Predictix Leadership Team

Molham Aref, CEO and co-founder, has spent the last 16 years helping build enterprise-grade predictive,optimization and simulation solutions. Before Predictix Molham was CEO of Optimi Corporation, the leading provider of wireless network optimization solutions. Molham is also a founder and board member of VC-backed startups Brickstream Corporation and LogicBlox Inc. Molham spent nine years at HNC Software and then at its subsidiary Retek. His primary responsibility was to lead the development, sales, and implementation of various analytical and predictive solutions for supply chain and revenue management. Molham started his career working as a software engineer and scientist at AT&T, primarily in the area of image understanding and computer vision. Molham holds a bachelors degree in Computer Engineering, a masters degree in electrical engineering, and a masters degree in computer science, all from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Hatem Sellami, Ph.D., President and co-founder, specializes in retail forecasting and in developing advanced scientific solutions to improve the performance of retailers' supply and demand chains. Prior to co-founding Predictix, he spent over 8 years with Retek (now part of Oracle Retail) where he was managing Retek Labs, the group that had the overall responsibility for the science, product management, and development for all of Retek’s predictive and optimization solutions. Prior to that he was managing the Retek Predictive Consulting Services organization with a global responsibility to implement all forecasting and planning solutions. His career at Retek started as a science lead within the R&D group responsible for the forecasting solution. Throughout his carreer, Dr. Sellami had the opportunity to work with the leading retailers in the world such as Sainsbury’s, Nordstrom, Best Buy, Tesco, AS Watson, Sonae, WH Smith, FNAC, Walgreens, Ross Stores, Coles Group, Myer, Edcon, Kroger, Woolworths, Office Depot, Wegmans, BHS, C&A, Despar, Longs Drugs, Macy's, and others. Dr. Sellami holds a bachelor's degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering, a masters degree in electrical engineering, a master's degree in Business Administration, and a Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering, all from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Jon Beck, leader of the Planning & Allocation group, has spent his career defining retail merchandising processes and systems. He specializes in Merchandise Planning, Assortment Planning, and Allocation. In the past decade Jon has focused on Assortment Planning, Sizing, Prepack, and Allocation solutions and their integration with merchandise and store planning and operational systems. He has facilitated or led sessions in business strategy, process and system design, and software selection. Jon’s key retail clients include Polo Ralph Lauren, Target, Gap, Ann Taylor, Big Lots, The May Company, Foot Locker, Payless ShoeSource, Sears, Ross Stores, REI, The Limited, J Crew, and Hallmark.

Iain Watson, leader of the Pricing & Promotions group, has more than 14 years of experience as a buyer, marketing manager, and commercial forecasting manager with European retailers. He has worked with the retail software companies Retek (now part of the Oracle Retail Global Business Unit), Khimetrics and SAP, where his roles included market solutions director, customer engagement manager and consulting lead for implementation of price optimization systems. At Predictix Iain now provides consulting services in retail business & analytics for pricing & promotions. He is also experienced in supply chain, replenishment & allocation. Iain has worked with a high percentage of the world’s largest & best-known retailers and also with a number of leading manufacturers. He is pursuing doctoral studies at Edinburgh University. Iain holds a Master of Sciences degree in strategy, a Master of Business Administration degree and a summa cum laude undergraduate degree in applied statistics.

Manas Fuloria, leader of the Flexible Supply Planning group, holds a doctorate in engineering from IIT Delhi, a masters in manufacturing systems engineering from Stanford University, and a bachelors in manufacturing science and engineering from IIT Delhi. His doctoral thesis was on Quick Response Supply Chains in Fashion Industries. Manas designed and helped develop a suite of products for lead-time optimization. He was co-founder and CEO of Dextrous Faber, a state-of-the-art manufacturing company in Bangalore, and of Nagarro Inc. Prior to these roles, Manas worked with Prof. R. Jaikumar and MNI Consulting on supply chain and operations projects with various softgoods companies. Manas was also a Research Associate at the Harvard Business School’s Technology and Operations Group, working on two global studies of the apparel industry.

Dave Vranicar, VP Business Development Americas, has worked with retail business systems for 15 years. He has worked with software vendors E3, Retek and SAP, primarily in forecasting, replenishment and planning. Dave has worked with retailers including Staples, Office Depot, Publix, Kroger Company, A&P, Eckerd, Longs Drug, Rite Aid, Federated Department Stores (now Macy’s), Limited Brands, JC Penny and REI. Before getting into the software industry, Dave worked for 3M Company in marketing, marketing communications and public relations for eight years. He holds a bachelor of arts degree with top honors and master of sciences degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He also studied toward a Ph.D. at the university's Institute for Communications Research.

David Hawkings, VP Business Development EMEA, has spent over 10 years working with retailers across Europe, Middle East and Africa. Prior to joining Predictix, David worked for SAP where he was VP, Retail Sales EMEA. He has also held senior roles with retail software companies Engage, Retek (now part of the Oracle Retail Global Business Unit) and more recently, Khimetrics David has focused his efforts on value based solutions such as price, promotions, forecasting, planning and replenishment.

Other Predictix employees have also come from the retail and wholesale industries and from leading consulting firms that serve these industries. Collectively, they have worked with or for dozens of the leading retail businesses in the world.