Alex Kaizer is an Assistant Professor of Biostatistics and Informatics at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in the Colorado School of Public Health and a faculty member in the Center for Innovative Design and Analysis where he is involved in translational research across the medical campus. His research focuses on Bayesian methods for information sharing across multiple sources of data, the design of adaptive clinical trials, and the intersection of these two topics. He is passionate about translating complex statistical topics into broader audiences so that it is more than "just math" and has the potential to be used in each person's own research.

Ashley Corso is a lead consultant at Decision Frameworks. She joined the team in 2019. She instructs courses on decision quality and develops new course materials. Utilizing Decision Frameworks’ scenario thinking approach to decision framing, Ashley is adept at supporting projects ranging from technology commercialization, pharmaceutical drug development, subsidiary divestiture, exploration, appraisal, and development strategy for onshore and offshore assets. She holds a B.S. in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Houston and is an active member of the Society of Decision Professionals and the Society of Petroleum Engineers. When not working, Ashley enjoys spending time with her family and rooting for her favorite baseball team, the Houston Astros.

Anna is currently holding a position of Head of Exploration Shared Services in OMV, in Vienna, the role she assumed in 2024.

Anna has an MSc. in Geophysics from the University of Science and Technology (AGH) in Krakow. Before pursuing a managerial career path in 2021, she held various technical roles in data processing, production, and exploration with industry player.

Anna earned an MBA from ESSEC and Mannheim business schools in 2022, which included Policy Making classes at the George Washington University.

David Baltaxe is the President and Chief Intelligence Officer of Unanimous AI. In addition to leading the business operations of the company, he oversees the application of the company’s groundbreaking Swarm AI® technologies to amplify the intelligence of groups for better decision-making, forecasting, evaluations, and insights. Swarm AI has been used in medical and market research, by leading financial institutions and hedge funds, global consulting firms, and the United Nations. David holds a Master’s Degree with a specialization in computer-mediated communications from the University of Florida. He lives with his family near Washington, DC.

Dr. Paul Papayoanou has been with Decision Frameworks since 2021 as a Senior Advisor and Game Theory Specialist. As a leading expert in applied game theory, decision analysis and decision quality with over 20 years of experience as a decision practitioner, Dr. Papayoanou works with framing and analysis using multiple proven and proprietary methods.

Dr. Papayoanou is a former Professor at the University of California, San Diego, and Harvard, a Fellow in the Society of Decision Professionals, and author of Game Theory for Business.

​Steve Galatis leads the Decision Frameworks Life Sciences practice as a Senior Advisor and has extensive experience in applying decision analysis and decision quality, game theory, and portfolio analytics and strategy. He has over 20 years of experience as a consultant in pharmaceuticals, crop protection, energy, and other industries. For 12 years he applied his skills as part of a leading biopharmaceutical company, where he was successful in building high-performance teams that support quality decision making.

​Steve has an M.A. in Economics from Stanford University. He has lectured on the use of decision analytic approaches at Boston College and Carnegie Mellon University and has trained hundreds of business professionals in decision analysis and applied game theory.

Gary Summers is a Director of Oncology Portfolio Management at GSK, where he applies decision analysis to drug development. Complimenting this work, he studies how uncertainty impacts decision-making. Gary earned an M.S. and Ph.D. in Management Science from Northwestern University and was a visiting research professor at Portland State University.

John Mark Agosta works as an applied researcher, with 30 years of experience with numerous startups and labs in the Bay Area. Most recently he was at Microsoft where he worked as a data scientist with cloud customers building models for applications in supply chain, pricing, root cause analysis, compute cluster autoscaling, network anomaly detection, and electronic health record simulation.

A varied career before joining Microsoft gave him broad industry experience working in machine learning and AI at the interface between industry and academia. He received his Ph.D. in Stanford's Management Science and Engineering Department. His background at SRI International, Toyota, Intel Research, and a handful of startups extends back to the early days of AI. His dedication to the field is shown by his participation over the years in first-tier academic machine learning conferences, including co-founding the Bayesian Applications Workshop at for the Uncertainty in AI Conference. Over time he has written over 30 peer-reviewed publications and has 6 accepted patents.

Katrina Alger is a decision analyst and social scientist located in Madison, Wisconsin, with a background in both qualitative and quantitative research. Her work with the USGS Water Mission Area focuses on improving the delivery of water availability model outputs by researching the human drivers of water quality, quantity, and use, and by understanding the intersections of data and decision-making for management partners. Katrina has an MS in Conservation Biology from the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry and has worked with natural resource managers on multi-objective, risk, and collaborative decision problems related to water management, endangered species, landscape conservation, wildlife disease, and climate change.

Julien Martin is a Supervisory Biologist at the US Geological Survey, Eastern Ecological Science Center. He manages the Quantitative Methods and Decision Science capability (QMDS) team. The QMDS team includes more than 20 scientists including world leaders in statistical modeling, ecological forecasting and decision science. He obtained a Ph.D. in the department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation at the University of Florida. He is a courtesy faculty in the Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation at the University of Florida. His expertise includes: ecological modeling, population dynamics and the application of decision theory to natural resource management.

