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Panel Speakers 
Jon Higbie
Chief Scientist
Revenue Analytics
Dr. Jon Higbie, Chief Scientist of Revenue Analytics, is a leading expert in the science of Revenue Management. He has helped some of the world's leading companies increase revenue and profit through the application of sophisticated pricing, forecasting and Revenue Management techniques.
Dr. Higbie is particularly known for his innovative work in the hospitality and advertising industries. He has been recognized for his contributions to the science of group Revenue Management, real-time Price Management, and large-scale network management for companies such as ABC Television Network, Ford Motor Company, Marriott International, and Delta Air Lines.
Prior to joining Revenue Analytics, Dr. Higbie served as Chief Scientist for JDA Software, Inc., where he led one of the world's premier operations research organizations focused on Revenue Management.
Dr. Higbie also served on the faculty of the College of Management at Georgia Tech. He holds a Ph.D. in Management Science and Information Technology from The University of Georgia, and a B.A. in Physics from Wittenberg University.
Session Featuring This Speaker
Thursday, Oct. 14, 2010
Regaining Pricing Power to Own the Upswing
11 a.m.-12:15 p.m.
David O. King
Director, Cargo Revenue Management
Continental Airlines
David King is a Director for Continental Airlines Inc., a position he has held since August 2008. In this role, he is responsible for the airline’s cargo Revenue Management including pricing, capacity control, and ecommerce. David is also responsible for Continental’s cargo revenue planning and reporting. Since joining Continental in 2006, David has held a variety of positions in the carrier’s Cargo Revenue Management department, including Senior Market Analyst, Senior Financial Analyst, and, most recently, Manager of Cargo Revenue Management & Distribution.
Prior to joining Continental, David was with Carnival Cruise Lines from 2002 to 2004, where he was responsible for the Revenue Management of multiple cruise ships off the southern and eastern coasts of the United States.
David graduated from the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin with a BBA in Finance, and will be graduating in May 2011 with an MBA from the Bauer College of Business Executive program at the University of Houston.
Session Featuring This Speaker
Thursday, Oct. 14, 2010
Regaining Pricing Power to Own the Upswing
11 a.m.-12:15 p.m.
Paul O'Malley
Director, Revenue Management
GAF Materials
Paul O'Malley currently serves as Director of Revenue Management at GAF Materials, based in Wayne, NJ. GAF's pricing program, which includes price simplification, governance, and workflow automation, is credited by senior management as being an instrumental driver of the company's positive results.
Paul has worked in Pricing and Revenue Management in the manufacturing, car rental, hospitality, and online travel distribution industries for over 15 years. He also led a resource management and optimization program for a Big 4 public accounting firm. A founding editorial board member for The Journal of Pricing and Revenue Management, Paul has been invited to speak at the NY Federal Reserve, New Jersey Institute of Technology and the NY Chapter of INFORMS. He specializes in metrics, change management, organizational transition, as well as the application of analytics to a variety of revenue-related opportunities.
Paul has a BA from Fordham University in Politics/Economics and an MBA in Management Information Systems from New York Institute of Technology.
Session Featuring This Speaker
Thursday, Oct. 14, 2010
Regaining Pricing Power to Own the Upswing
11 a.m.-12:15 p.m.
Julia Morrison
Director, Operations Research
Marriott International
Dr. Julia Morrison is Director of the Operations Research Center of Excellence in Revenue Management Systems at Marriott International. She is involved in a variety of projects, including demand forecasting, Pricing, and Profit Optimization. One of her recent projects, Group Pricing Optimizer, received 2010 INFORMS Revenue Management and Pricing Section Practice Award. Prior to joining Marriott, Dr. Morrison was a consultant with McKinsey & Co., where she specialized in Pricing and customer and store segmentation primarily in retail and consumer packaged goods sectors. She also used her background in statistics to develop a variety of analytical tools used in solving a range of business problems, from sales force territory re-design to store labor scheduling.
Dr. Morrison holds a Ph.D. in Operations Research and Financial Engineering from Princeton University, and B.S. in Applied Physics and Mathematics from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology.
Session Featuring This Speaker
Thursday, Oct. 14, 2010
Regaining Pricing Power to Own the Upswing
11 a.m.-12:15 p.m.
