Global Online Master of Science in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Business Analytics
Students & Alumni
2022 COHORT- GLOBAL ONLINE PROGRAM
Sanaa Wehsee is a University of Central Florida graduate with the degree of MBA and later decided to pursue a degree in MS BAIS to better support her team members, customers, and work partners as well as develop her skills in analytics and machine learning. Throughout her career, she worked in the semi-conductor electronics manufacturing and software industries for companies such as Lucent Technologies, Pegasystems, and Jabil, where she was in charge of deploying enterprise IT initiatives for the most part.
Maneesh Kumar is an Indian University graduate with the bachelor’s degree in Electrical and Electronics. He started his career as a reports developer, worked on Java and front-end technologies through the years and finally settling on BPM (Business Process Management) Development for Raymond James.
Sophie Masud is a University of South Florida graduate with an MBA degree concentration in Finance and Management Information System. The Master's degree in Business Analytical and Information System added to her skills and opened up more opportunities in an ever-changing IT world. She started her career by working as a report writer and a Database Administrator for the City of Lakeland’s billing system. Eventually, she became the manager of that group.
Shanmugapriya Arunachalam
Shanmugapriya Arunachalam graduated from Anna University affiliated Thiagarajar College of Engineering with Bachelor of Engineering degree in Computer Science. Since 2022, Priya has been working as a Senior Tech Product Manager at Amazon and handles product development for Alexa applications in the AVS space. Prior to working with Amazon, she worked for Tata Consultancy Services as a Technical Leader & for Nielsen as a Product Leader for about 13 years in several capacities, which includes Support Analyst, Developer, Quality Manager, Project Manager and Product Manager. She is well versed in SQL, Data Analytics, Client presentations and is a SAFe Certified Product Owner/Product Manager. Priya’s professional interests lie heavily in user experience & user interface designs.
Guven Dekkan is a Istanbul Technical University graduate with a bachelor's degree concentration in Economics. He pursued a Master's degree in Business Analytical and Information System to learn the technical sides of databases, R, and data analytics tools to serve better to the clients. He started his career by working with Centene as an IT assurance lead.
Sarmad Masood Kiani
Sarmad Masood Kiani is a Bahria University Pakistan Graduate with a Bachelor’s degree in Finance. He decided to pursue a Master’s in Business Analytics and Information system from University of South Florida to learn the more technical sides of database. He began his career with Standard & Poor as a financial data analyst in their Market Intelligence division, analyzing stock market data from EMEA region.
2021 COHORT- WEEKEND EXECUTIVE PROGRAM
Chris Chiodo is a Florida State University graduate with primary studies in Business, Economics, and Finance, however his degree is Humanities. In 2010, Chiodo worked as a Tax Analyst performing data entry functions. In 2012, he moved into retail banking. In 2014, he joined CitiGroup as an AML Analyst where he conducted forensic accounting investigations and regulatory reporting. Shortly after he was hired by Raymond James as an AML Analyst and was tasked with remediating a number of audit and regulatory issues.
Alexandra Guzman graduated from the University of Florida with a BS in Advertising in 2007. She has worked primarily in marketing for products and services in various industries, in both Florida and Colorado. At Gates Corporation in Denver, Guzman was responsible for marketing new products and deploying targeted market launches to drive sales for the North American industrial market.
Gloria Gonzalez received a BA in Fine Arts from the University of South Florida in 2006. She has worked in the marketing sector in several capacities, which includes Marketing Business Development Specialist/Coordinator, Graphic Designer, and currently Operations Manager. In 2010, her role as Project Leader for Grow Financial positioned her to generate growth within the Gen Y group, which yielded a First-Place Gold Addy Award in the Consumer Flash Web site category from the American Advertising Federation for the organization. In Gonzalez's prior role, working at White and Case, LLP, she was a founding member of the Tampa office, construction of the team, and in implementing procedures to assist attorney requests throughout the firm's global footprint with 52 offices worldwide.
Natarajan Arumugam graduated from Anna University with Bachelor of Engineering degree in Electronics and Communications in 2005. Arumugam has been working as a Software Engineer at Home Shopping Network (HSN) and handles software applications in supply chain management systems primarily focused on Warehouse Management Systems (WMS). Prior to working with HSN, he worked for Infosys Limited as a technical lead for 8 years consulting various clients like ToysRUs, Sysco, Sears and William Sonoma across various locations building IT applications for order management and WMS. He is well versed in Cognos, SQL,C and is an IBM certified Solution Developer for InfoSphere DataStage, Cognos Administrator and AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate level.
Nels Matson obtained a BS from Iowa State University and credits from USFSM for CPA credentials while completing his CPA certification. His most recent highlight is leading his firm in research of the loan and tax credit opportunities offered to businesses within the CARES Act. Matson cycled across America twice and ran 1,200 miles in 35 days, meeting with Ann Curry on Today, the Royal Ambassador of Cambodia, and others to raise several thousand dollars and awareness for a cause close to his heart. He currently works as back office support for entrepreneurial high net worth individuals - providing services from day to day operational accounting to tax services.