Dr. Henry Conter is solving the impossible problems in healthcare by re-imagining how all types of people can take control of their care and maximize their experience and outcomes. He is the portfolio manager of early development oncology in the pharmaceuticals Research and Early Discovery division at Hoffman La-Roche, focused on clinical trials design that reflects the needs of patients, clinicians, and their representatives. He continues as a practicing general medical oncologist/hematologist at William Osler Health System.

Prior to joining Roche, Dr. Conter has a track record for innovation and excellence in leadership as Chief of Hematology/Oncology, Medical Director of the Cancer Health System, and Executive Medical Director of Quality, Patient Safety, and Health System integration at Osler. He served as a voting member on the Ontario Steering Committee for Cancer Drugs and a member of the pan-Canadian Oncology Drug Review (pCODR) Expert Review Panel and CADTHs national Pharmacare Advisory Panel as the oncology representative. Previously he served on pCODR’s Economic Guidance Panels and Clinical Guidance Panels.

Dr. Conter completed his undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering at the University of Western Ontario in 2007. He graduated from McMaster School of Medicine in 2008. He then went to the University of Alberta where he completed his clinical residency in internal medicine in 2011, and received his MSc in health technology assessment in 2012. He completed his clinical fellowship in medical oncology at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston Texas, and a Masters in Finance at the University of Houston in 2013. He was an assistant professor at the University of Western Ontario in the department of Oncology prior to joining Osler.

Douglas A. Samuelson is President and Chief Scientist of his own consulting company, InfoLogix, Inc., in Annandale, Virginia. He is also a Senior Research Fellow of The Dupuy Institute, the world leader in military historical analysis since 1962. He has been a Federal policy analyst, consultant, successful high-tech entrepreneur and executive, patented inventor, political campaign professional, and an adjunct and research faculty member at several universities. His consulting and research focus on risk-advised decision-making, AI, information warfare, cybersecurity, wargaming, health care policy, and disaster response and preparedness. He holds a doctorate in Operations Research from The George Washington University.

Dr. Brandt is a wildlife biologist/regional scientist with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the Southeastern USA. She serves as a science instigator with the goal of linking science and management for improving conservation decision making.

Walter Kosi is an Explorationist working for the Austrian Energy Company OMV. He earned his Diploma in Applied Geosciences from the University of Leoben, Austria. In his 20-year career, Walter has started to work in technical disciplines like data acquisition, data processing, and data interpretation in a wide variety of different countries and basins. He then took over Exploration Manager and Department Manager roles. In 2021, Walter was given the task to implement Decision Quality in OMVs Exploration & Appraisal department. Besides developing DQ within his own working area, he also tries to convince other business units of the DQ approach to grow DQ in OMV.

Jost Püttmann is a Geologist by background working for the Austrian Energy company OMV. During his career he covered several different technical subsurface roles on four continents before turning to Reservoir- and then Portfolio Management. It was during his time as portfolio manager, when he got to know that even smart portfolio analysis can lead to bad decisions. Since 2019, he has worked as advisor for Decision Quality in Development. He is member of the SDP since 2019 and president of the Vienna Chapter. At OMV, he is managing DQ project and is responsible for the implementation of DQ. He earned a Diploma in Geology and Palaeontology at the Westfälische Wilhelms Universität in Münster, Westphalia, and holds a Strategic Decision & Risk Management certification from the University of Texas at Austin.

Angela works as a Decision Analyst and Biometrician for the US Fish & Wildlife Service where she’s responsible for providing decision analytic and statistical support to staff on 70 National Wildlife Refuges across 9 states in the Midwest Region of the United States. Prior to working on land management problems, she worked at the intersection of science and policy in the Endangered Species Program.

During her time in this Program, Angela provided policymakers with decision support on nearly 40 determinations pursuant to the Endangered Species Act. Angela just recently celebrated 10 years with the US Fish and Wildlife Service and looks forward to continuing to practice decision science both in her personal and professional life!

Jennie Leota is an Assistant Director for the Science, Technology Assessments, and Analytics Team at the Government Accountability Office (GAO). She is a responsible for performing cost, schedule, analysis of alternatives, and Earned Value Management analyses to support audit findings on a wide range of government programs. Certified by the International Cost Estimating and Analysis Association, she has almost 20 years’ experience in the fields of cost estimating, scheduling, and EVM analysis and has been working with Agile projects since 2008. Before joining the GAO, Jennie was a senior operations research analyst for the Department of Homeland Security where she performed proposal evaluation reviews and developed and reviewed cost estimates for major programs and high priority projects. She has also worked as a senior operations research analyst at the Navy and as a survey statistician at the US Census Bureau. Jennie holds a B.S. degree in Quantitative Finance from James Madison University and an M.A. degree in Economics from George Mason University.

Dr. Sara Eggers directs the Decision Support and Analysis Staff within FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. This staff leverages decision science principles and tools to help structure, inform, and effectively communicate the Center’s drug regulatory decision-making. Through this work, Dr. Eggers has contributed decision science expertise to initiatives regarding drug benefit-risk assessment, patient-focused drug development, product quality assessments, drug safety labeling, risk evaluation and mitigation strategies, and others. In addition, she co-leads an FDA effort utilizing systems modeling to inform policies to address the opioids crisis. Before joining FDA in 2011, she conducted research and consulting in the area of decision science, stakeholder engagement, risk management, and risk communication. Dr. Eggers has a Ph.D. in Engineering and Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University.