Rob Tanner
Vice President, Revenue Management
Gaylord Entertainment Company
Robertson "Rob" Tanner has served as Vice President of Revenue Management with Gaylord Entertainment since January 2009. Previous to this assignment, Rob held various leadership roles with the company in Investor Relations, Brand Strategy and Corporate Planning from 2003 to 2008. In 2004, he led the company's efforts to introduce and develop Gaylord's first brand Revenue Management discipline. Prior to his time with Gaylord, Rob served in various finance and planning roles with Cendant Corporation and SouthTrust Bank.
Rob holds an MBA in finance from The University of Alabama's Manderson Graduate School of Business and a BA in History from Christendom College.
Session Featuring This Speaker
Thursday, Oct. 14, 2010
Regaining Pricing Power to Own the Upswing
11 a.m.-12:15 p.m.
Robert G. Cross
Chairman and CEO
Revenue Analytics
Author, Revenue Management: Hard-Core Tactics for Market Domination
Robert G. Cross, Chairman and CEO of Revenue Analytics, is widely recognized as the foremost expert in the field of Revenue Management. He guides Revenue Analytics' strategic vision and provides a wealth of industry expertise. Bob is actively involved in client work, and his leadership has been instrumental in helping develop leading Revenue Management capabilities for his clients, including General Motors, Marriott International, and InterContinental Hotels Group.
Called the "Guru of Revenue" by The Wall Street Journal, Bob also founded Talus Solutions Inc., a company credited with creating billions of dollars in value for clients such as ABC, Delta Air Lines, Ford Motor Co. and UPS. Talus was acquired by Manugistics Group Inc. in December 2000 for $366 million.
Bob wrote The New York Times business bestseller, Revenue Management: Hard Core Tactics for Market Domination (Broadway Books 1997). The book has been published in French, German, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, and Portuguese.
Also, he served as a Distinguished Executive-in-Residence at the Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia.
Session Featuring This Speaker
Thursday, Oct. 14, 2010
Aligning the C-Suite and Converting the Skeptics
11 a.m.-12:15 p.m.
Leslie Anderson
Vice President, Revenue Management
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide
Leslie Anderson is the Vice President of Revenue Management for Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide. She has been in her current position for six years and with Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide for over twelve years. As Vice President of Revenue Management, Leslie is responsible for the development and execution of pricing and inventory strategies across all segments and distribution channels for the North America Division. She provides strategic guidance and training to field teams focusing on delivering market leading returns and the development of strong talent. In addition, Leslie oversees the creation and enhancement of sophisticated applications to assist with forecasting, pricing, analytics, and strategy execution to optimize revenues. Leslie has also held various Regional Revenue Management roles with Starwood.
Prior to joining Starwood, Leslie worked for Hilton Hotels for 5 years. She started her career in hotel operations before moving into Revenue Management.
Leslie holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Hotel Administration from Cornell University.
Session Featuring This Speaker
Thursday, Oct. 14, 2010
Aligning the C-Suite and Converting the Skeptics
11 a.m.-12:15 p.m.
Greg Cross
Sr. Vice President, Revenue Management
Hyatt Hotels Corporation
Gregory Cross is the recently appointed Sr. Vice President of Revenue Management at Hyatt Hotels Corporation. He oversees Revenue Management for both managed and franchise hotels across all Hyatt brands; including Andaz, Hyatt Regency, Summerfield Suites, Grand Hyatt, Hyatt Place and Park Hyatt. Prior to joining Hyatt, Greg served as Sr. Vice President of Revenue Management for Live Nation Entertainment, the largest concert promoter in the world. Live Nation recently acquired Ticketmaster.
Greg is best known as the founder of Hilton Worldwide's Revenue Management discipline. A twenty-nine year veteran with Hilton, he launched the department in the mid 1990's and served as Sr. Vice President of Revenue Management for Hilton from 2000 to 2009. Working in a regional front office management role on the East Coast, Greg wrote the job description for a hotel based Director of Revenue Management in 1993. He installed the controversial position at Hilton New York and The Waldorf=Astoria that year. After installing length of stay controls in Hilton's reservation system for the first time, his strategies began to change the way hotel rooms were managed and sold. In 1995, he was appointed Director of Revenue Management for the company. In the years that followed, Greg was promoted to Vice President of Revenue Management & Marketing Systems, where he continued to change and enhance the database systems that supported Hilton Hotels across North America. By the end of the decade he led both the RM and Global Distribution teams within the company.
