Thought Leaders in Big Data: Interview with Steve Shine, CEO of Actian (Part 1)

Steve Shine is the chief executive officer of Actian, which provides a reliable platform for customers to meet their real-time big data analytics needs. Steve studied at the University of Manchester and has more than 17 years of experience in the software industry. In this interview he talks about Actian and its unique value proposition, and he gives us interesting use cases on how big data analytics influences different industries and how it can be leveraged by young entrepreneurs for future projects.

Sramana Mitra: Steve, let´s start with setting some context for our audience. Tell us about Actian and you. >>>

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Thought Leaders in Big Data: Interview with Shaun Connolly, VP of Corporate Strategy at Hortonworks (Part 1)

Shaun Connolly is the vice president of corporate strategy at Hortonworks, a company with extensive experience in the application of Apache Hadoop, enabling companies to satisfy their big data needs through their Hortonworks Data Platform. In this interview, Shaun describes the services Hortonworks offers to clients, which include software support and consulting services. Shaun has worked for companies like VMware and SpringSource and has more than 25 years of experience in software. He graduated from Drexel University.

Sramana Mitra: Shaun, let´s start with some of your background as well as that of Hortonworks. >>>

Thought Leaders in Big Data: Interview with Michael Wu, Chief Scientist at Lithium (Part 1)

Michael Wu is the chief scientist at Lithium. Lithium, as the company’s own website says, helps companies unlock the passion of their customers, providing a platform that customers can use to interact with these companies. Lithium is a social customer experience company with a collective 91 million users each month (more than Pinterest or LinkedIn), and it has helped companies like Sephora to build an social online experience and a tight-knit community of brand ambassadors on the Web. Lithium has also assisted companies like Verizon and Barclays do the same. In this interview, Michael discusses in detail what the platform does and how it helps companies gather insights on consumer behavior.

Sramana Mitra: Michael, what is your background? Tell us a bit about your company and what you do in big data.

Michael Wu: Lithium is a social customer experience platform. What that means is that we offer a platform for large brands to enable them to engage with their customers and also to enable customers to engage with each other. >>>

Thought Leaders in Big Data: Interview with Rick Kieser, CEO of Ascribe (Part 1)

Rick Kieser is the chief executive officer of Ascribe, a company that provides a comment management platform to drive meaningful insights from customer comments and in doing so processes more than 300 million customer comments per year. Rick has more than 20 years of operating, management consulting, and venture capital experience. In this interview he talks about natural language processing and text analytics and explains why Ascribe is different from any other company in this space.

Sramana Mitra: Rick, tell us a bit about you and about Ascribe. What is the business? >>>

Thought Leaders in Big Data: Interview with Yves de Montcheuil, CMO of Talend (Part 1)

Yves de Montcheuil is the chief marketing officer of Talend, a company that provides data, application and business process integration solutions to organizations with the goal of leveraging their data assets. Yves has studied at the Grande Ecole des Sciences de l’Information et de l’Energie, commonly known as Supélec, and has more than 20 years of experience in corporate marketing, product marketing, and product management. In this interview he talks about Talend’s data integration solutions to help organizations leverage their data assets, providing a platform for those companies to specify their own parameters.

Sramana Mitra: Yves, let´s get to know Talend and you.

Yves de Montcheuil: I am the vice president for corporate marketing for Talend. I joined the company in its very early stages – I wasn’t there on day one, but on day two. >>>

Thought Leaders in Big Data: Interview with Kon Leong, CEO of ZL Technologies (Part 1)

Kon Leong is the chief executive officer of ZL Technologies. He studied at the IIT in Bombay, holds an MBA from the Wharton School and a degree in computer science from Concordia University. He spent more than eight years in various IT management and engineering positions and has created several successful startups, such as GigaLabs, a vendor of high-speed networking switches. In this interview Kon goes into detail about the unstructured data space and talks about the trend of merging structured with unstructured data. Furthermore, he shares with us his interesting views of the future of this space.

Sramana Mitra: Kon, let’s start with some of your background as well as an introduction to ZL Technologies. What do you do and what trends are you leading? >>>

Thought Leaders in Big Data: Interview with Adriaan Van Wyk, CEO of K2 (Part 1)

Adriaan van Wyk is the chief executive officer of K2, a company that helps business customers make sense of big data analytics in order to make business decisions. The company started off in South Africa and through the years managed to create a global footprint with partners in Europe, the U.S., and Asia. In this interview Adriaan talks about the interesting journey of K2 towards becoming a global company and gives young entrepreneurs valuable advice on building up and running their own company – not only in the big data space, but in general.

Sramana Mitra: Adriaan, let’s start with some background about K2 as well as about you. >>>

Thought Leaders in Big Data: Interview with Dr. Saed Syad, Chief Data Scientist at AdTheorent (Part 1)

Dr. Saed Sayad is the chief data scientist at AdTheorent, a platform that provides real-time analytics for advertisers. Saed is an adjunct professor at the University of Toronto and has more than 20 years of experience in data mining and statistics. In this interview he gives us detailed and technical information about the process of real-time analytics and how it is applied to website advertising. He also addresses the three challenges of this process: speed, accuracy, and scalability.