After a degree in Applied Math and an MBA, Tyler studied Decision Science at Stanford. He then spent a decade applying it at Fortune 500 companies, including working with 18 of the top 20 pharma companies. In 2018 he pulled a Robin Hood with Decision Science and founded the Decision Skills Institute to share it to people everywhere. The Institute targets broad-reaching efforts like training large teams of employees, specific patient populations, and certification programs for non-decision professionals that help people make decisions (realtors, financial advisors, business coaches, etc). Tyler’s best decisions were marrying his wife and having their 10 children.

Dr. Comfort is a Principle Scientific Enablement Director for Roche in the Science Enablement and Process group, leading innovation work supporting Pharmacovigilance. He is a Board Certified Neurologist with 20+ years combined biopharma industry/regulatory experience including roles as former Medical Reviewer at the US FDA, Clinical Research and Safety at J&J, Anesiva, KCI, Cyberonics, Adaptix, and Genentech. Dr. Comfort’s current work focuses on combining machine-learning models and decision analysis techniques to evaluate Drug-Adverse Event causality and predict Project/Phase Probability of Success. His most recent work developing simple Bayesian models to estimate probability of success was published in Jan 2024 Foresight #72. He published his first book in 2020 on mathematical estimation in healthcare: How Much Is that Cure in the Window? Simple Math Solutions for Complicated Problems in Biology, Medicine, and Healthcare.

Kuno Huisman is Head of Strategic Capacity Preparation Decision Quality and Strategic Programs. Next to that he is part-time full professor of decision making under uncertainty at Tilburg University where he teaches courses on professional skills and investment under uncertainty. Kuno believes that decision quality can assist individuals and institutions to make better decisions that will lead more often to desired outcomes. Kuno has worked as a quantitative consultant at CQM for 10 years before joining the Decision Support team of ASML for 8 years. Next he worked for 3 years as head of Finance for the TWINSCAN Factory, one of the integration factories of ASML and 1 year as head of Strategy Coordination at ASML. Kuno earned the Strategic Decision and Risk Management Certificate from the Stanford Center for Professional Development. Kuno has a Ph.D. and master degree in Operations Research from Tilburg University.

Steve Begg is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Adelaide. His focus is on tools and processes for decision-making under uncertainty; bias identification, impact quantification and mitigation; project/asset and portfolio economic evaluations. Prior to academia he spent 19 years in industry in a variety of technical and management roles related to uncertainty assessment/modeling, economic evaluation and decision-making. He has twice been a Distinguished Lecturer for the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) on uncertainty & decision-making topics. In 2016 he received the SPE’s global award for his work on biases in decision-making. Steve is a founder member of the SDP and served on its Board 2014-2017. He is co-author, with Reidar Bratvold, of the book “Making Good Decisions”, and has given many industry short courses and workshops on decision-making topics.

Amy specializes in teaching young people and the adults who care about them how to make good decisions. With over two decades of experience in Decision Education and a Stanford certification, she teaches courses through corporate partnerships, community organizations and schools, and Clarity4Action-hosted classes. Amy is the co-founder and Executive Director of Clarity4Action.org and an SDP Board Member.

Stefanie is a local DEF representative in Eugene, Oregon with experience in education, research, and teaching. She studied legal psychology (the intersection of cognitive, experimental, and applied psychology) at Florida International University. Some findings from her works show how improving conditions for children are best if supported in the family, school, and community setting. Her interest in decision education for youth has led to collaborations with DEF and potential future research endeavors. Her experience as an educator, art teacher at a children’s museum, college instructor, and kids yoga instructor, have all shaped her perspective on how to teach others, focusing on meeting the students where they are and making information accessible.

A full-spectrum data professional, Dr. Neil Hamlett curates decisional evidence essential to organizations' most-important strategic and operational challenges. He currently helps the U.S. government's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure assess and manage risk related to the most-important federal-civilian information systems. Recently, he helped the U.S. Food and Drug Administration explore Natural-Language Processing techniques to surveil risks with medical devices in U.S. hospital systems. While at IBM, he created the core AI feature for an education-technology offering aimed at the U.S. K-12 market. While a U.S. Navy Engineering Duty Officer, Dr. Hamlett provided system-engineering and program-management leadership for major weapons-system acquisition programs in the space, surveillance, communications, and network domains. He received an MBA from Georgetown University and the Doctor of Science from The George Washington University, both in Washington, DC. While not working, he and his wife travel the world, and explore destinations closer to home accompanied by their pair of papillons.