Session Featuring This Speaker
Thursday, Oct. 14, 2010
Aligning the C-Suite and Converting the Skeptics
11 a.m.-12:15 p.m.
Sherri Hutter
Director, Business Acceleration
The Coca-Cola Company
Sherri Hutter is the Director of Business Acceleration for The Coca-Cola Company's Global Juice Center. Her team is responsible for building new capabilities to accelerate the growth of Coca-Cola's juice business globally. Over the last three years, Sherri has been leading the strategic transformation to implement a new juice operating model to win in the juice category and to create a competitive advantage through the application of advanced analytics to optimize decisions from grove to glass.
Prior to this role, Sherri led multiple global initiatives to drive corporate strategies and improve operating efficiencies. She has over 16 years of experience in the food and beverage industry and has held leadership roles in Quality Assurance, Manufacturing Operations, Research & Development, and Commercialization.
Sherri holds a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Georgia Tech.
Session Featuring This Speaker
Thursday, Oct. 14, 2010
Aligning the C-Suite and Converting the Skeptics
11 a.m.-12:15 p.m.
Padmanabh Yardi
Vice President, Information Resources – Revenue Management Systems
Marriott International
Padmanabh Yardi is Vice President, Information Resources responsible for all Revenue Management Systems at Marriott International. Padmanabh joined Marriott International in 2000 with International Lodging and was a member of strategy and planning before joining the Revenue Management group. He is also responsible for Reservations Data Warehouse providing support for all Marriott brands.
Prior to joining Marriott International, Padmanabh worked in the electronic publishing industry for Reed Elsevier and Air Line Tariff Publishing Company.
Padmanabh has a Bachelor in Electrical Engineering and a Masters in Computer Science. He is married and lives in Maryland with his wife Vishakha, and two children, Anika, 8 and Isha, 6.
Session Featuring This Speaker
Thursday, Oct. 14, 2010
Aligning the C-Suite and Converting the Skeptics
11 a.m.-12:15 p.m.
Mark Ferguson
Conference Co-chair
Steven A. Denning Professor of Technology and Management
Georgia Institute of Technology
Dr. Mark Ferguson is the Steven A. Denning Professor of Technology and Management and the John and Wendi Wells Associate Professor of Operations Management at Georgia Tech's College of Management. He received his Ph.D. in Business Administration, with a concentration in Operations Management from Duke University in 2001. He holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Virginia Tech and an M.S. in Industrial Engineering from Georgia Tech.
Dr. Ferguson's research interests involve many areas of Pricing and Revenue Management. He is the coordinator for the focused research area on dynamic Pricing and Revenue Management at Georgia Tech and teaches M.B.A. and executive education courses on the topic. He also frequently serves as a consultant helping firms improve their pricing and revenue practices.
Dr. Ferguson received best paper awards from the Production and Operations Management Society in 2005, 2006, and 2008. Several of his research projects have been funded by the National Science Foundation. Prior to joining Georgia Tech, he served as a Manufacturing Engineer and Inventory Manager with IBM.
Session Featuring This Speaker
Thursday, Oct. 14, 2010
Segmenting to Superstardom: Re-Thinking Market Segmentation
2:15-3:30 p.m.
Reggie Kaul
Vice President, Pricing & Strategy
Cardinal Health
Rajeeve "Reggie" Kaul is Vice President of Pricing and Strategy at Cardinal Health. Prior to his current role at Cardinal, Reggie served as Vice President of Customer Profitability Management where he was ultimately responsible for customer acquisition and retention by developing a complete understanding of the Cardinal customer portfolio. In addition, he led the overall deal management and compliance functions for the company.
Before joining Cardinal, Reggie was Director of Price and Product Optimization at AutoZone, a Fortune 300 automotive aftermarket retailer. His role at AutoZone was to develop next-generation solutions and provide recommendations for improving product assortment and pricing strategy, thereby improving return on inventory investment. His other job experiences include GE, where he developed six-sigma and cost-of-failure models, contributing significantly to business profitability, and Advanta, where he created pricing decision-support solutions for the mortgage banking industry.