Sramana Mitra: Saed, let’s start with introducing our audience to you, your personal background, as well as the company AdTheorent. >>>

Thought Leaders in Big Data: Interview with Chris Carter, CEO of Approyo (Part 1)

Chris Carter is the chief executive officer of Approyo, a company specializing in big data analytics. He is also member of the SAP Startup Focus Program, and a premium member of the 1M/1M program. In this interview Chris talks about Approyo’s view on big data and presents several use cases from various industry verticals, specifying how the company generates big data insights that help drive better business outcomes and ROI. Approyo focuses on SAP’s Hana platform, and is a good example of the platform eco-system trend that we’re seeing everywhere in the technology industry right now. This interview also touches upon Approyo’s evolution from a horizontal Hana solution provider to a more advanced developer of vertical solutions with real domain insight in industry segments such as energy management at hospital facilities.

Sramana Mitra: Chris, let’s talk about your company and about your background. >>>

Thought Leaders in Big Data: Interview with JR Reagan, Federal Chief Innovation Officer at Deloitte Services (Part 1)

JR Reagan is the chief innovation officer for the federal practice at Deloitte Services. He teaches innovation and creativity at John Hopkins University and holds a masters in management information systems from Bowie State University and a BA in sociology from the State University of New York. In this interview he talks about Deloitte’s creative environment and how the company creates big data visualization. Furthermore, he talks about his vision of the future of the visualization space and open problems that need to be addressed.

Sramana Mitra: JR, let’s start by telling our readers about yourself and the program you run at Deloitte.

JR Reagan: I am a partner in our federal practice at Deloitte. I am our chief innovation officer for the federal practice, but I also run a unique center called HIVE (highly immersive visual environment). >>>

Thought Leaders in Big Data: Interview with David Gibson, VP of Marketing at Varonis (Part 1)

David Gibson is the vice president of marketing at Varonis, a company for data protection. David studied physics at Duke University and a BM in classical composition from the New England Conservatory of Music. He has more than 17 years of experience in IT as a systems and sales engineer, having worked for Time Inc. and Tripwire. In this interview he talks in detail about metadata and human-generated data and Varonis’ role in protecting that data as far as user access, tracking of data use and auditing is concerned.

Sramana Mitra: David, let’s start by introducing Varonis. What do you do? What is the company all about? Also give us some background about yourself so the audience knows whose perspective they are being brought into. >>>

Thought Leaders in Big Data: Interview with Rajat Paharia, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer of Gamification Leader Bunchball (Part 1)

Rajat Paharia is co-founder and chief product officer of gamification leader Bunchball. Rajat holds a masters in computer science from Stanford University and a bachelor’s from the University of California, Berkeley. Prior to Bunchball he worked at IDEO, Philips Consumer Electronics, IBM Research, and ViewStar. In this interview he talks in detail about Bunchball’s gamification platform and how it helps businesses motivate employees and customers to drive better results.

Sramana Mitra: Rajat, let’s start with some introduction for our audience. Talk about your background and what you have been up to, and also introduce Bunchball to our audience. >>>

Thought Leaders in Big Data: Interview with Prem Uppaluru, Co-Founder, CEO and President of Transera (Part 1)

Prem Uppaluru is co-founder, CEO, and president of Transera. The company collects data from numerous contact centers, turns unstructured data into structured data, and drives insights that improve customer satisfaction and engagement and helps predict trends. Prem has more than 25 years of experience in the telecommunications and networking industry. Prior to Transera, he held executive roles in Telera, VOIS Corporation, and Novell. In this interview he paints a detailed pictured of how Transera drives insights from the data the company collects and how those insights are being put to use in contact centers.

Sramana Mitra: Prem, let’s set some context about Transera and about you.

Prem Uppaluru: I am an engineer by training. I attended IIT in Bombay, and I have a PhD from the University of Texas. I worked in the research and development area for about seven to eight years at Bell Labs, branched off to more entrepreneurial careers, and have been a serial entrepreneur since then. >>>

Thought Leaders in Big Data: Interview with Todd Goldman, VP and GM for Enterprise Data Integration at Informatica (Part 1)

Todd Goldman is the vice president and general manager for enterprise data integration at Informatica, a company that provides data integration software and services based on big data analytics. Todd holds a BSEE in engineering from Northwestern University and an MBA in Business from Northwestern University – Kellogg School of Management, having worked for IBM, ScaleMP, and nlyte Software prior to Informatica. In this interview he talks about Informatica’s unique value proposition in the big data space and emphasizes important aspects for entrepreneurs to be aware of when building a startup in this space.

Sramana Mitra: Todd, let’s start with setting some context for our audience, involving your personal background as well as Informatica’s expertise and work in the realm of big data. >>>

Thought Leaders in Big Data: Interview with Constantin Delivanis, CEO of BDNA (Part 1)

Constantin Delivanis is the chief executive officer of BDNA, a leading company in DaaS (data as a service). Constantin holds an MS from Stanford University and a BS from the University of Alexandria, Egypt. He is a serial entrepreneur and has been CEO of several successful companies prior to BDNA. In this interview he talks about BDNA’s big data services and gives us interesting insights into opportunities in this space and his vision of the future.

Sramana Mitra: Constantin, let’s start with some context about your personal background as well as that of BDNA. Tell us what you do, what the business is, and what technology trends you are aligning with. >>>