Michael Kane is an Assistant Professor of Biostatistics at Yale University and the Director of the Biostatistic's Department's Data Science Pathway. He received his PhD and MA in Statistics at Yale University and his MS in Electrical Engineering and BS in Computer Engineering at Rochester Institute of Technology. He is a Co-Founder and Scientific Advisor at Telperian Inc., which provides machine learning tools, designs, analyses, and strategic guidance to drug developers. His current reasearch interests are in characterizing prognostic heterogeneity in patient populations to maximize clinical trial success along with the developements of AI agents to augment human understanding and effort in the development, monitoring, and evaluation of clinical trials.

Dr. Leah Sharpe is a decision scientist with the United States Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Research and Development. Her work at the EPA focuses on incorporating ecosystem service concepts into a variety of decision-making processes and developing tools and approaches to support doing so. Her recent work includes the development of decision tools, such as the Final Ecosystem Goods and Services Scoping Tool (https://www.epa.gov/eco-research/final-ecosystem-goods-and-services-fegs-scoping-tool) and the Ecosystem Services Tool Selection Portal (https://www.epa.gov/eco-research/ecosystem-services-tool-selection-portal), and collaborative applications of those tools. The Scoping Tool helps users prioritize stakeholders and the ways they benefit from the environment and the Portal helps users select the most appropriate decision tool for their needs from a suite of EPA-developed tools developed over the last two decades. She is currently working on using an ecosystem services classification system as a common framework to support interoperability across new and existing tools.

Ashley Goode is an assistant research scientist at the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission’s Fish and Wildlife Research Institute where she develops manatee population models. She previously completed a post-doc at the University of Florida, department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation and the USGS Co-op Unit, where this research was conducted. Her research interests include conservation of endangered species, population modeling, and optimization modeling.

Charles Persinger is an Executive Director in R&D Strategy at Eli Lilly and leads their Decision Sciences group. He joined Lilly after receiving his MBA from Duke University. Charles has over 20 years of experience helping enable organization decision quality at Lilly, with a focus on drug development and portfolio management decisions within Research and Development. He and the Decision Science team at Lilly work directly with decision-makers and drug development teams to enable decision quality across the R&D organization through a combination of direct decision consulting, developing and enabling decision processes, and education efforts. Lilly was awared the Raiffa-Howard Award for Organizational Decision Quality by the Society of Decision Professionals in 2016 and Charles was Co-Chair of the SDP Annual Conference in 2021.

Leslie Lippard is currently serving as the Senior Director of Strategy and Portfolio at Alnylam, bringing a wealth of experience and expertise to the pharmaceutical industry. With a background in physics, Leslie earned a BS degree from Caltech and further honed strategic and managerial skills through an MBA from the University of Oregon, proudly representing the Ducks. Prior to joining Alnylam, Leslie held pivotal roles in Genentech's Pipeline & Portfolio Planning and worked as a SDG Consultant. Beyond corporate endeavors, Leslie has delved into entrepreneurship, market research, and pharmaceutical project management. Actively engaged in professional development, Leslie has contributed significantly to the field as a current member of the certification committee, and has previously served as president and conference co-chair. Beyond the boardroom, Leslie finds joy in biking, strolls for meaningful conversations, and appreciates the beauty of art and nature.

Terrence Karner is on a mission to help everyone improve the way they make decisions. He is Director of Portfolio & Decision Analysis at Astellas Pharma where his group continually seeks to lead with best practices in Decision Quality and portfolio analysis. He has over 30 years of industry experience in pharma, big four management consulting, and wireless telecom where he has focused on deploying the best tools of strategic decision-making: Decision Quality, portfolio analysis, and scenario planning. Terrence is dedicated to continually teach and practice the ideals of Decision Quality at every opportunity such that this approach will become the standard for strategic thinking across every organization.

John Driessnack is the President of the College of Performance Management. He holds faculty positions at University of Maryland, Project Management Center of Excellence and American University. John owns Olde Stone Consulting LLC, a niche sole proprietorship consulting firm. John has worked on ANSI standard development teams and is currently on PMI’s Standards Insight Committee. A retired USAF Lt Colonel, John’s military experience includes 21 years within six major programs, including senior Systems PM for the Joint Global Broadcast System Program. Industry credentials include PMP, PfPM, CSM, and a prior Certified Cost Estimator. He has 20 years in the industry as a consultant, including a prior intermittent DSMC Professor.

Sheldon Bernard is the founder of A440 Management LLC, a firm specializing in handling special situations and complex decisions. With over a decade and a half of experience assisting Fortune 100 boards and executive teams, he is a strong advocate for the utilization of Bayesian methods in strategic problem-solving. Sheldon has managed large projects in special situations, R&D, and corporate strategy, among others. He leads the Society of Decision Professionals’ Knowledge Sharing Council and holds several business qualifications, including an MBA from UNC Chapel Hill and the Strategic Decision & Risk Management certificate from Stanford.

Patrick Leach is a Professor of Practice at the Colorado School of Mines and an independent strategy consultant. He is the author of Why Can't You Just Give Me the Number? - An executive's guide to using probabilistic thinking to manage risk and to make better decisions, now in its Second Edition, and is a Past President of the Society of Decision Professionals. He has written numerous pieces about the need to move toward sustainable business practices and how to use the principles of decision science and behavioral economics to develop strategies to do so.

