Molham Aref, CEO and co-founder

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.

Jon Beck, Executive Vice President, Planning

Jon 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.

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, Executive Vice President, 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.

Subir Gupta, Executive Vice President, Strategy and Sales

Subir has spent the last 16 years shaping and implementing strategic business improvement programs with retailers around the world. He has extensive experience in a variety of retail industry subsectors including apparel, grocery, hard lines and electronics. Subir has first-hand knowledge and experience in all core retail capability areas and has been called upon to advise on a variety of subjects from strategy and architecture, to design and build, to program implementation and benefits delivery. He has led the creation of retail process best practices in a range of areas including range, space, price, promotion and allocation & replenishment. In addition to his industry expertise, Subir plays a key role in shaping the Predictix corporate strategy and vendor alliance relationships. Prior to joining Predictix, Subir was a partner in Accenture’s retail industry practice. He has a First Class Bachelor of Engineering degree from Bath University and a Master's degree in design, manufacturing and management from Cambridge University.

Victor Holysh, Chief Financial Officer

Victor is an experienced finance and operations executive, having worked for a number of international software and systems consulting companies in North America and overseas. He was formerly CFO for a SaaS vendor serving the hospitality industry, a consultant and advisor to several early stage technology companies, and has a track record of implementing scalable systems to support rapid business growth. He became familiar with the retail industry as a Vice President at Retek. Victor holds a B.Sc. degree in Computer Science and an M.B.A., both from the University of Toronto, and is a member of the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants.

Kenneth D. Palmer, Executive Vice President, Replenishment

Ken is in charge of our next generation replenishment solutions. He brings to Predictix over 20 years of experience designing and developing Inventory Management, Forecasting, and Replenishment Systems. The systems that Ken has developed and their derivatives are now installed in many leading companies worldwide, including over 98% of the US Drug Wholesale industry, and some of the largest Food Services Companies, Automotive Parts Retailers, and Pet Products Retailers. Ken served on Evant's science advisory board and was senior vice president of product management. In 1994, Ken founded Supply Chain Solutions, focused on providing forecasting and replenishment optimization solutions to wholesalers, retailers, and manufacturers doing vendor managed inventory. Prior to founding Supply Chain Solutions, he was in charge of R&D for E3 Corporation, where he managed R&D and was the primary author of E3's TRIM product, reporting directly to E3's founder and CEO. Ken also spent several years in the retail business, working in various management positions for OSCO Drug. He holds a bachelor's degree with a double emphasis in business finance and management information systems from the University of Northern Colorado.

Hatem Sellami, Ph.D., President and co-founder

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, Executive Vice President, Pricing

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.

Our clients appreciate the diverse skills and extensive retail experience the Predictix team brings to the table. We have worked for and with retailers large and small, designed, built, and deployed retail systems, and have developed the sophisticated science that underpins them. Collectively, we have worked with many of the world's leading retail companies.