the analytics portfolio and developing solutions across Chevron’s globally distributed business units.  Justin joined Chevron in 2013 as a data scientist in Drilling & Completions where he was responsible for applying modeling and analytica techniques to support Drilling & Completions and Chevron North America Exploration and Production IT strategies. He moved into technical leadership positions in 2016 and have held positions with increasing influence and scope in data science as part of Chevron’s digital acceleration journey.

Justin received bachelor’s degrees in biomedical engineering and liberal arts Plan II honors program from the University of Texas in Austin. He also holds a doctorate in biomedical engineering from Duke University.

Scott Meier is the Director of Data Analytics Service (DAS) at the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Financial Services Center (FSC) in Austin, Texas, where he directs and guides service activities in support of the Secretary of VA’s “Seek to Prevent Fraud, Waste and Abuse (STOP FWA)” initiative and the United States Congress’ Fraud Reduction and Data Analytics Act of 2015 by developing and implementing internal controls processes and procedures to eliminate or minimize the potential for fraud, waste, abuse, mismanagement, and inefficient use of government system resources via advanced analytics. His contributions to FSC’s entrepreneurial activities include planning, assessing, programming, budgeting, managing, executing, directing, and coordinating management activities for Data Analytics. In addition to his responsibilities as the Director, he is a key player on the FSC Executive Steering Committee. Scott led the formulation of FSC’s first 5-year Strategic Plan as a certified Balanced Scorecard Professional.

Prior to joining the FSC, Scott worked as the Chief of Budget Formulation for the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA), responsible for formulation, presentation and execution of the VBA’s general operating expense budget. This $2.9 billion budget provided funding to support approximately 21,000 employees who administer benefits and services to Veterans and their dependents, through VBA’s six programs at 56 regional and overseas offices. Additionally, he was an original member responsible for standing up the Office of Strategic Planning in VBA as the Executive Assistant to the Director and served as the Finance/Administration Officer at the St. Louis VA Regional Office.

Before beginning his service at the VA, Scott worked for 11 years at the University of Missouri Research Reactor, the nation’s highest powered university reactor, providing a wide range of nuclear products and services for worldwide industrial, medical and research applications. Overall, his career spanned 20 years in the nuclear field.

Scott holds an MBA from the University of Missouri with an emphasis on Public Management, a Bachelor of Science in Nuclear Technology from Excelsior College, and a Culinary Certificate from Seattle Culinary Academy. Scott proudly served in the US Navy for eight years in the nuclear propulsion program where he was a highly decorated operator and instructor.

Pilar Odland is the Director of Data Science and Engineering at Whole Foods Market. She has over 15 years’ experience in advanced analytics, machine learning and Big Data platforms. She started her data science journey as a statistician, then moved into a leadership role where she has established and grown multiple data science teams. Her analytical experience spans consulting, B2B and B2C companies across a variety of industries such as Environmental Engineering, Manufacturing and Grocery Retail. Pilar received her bachelor’s in Mathematics from the University of Texas and an MBA in Management Science – Statistics at University of North Texas.

Mr. Aaron O'Donnell has a diverse analytic background that includes both the financial and data management industries. Previous experience includes Capital Market work for Merrill Lynch and JPMorganChase, where he managed relationships in the United States as well as Central and South America. He is fluent in Spanish, an alumnus of The University of Texas at Austin and Northwestern University. Aaron applies his background and knowledge of the Analytics industry to reveal interesting trends, potential relationships and consolidation opportunities. 

Joe Sagrilla is a Partner at Clearsulting and serves as the Chief Strategy Officer. He has extensive management consulting experience helping Fortune 500 companies implement transformational solutions to their most complex business problems, from strategy through execution. His areas of specialty include strategy, finance,analytics, business process automation,organizational design, M&A integration, systems strategy,project management, healthcare, and pharmaceuticals.In his current role, Mr. Sagrilla is responsible leading Clearsulting’s commercial business units and internal operations. Prior to Clearsulting, he held positions at PwC, Ernst & Young, and Booz Allen Hamilton.He also served as a Finance & Audit Committee member at The Free Medical Clinic of Greater Cleveland for seven years.Mr. Sagrilla holds a Bachelor of Science in Business from Miami University and an MBA from Cleveland State University. He is a Certified Public Accountant, Chartered Global Management Accountant, and Certified Healthcare Financial Professional.

Jake is currently a Data Scientist with EOG Resources in Houston, TX.

Brent Schneeman is the Senior Director of Data Science with DOSH. He previously served as a Senior Director in Data Science for HomeAway.com. He is a 2017-2018 MSBA Advisory Council member. 