Bill is an award winning strategy and decision-consultant with companies in North America and a global clientele. He has over 36 years of diverse strategy, decision and uncertainty management experience in several industries. While he is now a Vancouver-based independent consultant, you may remember him from his 25-year stint in Texas or his many appearances at DAAG starting back in 1995. He has taught decision and uncertainty management across 6 continents, and will sacrifice to help Australian projects. In addition to decision support, astronomy, astrophotography, and learning American Sign Language, Bill continues to contribute his spare time to emergency medical response and firefighting fields where he trains and provides planning and real-time emergency decision support. Diversity matters in our work. Bill is an SDP Fellow and the current President of the Vancouver Chapter of SDP.

Fadi Micaelian is a seasoned enterprise software executive. Over the past three decades he has served in a number of senior positions at industry leaders like Oracle, BroadVision, Intellectual Ventures, and DataBeam (now IBM). He is also a serial entrepreneur, currently serving as a CEO at Sparkdit, the 3rd start-up he founded. Fadi is a distinguished scholar. He lectures at MIT, ASU and USF. As an inventor, his work has been published extensively and he was awarded 8 highly cited AI/ML patents by the USPTO. He is passionate about Technology, Physics and Track and Field. Fadi holds a BS of Physics, a BE of Engineering, and obtained an MS from MIT, and an MBA from INSEAD.

Patrick Elder is the Director of the Data and AI Center of Excellence at ECS, supporting both DoD and Federal Civilian programs. He has over 19 years of experience in federal consulting focusing on data management, analytics, and solution architecture. Patrick also hosts and produces the ECS StoryPoints podcast, showcasing interesting stories and lessons learned to help build community in our increasingly geographically distributed workplace.

Niki Arya is an Associate Director of Biostatistics at AstraZeneca in the Respiratory & Immunology division. She is based at the Durham, NC office. She has been a statistician in the pharmaceutical industry for 20 years. She has a prior statistical experience in the Cardiovascular/Metabolic, Infectious Diseases, and Oncology therapeutic areas. She has a masters degree in Biostatistics from UNC-Chapel Hill.

Leila Lackey is the Program Lead for Decision Support at FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, Decision Support and Analysis Staff (DSAS). This group provides benefit-risk and decision analysis expertise for regulatory and policy decisions at the Center and led development of the Draft Guidance for Industry on Benefit-Risk Assessment for Human Drugs and Biologics. She has a Master of Health Science from Johns Hopkins in Environmental Health Sciences and a doctorate from UCLA in Environmental Science and Engineering and currently serves on the ASA/DIA Benefit-Risk Assessment Planning Taskforce as well as the Bayesian Scientific Working Group Benefit-Risk Subteam.

Dr. Hong Yang is a senior advisor on Benefit-Risk in the Office of Biostatistics and Pharmacovigilance, Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, US Food and Drug Administration. She was a member of FDA Benefit-Risk Guidance Working Group and FDA Benefit-Risk Framework Implementation team. She led many benefit-risk assessments to inform regulatory decision in CBER. She currently actively participates and contributes to CIOMS (COUNCIL FOR INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS OF MEDICAL SCIENCES) Working Group XII for Benefit-Risk Balance for Medicinal Products, and the BRAP (Benefit-Risk Assessment Plan) and the BRATS (Benefit-Risk Assessment Tool Suite) Taskforces of ASA Safety Evaluation Working Group.

Heather began working in the energy industry in 2010 while pursuing her undergraduate studies and starting working as a staff geologist for Aera Energy LLC in 2013 after completing her Masters of Science in geology from California State University, Long Beach. Her journey in decision analysis began in 2019 when she started taking executive education courses from UT Austin, earning the Strategic Decision and Risk Management certificate in 2022. Since 2022, Heather has integrated DQ to her daily workflows and is actively working to build DQ skills throughout the organization.

George Nsoribe is an IT Planning, Performance management and Partner engagement professional with over two decades of experience in the energy industry, half of which was spent in the field, planning, deploying and managing telecommunication circuits across locations of diverse terrains while over a decade was spent deploying decision assurance activities to support major capital projects as well as working on budgeting, performance and engaging funding / regulatory partners on IT spend of over $100MN annually in the energy industry. He has witnessed several organizational transformations aimed at fostering more collaboration, empowering employees, leading at the right level, with streamlined and simplified work process to enable more agile decision-making. Currently, he is the Nigeria Mid-Africa Business Unit IT Advisor at Chevron Nigeria Limited and is a member of the Nigerian Society of Engineers and of the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria. He is a nominee at the 2024 Chevron DA / DQ Webinar team with the intent to find and showcase relevant topics to the global DA community and the Business & Commercial family. He is also involved in community service through regular speaking engagements that help people find their true essence and enjoys teaching on business transformations, finance and relationships.

Sri Vaidyanathan brings over twenty years of international expertise to the energy industry, specializing in technology, strategy, and supply chain management. As the Global Architect and Process Quality Leader for the Lubricants supply chain at Shell, Sri is passionate about integrating Decision Analysis and Quality into supply chain operations. An active member of the Houston Society of Decision Professionals (SDP) chapter, she is deeply committed to learning from decision enthusiasts and advancing these methodologies in the supply chain. Recognized as a thought leader, Sri frequently speaks at industry events. Through her engaging contributions on LinkedIn under the alias 'Supply Chain Strategist,' Sri Vaidyanathan consistently drives innovation and thought leadership, striving to build competitive, resilient, and sustainable supply chains.