Reggie holds a MS and a MBA from UMass (Amherst).
Session Featuring This Speaker
Thursday, Oct. 14, 2010
Segmenting to Superstardom: Re-Thinking Market Segmentation
2:15-3:30 p.m.
Tristan Plaisance
Manager, Strategic Pricing
Siemens Industry, Inc.
Tristan Plaisance is the US Manager of Strategic Pricing for Siemens Industry, Inc., the world's No. 1 supplier of manufacturing, transportation, building and lighting systems. Tristan leads the development and execution of pricing strategies, analysis, and price performance measurement across the various Siemens businesses in the US. He is also responsible for the Global & National Agreement organization charged with managing domestic and multinational contract activities for large industrial customers.
Tristan was recruited to Siemens Energy & Automation, Inc. in 1999 and has held positions in Regional Business Channel Management, Target Industry Sector Development, Product Line Management, and Pricing. He was most recently instrumental in leading the development of a centralized pricing organization for Siemens along with the implementation of policies, processes, and technology that contributed to millions in profitability improvement for the company.
Tristan holds a BS in Industrial Distribution and a BS in Marketing from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and MBA from Oglethorpe University.
Session Featuring This Speaker
Thursday, Oct. 14, 2010
Segmenting to Superstardom: Re-Thinking Market Segmentation
2:15-3:30 p.m.
Greg Preuer
Director of Pricing
Cooper Lighting
Greg Preuer was recruited to Cooper Lighting in 2006 to develop and lead Cooper's pricing organization as Director of Pricing. He has since constructed the commercial efforts to grow revenue and margins through strategic pricing execution. Key goals include enabling the profitable growth of unique business units' sales and margins simultaneously and developing players, processes, metrics and the overall culture to sustain improvements.
Before joining Cooper, Greg worked 14 years at General Electric. During his tenure with GE, he held numerous positions in Lighting and Commercial Finance including National Sales Manager, Master Black Belt, Pricing Leader and Marketing Manager.
Greg earned his BA in Business Administration from Baldwin Wallace College and his MBA in Finance from St. Louis University.
Session Featuring This Speaker
Thursday, Oct. 14, 2010
Segmenting to Superstardom: Re-Thinking Market Segmentation
2:15-3:30 p.m.
Mark Rudel
Marketing Director, Enterprise Revenue Management
UPS
Mark Rudel, Marketing Director, Enterprise Revenue Management for UPS is responsible for global pricing optimization and decision support including a new marketing channel aimed at small customer acquisition through authorized Resellers of UPS small package services. Mark joined UPS in 1993 and has held a variety of management positions in Pricing and Marketing including Yield Manager, Southeast Region Marketing Manager and Director of New Product Evaluation. Prior to UPS, he spent over 8 years with Continental Airlines in various management positions including Director of Market Economics and Director of Pricing, 2 years with USAir as Director of Economic Planning and 2 years as Director of Air/Sea with Renaissance Cruises in Ft. Lauderdale.
Mark holds a B.S. in Accounting from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and a MBA from Indiana University.
Session Featuring This Speaker
Thursday, Oct. 14, 2010
Segmenting to Superstardom: Re-Thinking Market Segmentation
2:15-3:30 p.m.
Craig Eister
Vice President, Revenue Management
InterContinental Hotels Group
Craig Eister has over 20 years' experience in the Revenue Management field, focusing on transportation and hospitality. He has held positions with American Airlines, Holiday Inn Worldwide, and currently, serves as the Vice President of Revenue Management for the InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG). In his current role, Craig is responsible for all global functions, including revenue optimization, pricing strategy, Revenue Management systems, and training programs. Additionally, he oversees the Americas regional functions and services. Craig previously worked in a variety of fields, including Financial Planning and Analysis and Pricing, and was involved in the inception of Price Optimization at IHG.
Craig has a Master's Degree in Operations Research from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Session Featuring This Speaker
Thursday, Oct. 14, 2010
Getting Price Premiums in an Era of Price Transparency
2:15 – 3:30 p.m.
Wendy Barber
Enterprise Business Architect
Macy's, Inc.