Doug Shaver is the Director of Customer Insight Analytics at FedEx Services, which is the largest global customer analytics team serving the family of FedEx operating companies. Analytics range across customer segmentation and profiling, program and campaign analytics, targeting analytics, triggering process analytics, decision systems, lifecycle, enterprise contact analytics, real estate decision analytics and much more. He has been with FedEx for over 18 years. Prior to his role at FedEx, he worked in the engineering guidance, navigation, and control analytics field for 11 years. Doug holds an MBA from the University of Arizona, a M.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Texas, and a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Alabama.

Michael is a recognized technical evangelist speaking globally on the impact of emerging technologies. With 25 years' experience, he currently serves as Lead AI Research Technologist in Dell Technologies Services and Strategy organization. Current responsibilities span both specific AI domains including ML/DL/RL/AR, Federated Learning, Data Architecture and Knowledge Graphs as well as broader business application areas for those technologies such as fraud, supply chain, hardware design, sales and software. His previous experience as sole proprietor of a computer business and subsequent 19 years at Dell across multiple organizations gives him a unique perspective of Dell’s entire product lifecycle. Michael is on the core team for Xavier Health’s AI Initiative bringing FDA and industry together to advance AI in Healthcare and has been granted thirteen hardware and software patents in eight countries.

Barrett Shipman is a Partner with M&A Operations and Analytics, PwC.

Brian Tapperson works as a Finance Manager with 3M.

Ed Tonkon is President of Zebra Retail Solutions, a subsidiary of Zebra Technologies,

a $4B NASDAQ listed publicly traded technology company. Ed has over 25 years of senior executive leadership experience in the publicly traded and private equity corporate environments of retail and business-to-business outsourcing, with a substantial logistics component.  Ed was formerly CEO of Hart Systems, LLC which was acquired in December, 2013 by Zebra. Previously, Ed was CEO of Noble Logistics a leading national provider of time critical logistics services to the wholesale automotive parts industry.

From 1999 to 2005, Ed was CEO and member of the Board of Directors of WIS International, the world’s second largest physical inventory management and merchandising services business with over 14,000 employees. 

Prior to WIS, Ed’s background includes serving as President and General Manager of Huffy Service First, a former subsidiary of Huffy Corporation, and the only nationwide provider of product assembly services to retail.  He also held various management posts with Southland Corporation and Chief Auto Parts in Dallas, including Controller positions for the Chief Auto Parts stores division and distribution center.

Tonkon has been a featured speaker for annual conferences of The National Retail Federation Annual New York Conference on Omnichannel, Auto Team America, National Association of Chain Drug Stores, the American Logistics Association, The Lean Enterprise Institute and The Association for Manufacturing Excellence in the subjects of Inventory Management, Lean practices and Transportation logistics.

Tonkon is a 3^rd generation Longhorn and earned a Bachelors of Business Administration degree in Finance from the University of Texas at Austin. Ed serves on the University of Texas System's Chancellor's Council Executive Committee, the McCombs School of Business Masters of Science in Business Analytics Advisory Board, the Hicks, Muse, Tate and Furst Center for Private Equity Finance Advisory Board and served on The University of Texas McCombs School of Business BBA/MPA Alumni Advisory Board where he was Chairman from 2012-2104.  Ed also serves on the RILA Asset Protection Leaders Council and their Horizons Committee.

Ed and his wife Jamie (BA Education, 1978, University of Texas) have two grown daughters.

 

Robert is the Head of Data Science and Advanced Analytics at General Motors. His chief duty is creating products out of data streaming from connected and self-driving cars. Robert joined GM from USAA where he was the AVP for the Innovation, Data Scientist, Enterprise Data and Analytics Office. He’s been the feature of a Forrester Research case study and articles in MIT Technology Review and Forbes for his work in marketing and artificial Intelligence.

Robert’s work with the World Bank became a highly cited publication on University/Industry research partnerships. He still works with universities in turning research into solutions for General Motors. He’s a graduate from Texas A&M University and the University of California, San Diego. He lives in Austin with his wife and three children.

Michael Westerman is a senior data scientist for Phillips 66, a US based midstream and refining company. He specializes in solving complex business problems by leveraging advanced analytical methodologies and machine learning techniques. During his 20 years of professional experience, Michael worked in a number of quantitative analysis, finance, and operations roles in both the public and private sectors. He is a former United States Air Force Officer and veteran of Operations ENDURING FREEDOM and IRAQI FREEDOM. Michael holds master’s degrees in business analytics (MS), business administration (MBA) and agricultural economics (MS) as well as a bachelor’s degree in finance (BS).