Brendon is a DQ practitioner driving the energy transition at RWE, a global renewable energy developer, here in the US with a focus on Offshore Wind. Prior to joining RWE, he worked for a decade at ExxonMobil, developing, applying, and building organizational capabilities in DQ. Applications ranged from exploration and appraisal strategy in Guyana, country level strategy across the globe and business line strategies for low carbon solutions.

Jennifer Graham is a supervisory research hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey and leads the Integrated Science Branch in the New York Water Science Center. For over two decades Jennifer has conducted research on the environmental factors influencing the occurrence of cyanotoxins in the United States. She has conducted both regional and single system studies at a variety of spatial and temporal scales. Jennifer also represents the USGS on the Interagency Working Group on Harmful Algal Blooms and Hypoxia.

Dr. Hal Cardwell has focused on collaborative multi-stakeholder planning and decision making throughout his career. Since 2008 he has led USACE’s Collaboration and Public Participation Center of Expertise (www.iwr.usace.army.mil/cpc/) in providing technical assistance to dozens of USACE projects and programs, and training hundreds of USACE staff on public participation, risk communication, and conflict resolution. Before coming to USACE in 2001, Hal spent five years with USAID in DC and Panama working on international water management issues and four years with Oak Ridge National Lab working on instream flow issues across the US. Hal holds a BS in Systems Engineering from the University of Virginia and a Ph.D. in Geography & Environmental Engineering from the Johns Hopkins University.

Dr. Michelle Hilleary serves as a Supervisory Environmental Planner at the Institute for Water Resources, Water Resources Center based in Alexandria, VA, where she works on planning, collaboration, risk communication, and decision support tool development. She also serves as a Professor of Practice for Virginia Tech's Center for Leadership in Global Sustainability in the Online and Executive Master of Natural Resources in Global Sustainability. She previously served as the Eurasia Branch Chief in the International Affairs Program at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, where she oversaw financial and technial assistance programs in the Asia-Pacific region, facilitating wildlife conservation and scientific exchange. Michelle also previously worked at the Institute for Water Resources as a decision analyst and environmental planner, where she built capacity of domestic and international professionals in shared vision planning and provided support to projects. As a Presidential Management Fellow and course leader at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Conservation Training Center, she designed and led courses on climate change, vulnerability assessments, scenario planning, adaptation planning, and structured decision making, also facilitating structured decision making processes from complex ecological issues to administrative management and organizational design. Dr. Hilleary received her Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Botany, researching impacts of climate and policy changes on Tibetan yak herding livelihoods and alpine meadow plant biodiversity in Northwest Yunnan province, China.

Jonathan has diverse experiences working with a variety of state and federal agencies on wildlife and fisheries management decisions that integrate decision support and ecological modeling. Recent examples include facilitating a management strategy evaluation addressing management of the summer flounder recreational fishery which included compiling survey input from over 800 respondents and facilitating stakeholders through the process for the Mid-Atlantic Fisheries Management Council and assisting with the use of scientific assessments and policy guidance to inform endangered species act classifications. Jonathan has worked closely with the US Fish and Wildlife Service developing predictive models for the Rio Grande Cutthroat Trout, Lesser Prairie-Chicken, New England Cottontail and Canada Lynx. He enjoys discussing his experiences with expert elicitation, conceptual and qualitative modeling, as well as facilitating and coaching teams through decision processes.

Dr. Kristen Harmon graduated from the University of Hawaii at Mānoa in 2022 with a PhD in Natural Resources and Environmental Management and a specialization in Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology. Her PhD research focused on developing spatial and statistical models to assess environmental impacts on Hawaiian waterbird reproductive success and the role of Hawaiian Indigenous resource management in recovering Hawaiian waterbird populations. Kristen is now serving as a Project Coordinator in the Hawaii Wildlife Ecology Lab at UH Mānoa working on decision analyses projects that aim to optimize resource allocation strategies for the long-term persistence of natural resources in the Hawaiian Islands.

Harrison Miller is a Senior Associate Scientist in Alnylam Pharmaceuticals’ research department. In the over two years he has spent at the company; he has been responsible for developing two of the major models used by the design pipeline in determining which drugs are tested in vitro. In addition to his machine learning responsibilities, Harrison has designed chemical informatics applications for modeling Alnylam’s drugs and has been working on in-house PTRS algorithms in collaboration with the portfolio strategy team. Before joining Alnylam, Harrison received two degrees from Tufts University – a master’s in mathematics and a bachelor’s in chemical engineering. Harrison will begin as an MBA candidate at Harvard Business School in August of 2024. In his free time, Harrison enjoys golfing, skiing, and trying new whiskies.

Eric Johnson supports drug development decision making at GSK, where he is helping the new DA practice to grow. Previously he had done DA work at BMS, and for consultancies. He is co-author of the Handbook of Decision Analysis, and a Fellow of SDP.

