Molham Aref, CEO

Molham has spent the last 18 years developing, bringing to market, and implementing enterprise-grade analytic, predictive, optimization and simulation solutions for the demand chain, supply chain, and revenue management across various industries including retail, wireless, and financial services. At Predictix, he has combined the latest advances in technology and optimization science with a keen understanding of business processes to develop solutions that enhance decision-making while allowing business judgment to inform decisions. This approach has proven to overcome the traditional limitations of purely science-driven solutions, which focus on producing an end result and largely ignore the role of process, the end user, and business judgment in enterprise decision-making. The Predictix approach also improves user adoption, another weakness of science-driven solutions, and thus ensures that solutions actually, rather than theoretically, deliver value. Prior to Predictix, Molham spent nine years at HNC Software and then at its subsidiary Retek, where 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 bachelor's degree in computer engineering, a master's degree in electrical engineering, and a masters degree in computer science, all from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

John Buchanan, Chairman of the Board

John brings to Predictix a record of multiple successful entrepreneurial ventures and large corporate experience. In his role as chairman of the board, John advises the leadership team on managing the company’s rapid growth, and lends his retail technology experience to help chart the company’s strategic direction. As Principal of Lone Palm Investments, he invests in and advises emerging companies. Prior to Lone Palm, John was the CEO and chairman of the board of Retek (now Oracle Retail), where he oversaw that company’s growth from start-up to becoming the world’s leading retail technology provider. John has also started a number of other application software companies in various vertical markets after holding executive and sales positions at Wang Labs and NCR. John holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Otago, New Zealand.

Rafael Gonzalez Caloni, COO and EVP Marketing

Rafael brings to Predictix 20 years of experience developing and executing effective marketing strategies for companies in the United States, Europe and Latin America. Prior to Predictix, Rafael held executive marketing positions at enterprise software companies Vendavo, Calico Commerce, and PSS Systems, serving Fortune 500 clients across multiple industries. Prior to these positions, he advised major corporations for over 8 years as a management consultant, with McKinsey & Company and Accenture. He began his career as a corporate litigation attorney with Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison. Rafael holds a Bachelor of Arts in economics from the University of Pennsylvania, and a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School.

John Huettel, EVP Worldwide Sales

John brings to Predictix 20 years of experience in sales, marketing, and consulting for software companies serving the retail and manufacturing industries with supply chain optimization, pricing, analytics, and planning solutions. Most recently, John was Group Vice President with JDA Software’s revenue management business unit. John was also Vice President of Sales at Profitlogic (now a part of Oracle Retail), where he helped drive the company’s strong growth. John’s supply chain background includes experience with Manugistics and i2 Technologies throughout the 1990s. John holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering/Computer Science from Duke University and an MBA from the University of Maryland.

Marty Leestma, Member of the Board

Marty serves on the Predictix board of directors, bringing a wealth of experience in retail, technology, and operations. He served as the President, Chief Executive Officer, and was a member of the board of directors of Retek Information Systems from 2003 to 2005, during which time Retek was a publicly-traded company. Prior to joining Retek, he was Global Managing Partner of Retail Technology at Accenture from 1996 to 1999 and Managing Partner of North American Consumer Goods & Services from 1999 to 2002. He became Global Industry Managing Partner – Retail & CG&S industries in 2002 and served in this role until his departure in 2003. Since 2005, he has served as an independent business consultant and on several boards.

Hatem Sellami, Ph.D., President

Hatem 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 managed Retek Labs, the group that had overall responsibility for the science, product management, and development for all of Retek’s predictive and optimization solutions. Prior to that he managed the Retek Predictive Consulting Services organization with global responsibility for implementing 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 career, 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 master's 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.

Iain Watson, EVP, Products

Iain 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 Oracle Retail), 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 and analytics for pricing and promotions. He is also experienced in supply chain, replenishment and allocation. Iain has worked with a high percentage of the world’s largest and 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.

Loren Williams, Ph.D., EVP and Chief Scientist

Loren has 17-plus years of experience in designing, developing and deploying decision-support technology based on sophisticated mathematical models.  Prior to his graduate education, he deployed first generation hotel revenue management technology as the Director of Reservation Sales for Westin Hotels & Resorts.  After finishing his graduate education, he managed the Operations Research function for Talus Solutions, a pricing and revenue optimization consulting and technology company, subsequently acquired by Manugistics (now JDA).  In that role, he developed a team and oversaw the scientific modeling in the development of several first-of-a-kind solutions, including an airline revenue management solution employing price-sensitive demand forecasting, and a price optimization solution for high tech manufacturing.  While at Manugistics, and subsequently at Retek, Loren led the science work to implement markdown price optimization for both specialty hardline and fashion retailers.  Prior to joining Predictix, Loren served for five years as the Vice President of Pricing Science for Zilliant, a provider of price optimization solutions for manufacturers and distributors, overseeing the growth of the scientific talent and the breadth of optimization offerings provided by Zilliant. This growth included the development of IP on which there are multiple patents pending.  Loren received his undergraduate degree in Hotel Administration from Washington State University, and earned his PhD in Economics from the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University.