Wendy Barber leads the Operations Research Group and serves as an Enterprise Business Architect at Macy's, Inc.—parent company of Macy's and Bloomingdale's Department Stores. Recently, the Macy's OR team has designed and implemented several forecasting and optimization systems in the Merchandising space, contributing to a multi-million dollar revenue increase in the first quarter of 2010. Currently, the team is partnering with business and technology teams to implement a clearance-price optimization system.
Prior to joining Macy's, Wendy spent seven years at Delta Air Lines as both an Operations Research Specialist and Business Process Architect. Most notably, she built a discrete event simulation to optimize the boarding, cabin cleaning and below-wing processes creating a $14M revenue opportunity. In addition to Retail and Airline industry experience, Wendy also has a background in the military where she did wargaming for the U.S. Army.
Wendy holds a degree in Industrial and Systems Engineering from Auburn University and has spoken on various OR-related topics at INFORMS and IIE conferences.
Session Featuring This Speaker
Thursday, Oct. 14, 2010
Getting Price Premiums in an Era of Price Transparency
2:15-3:30 p.m.
Brad Beakley
Former Vice President, Operations Control and Planning
US Airways
Brad Beakley has over 20 years' experience in a variety of Revenue Management, call center, customer service and operational roles with major US airlines. In his most recent role as Vice President, Operations Control and Planning at US Airways, his responsibilities included pilot and flight attendant planning and scheduling, air traffic and airfield management, operations planning and performance, as well as management of the Operations Control Center. During his tenure, US Airways performance metrics improved from lowest among major US airlines to industry leading on-time performance, mishandled bag rates and passenger complaints - while simultaneously increasing schedule efficiency.
Prior to his move into the call center and operations arenas in 2006, Brad played a key role in the development and implementation of O&D YM systems at both American Airlines and US Airways. He lead user training and consulting efforts for the initial implementations of O&D bid price optimization models and continuous nesting inventory controls at both airlines in the mid 1990s and later sponsored major projects to upgrade or replace demand forecasting models, overbooking logic and increase the frequency of bid price optimization. He also brought significant focus to revenue integrity automation, day-of-departure revenue management functions and Star Alliance inventory alignment.
Brad holds a Bachelors degree in Marketing from Abilene Christian University.
Session Featuring This Speaker
Thursday, Oct. 14, 2010
Getting Price Premiums in an Era of Price Transparency
2:15-3:30 p.m.
Phil Haan
Former EVP
Northwest Airlines
Phil Haan is a 25-year veteran of the airline industry having served in a wide variety of leadership roles at American Airlines and Northwest Airlines. He has an extensive background in the development of Revenue Management systems and processes. In numerous roles, Phil has applied these capabilities to customer segmentation strategies and to tailoring business streams, e.g., market intelligence; product development; pricing; demand generation; distribution development; and customer care.
Phil has lead corporate, agency, telephone reservation and online sales functions both domestically and internationally. Additionally, he was involved from the "ground floor" in developing and eventually co-chairing the innovative joint venture between KLM and Northwest.
Phil is currently consulting for Delta Air Lines on the integration of information technology as part of the merger between Delta and Northwest. He also serves as Senior Advisor to Revenue Analytics levering the pricing, Revenue Management and other commercial experience he developed over the years.
Session Featuring This Speaker
Thursday, Oct. 14, 2010
Getting Price Premiums in an Era of Price Transparency
2:15-3:30 p.m.
Eric Joyner
Vice President, Pricing Strategy
Equifax
Eric Joyner is Vice President of Pricing Strategy for Equifax. In this role, Eric is responsible for price management and optimization across the company. His key areas of focus are related to go-to-market pricing strategy, governance and exceptions management, and price automation. Prior to taking over the leadership position for the organization, Eric was AVP of Pricing Strategy, providing primary support for numerous business units within the US Consumer Information Solutions division. He has been with the company since April of 2008.
Prior to joining Equifax, Eric worked in Corporate Strategy for Cox Enterprises, providing guidance for mobile strategy and global investment opportunities. Before his role with Cox, Eric worked for BellSouth Corporation, holding various leadership positions in the Marketing and Strategic Pricing organizations.
Eric holds a BA from Morehouse College and an MBA from the Kenan-Flagler Business School at UNC Chapel Hill.
Session Featuring This Speaker
Thursday, Oct. 14, 2010
Getting Price Premiums in an Era of Price Transparency
2:15-3:30 p.m.