Lan Ding is a portfolio management and analytics leader driving data-powered decision optimization for GSK's R&D pipeline investments. With over 10 years experience and EMBA, Lan has spearheaded analytics platforms leveraging cutting-edge frameworks and industry best practices to optimize high-stakes portfolios. Recognised for bridging the gap between data insights and actions, Lan’s pioneering frameworks have delivered lasting impact, including revamped Probability of Regulatory Success valuation process at GSK. At SDP Conference, she will share her wealth of expertise enabling analytics-based transformation and investment optimization within complex pharmaceutical pipelines.

Ellen Vernotzy is general manager of Opportunity Shaping for Capital Projects in Chevron’s Technology Company, based in Houston, Texas, a position she assumed in May 2020.

Vernotzy joined Chevron legacy company Unocal in 1998 as a geophysicist. After that, she held roles of increasing responsibility including Subsurface Manager for Deepwater Exploration and Projects, Planning Manager for Chevron North America Exploration and Production Company, General Manager of Chevron’s Non-Operated Joint Ventures and Strategy & Planning Manager for Corporate Business Development.

Just prior to her current role, Vernotzy was the General Manager of Frontier Exploration and Appraisal responsible for capture and maturation of Chevron’s global frontier exploration portfolio.

Ellen holds a bachelor of science degree in geophysical engineering from the Colorado School of Mines and has over 35 years of industry experience.

Mike Benefiel is the General Manager of Decision Analysis for Chevron.

Mike is a Geophysical Engineer with a BSc. in Geophysical Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines. Mike has extensive experience in the energy industry, he has held positions in data acquisition, research, data processing, data interpretation, exploration, field development, consulting, technical management and software product management.

Mike joined Chevron in 2006 in a Decision Analysis role and is the co-developer, with Audrey Del Vescovo, of the innovative Minimum Functional Objectives approach to DA/DQ. Prior to his current role, he was the Upstream DA/DQ coordinator for Chevron’s Europe, Eurasia and Middle East region based in London. He assumed his current role in October 2020.

Christa has over thirty years of experience in the oil and gas industry – first with Royal Dutch Shell and then with Chevron. Her career has given her the opportunity to explore most aspects of the crude to customer value chain, largely thanks to the last twenty years in the decision analysis space. She has worked on large capital projects running into the billions of dollars, regional strategic studies, business improvement opportunities, enterprise risk management and portfolio modeling, business development opportunities and – most importantly - growing organizational capability in the decision analysis function. Her current role encompasses responsibility for developing Chevron’s decision analysis training strategy, course development and providing a diverse set of learning opportunities to the DA/DQ community to ensure the business units have access to the right people, with the right skills. In her private life she is no less ambitious. Her chaotic household includes a Siberian cat, three energetic hunting dogs (who get to sleep on the bed) and three warmblood horses (who thankfully do not!). She loves to road trip and recently obtained her Class B license so she can haul the horses across country in a huge truck that is half RV and half horse stalls.

Alison Zabik is the founder and head of Planning and Decision Technology at ExxonMobil, a multdisciplinary team combining decision science, corporate strategy & planning, and digital transformation. She founded the group in 2020 to scale the use of decision quality and analysis within ExxonMobil's project investment decisions. Ms. Zabik is a registered Professional Engineer and has degrees in civil engineering and music history from the University of Florida. A voracious learner, she’s always up for discussions on design, tech, behavioral economics and energy transition.

Dave is a strategic leader in the inextricably linked fields of decision-making, strategy, innovation, and collaboration. Formerly a Vice President of Decision Quality, he currently serves in a Strategic Analysis role with Open Options Corporation, the pioneering firm at the forefront of applying Game Theory to strategic decision-making. He is also a faculty member at Wilfrid Laurier University where he teaches Strategy Management and Decision Making in the Lazaridis School of Business & Economics.

Having originally joined SDP as a student member and having subsequently completed Stanford's Strategic Decision and Risk Management (SDRM) program, Dave has spent years advancing the profession and creating value through a relentless pursuit of decision excellence.

Tony Kenck worked in the oil industry for 40 years. He started as a geophysicist, but eventually migrated to the dark side.

Since the late 90s, he tried to change the culture at Texaco and Chevron from an extremely de-centralized approach to a more centralized perspective. He was partially successful and, along the way, helped develop many of the portfolio tools, practitioners, and ways of thinking still in place. He has converted his experience and all the mistakes into the guide he wishes he’d had in 2000.

Luis Mendoza is a senior consultant at Decision Frameworks. He joined the team in 2013. Luis enjoys the gamut of Decision Quality enablement with DF, from training to framing and evaluation to presentation. He specializes in probabilistic model development and strategy evaluation. Since 2013, Luis has worked a wide variety of engagements with oil and gas companies, manufacturers, and technical government projects. He holds a bachelor’s in Industrial Engineering from Texas A&M University and a master’s in systems engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington. Luis lives in Houston with his wife and three kids and enjoys being a family

Beaumont Vance has been operationalizing Artificial Intelligence, Data Science and Analytics for Fortune 500 companies, startups and VC funds for over 30 years. His focus has been on practical deployments that drive competitive advantage through enhanced revenue and operational efficiency. While not a Decision Science professional, his work has borrowed heavily from this field and he really should start giving Carl credit before he gets in trouble.

Warren Hatch is CEO of Good Judgment Inc, a world leader in applying innovative probabilistic solutions to real-world decisions to forecast the future. He has assisted governments and private companies around the world to improve their foresight and quantify uncertainty. Warren's prior career was on Wall Street where he started at Morgan Stanley before co-founding a boutique investment firm. He earned his PhD from Oxford University and is a Chartered Financial Analyst Charterholder.

David Matheson cofounded SmartOrg, a Silicon Valley company that connects Innovation and Finance. SmartOrg's portfolio evaluation platform and consulting services help companies align on how to drive upside as well as on where and how much to invest. With decades of experience, David has helped senior management of firms around the world improve their results via portfolio management, product development, innovation, R & D, capital investment, and strategy. He is co-author of the bestselling book, The Smart Organization: Creating Value through Strategic R & D (Harvard Business School Press) and has authored numerous articles on innovation, portfolio management, and decision making. David is a founding member and Fellow in the Society of Decision Professionals (SDP), an educator in Strategic Portfolio Management, and is an advisor for numerous startups. Prior to SmartOrg, David was a Principal at Strategic Decisions Group and received his Ph.D. from Stanford University.

Max Henrion is Founder and CEO of Lumina Decision Systems. He has experience as professor, decision analyst, software designer, and entrepreneur. He originated Analytica, Lumina’s visual software platform for decision analytics. He was formerly a Professor at Carnegie Mellon and Consulting Professor at Stanford. He has published 3 books and over 70 articles in decision and risk analysis, energy and environment, and artificial intelligence. He has a BA from Cambridge University and Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon. His project on “Rigs to Reefs” won the 2014 Decision Analysis Practice Award. He received the 2018 Frank Ramsey Medal for his contributions to the theory, practice, and dissemination of decision analysis from the INFORMS Decision Analysis Society.

Tom Keelin is a founder and Managing Partner of Keelin Reeds Partners, a firm that provides strategy, decision analysis, and education services to emerging businesses and venture-funded startups. Previously, over two decades with the Strategic Decisions Group (SDG), Tom co-developed the definition of "decision quality", led dozens of strategy engagements for leading companies, founded SDG's life sciences practice, and served as board member and Worldwide Managing Director. Later, Tom invented the metalog distributions. Tom is a fellow and director of the Society of Decision Professionals and a founder and director of the Decision Education Foundation. His three Stanford degrees include a PhD in Engineering-Economic Systems.

Dr. Spetzler, Chairman of Strategic Decisions Group, has been an innovator and leader in the application of Decision Science for decades. He is a recipient of the Ramsey Medal of the DA Society, the Pioneer Award of SDP, and was inducted into the SRI Hall of Fame for his contributions to the world of financial services.

Ellen Coopersmith is the founder of Decision Frameworks, a Decision Quality enablement firm, specializing in training, consulting, and software, which she formed in 1999.

She specializes in Decision Quality consultation, facilitation, training, and implementation. Her passion for the decision sciences focuses on decision framing, uncertainty analysis and leadership coaching.

Prior to founding Decision Frameworks, she led one of the oil industry’s most successful implementations of Decision & Risk Analysis for Conoco. She holds a Petroleum Engineering degree from the Colorado School of Mines and is an accomplished technical and managerial facilitator, as well as a published and invited speaker on both the implementation and the technical aspect of quality decision making.

Ellen was the 2017 – 2018 president of the Society of Decision Professionals (SDP), a published speaker on decision analysis, a Professional Engineer and SDP Fellow.

Paul Gordon is a highly accomplished business leader with over fifteen years’ experience leading decision-making transformation. He has facilitated key decision points for major programmes and strategic planning initiatives across a wide range of sectors, including extensively with the Defense and Security sectors in Australia, NZ and the UK.

Paul is committed to collaborative, value-focused decision-making with clear, open communication. As CEO, he leads and inspires the Catalyze team and frequently works with public- and private-sector leaders to build decision capability.

William “Schatten” Douglas leads the US Air Force contracting eBusiness covering contract business systems. Before his current position, he served on the senior staff with the Office of Secretary of Defense, Army, Navy, and Air Force before shifting to the private sector. He earned a master’s in information systems technology at George Washington University and Defense Acquisition Workforce senior certifications in Program Management, Contracting, IT, Acquisition Logistics. He currently holds certifications from Project Management Institute (PMI) Project Management Professional (PMP) Washington Chapter, Public Sector Data Governance Professional (PSDGP) Mastery level certification from Institute Certification of Computing Professionals (ICCP), National Contract Management Association (NCMA.

Dr. Qingbin Cui serves as the Director of the Build America Center (BAC), an entity funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation. He also directs the Smart Construction Laboratory at the University of Maryland. In his role, he spearheads BAC, focusing on the development of data-driven tools to support the implementation of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL). His efforts extend to aiding numerous local communities in accessing BIL grants and ensuring the efficient delivery of transportation projects.