15 years ago, Amir Lotfy graduated from Ain Shams University in Egypt with a BSc in Electrical Engineering. When he moved to the U.S. in 2015, Lotfy joined the Muma MBA class for two semesters and obtained a Postgraduate Certificate in Entrepreneurship in Applied Technologies. He joined two startup companies for the first 11 years of his career, giving him the opportunity to travel around the world. This experience defined his professional interests and passion to this day, somewhere at the cross road of developing economies, entrepreneurship, data analytics and poverty eradication.
Michael Mauk has owned a company called Millennium Network Solutions, LLC since 2003. Mauk specializes in various facets of cybersecurity, ranging from Governance, Risk, and Compliance, pentesting, and Security Architecture for O365 and Azure. He started in cybersecurity in 1986 and spent time working with the U.S. Military, the U.S. Government, financial institutions, and 10 years specializing in Healthcare. He was also Director of Information Security for Children’s National Medical Center in Washington D.C. as well as a Senior Security Architect and Team Lead for Cerner Corporation.
Joel Wolfson graduated from the University of Florida with a double major in Geography and Political Science. He worked for Leidos in Washington DC as a Geospatial Analyst, traveling around the world as a Department of Defense contractor, collecting LiDAR and Imagery over hostile areas while supporting troops on the ground. Wolfson's professional interests lay heavily in remote sensing and utilizing LiDAR to solve problems.
Carla Bertoli
Carla Bertoli graduated from the University of Central Florida with a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology. Bertoli's current role allows her to work with clients in various industries such as medical, aviation and higher education. She is well versed with application integration, data mapping/exporting, UAT testing and building custom system configurations based on client needs. She is also responsible for understanding, maintaining and explaining the data specifications of Human Resources information systems to system administrators. Her professional interests include understanding how data systems impact Human Capital Management and how the Talent Acquisition process can benefit from their improvement.
Maria Salinas
Maria Salinas oirginally lived in Colombia and worked with the government as a lawyer. She then owned a motorcycle business in Bogota, a significant industry in that area. Finally, Salinas came to the U.S., transitioning to the hospitality industry. She worked 13 years at the Ritz Carlton throughout the states and received a Master's in Hospitality Management at USF. Her favorite academic experience was visiting Lyon, one of the best gastronomic cities in the world, and Montechino at Banfi winery, the biggest maker of wine in Italy.
Dominick Russo graduated with a BS in Nursing from St. Petersburg college and, after working as an ICU nurse for 5 years, decided to pursue other interests. After nursing he worked in real estate, where he discovered he liked building landing pages and analyzing marketing campaigns more than selling real estate and that eventually inspired him to work towards a career in analytics. Russo taught himself Python and eventually built a couple basic projects that helped him earn his first role as an analyst.
Jennifer Rodriguez Dowd
Jennifer Dowd graduated from Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra with a BS in Business focused on International Business in 2017. Previously, Dowd worked as a Supply Chain Analyst in an artwork company. She also had the opportunity to work at Timberland as a buyer before graduating. Her responsibilities included dealing with suppliers from different countries, including Hong Kong, China, Mexico, Vietnam, United States, and Dominican Republic. She also worked as a buyer analyst in a hardware company with merchants from Spain, Portugal, and United States.
Viviana Garcia graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a degree in Accounting. Immediately after graduation, she joined The Walt Disney Company (specifically Walt Disney Parks & Resorts Finance) and has worked both at Walt Disney World and at the Disneyland Resort in California. Her primary job tasks currently include forecasting and planning, pro forma creation, and reporting.
Armando Ramos received his BS in Computer Science from Mississippi State University. He has worked for federal contractors and different industries in the private sector like healthcare, telecommunications, insurance and consulting services. Ramos' first job was as a data analyst which helped him see that statistics can describe human behavior and health patterns.
Alyssa Pazos started her career at Jabil, Inc. in the legal department. From there, she worked her way into the Ethics and Compliance office, managing the employee hotline and conduct internal investigations. Her original career path was to go to law school, and she obtained her Bachelors in Legal Studies and took the LSAT. While she was working and studying for the LSAT she decided to participate in Jabil's Citizen Data Science program in partnership with USF. Pazos completed the program in December 2019 and decided this was more of a passion than law. Recently, a career highlight was the Citizen Data Science Program where her use case has been implemented globally. She helped create a program that flags suspicious transactions in petty cash accounts to decrease the risk of bribery and corruption.
Juan Botero
Juan Botero graduated from Florida State University in 2017 with a BS degree in finance. His working experience has ranged from a Financial Services Representative to a Financial Reporting Analyst. His career highlights are having a 100% completion rate for his reports and never having to file an extension. Botero also takes great pride in being considered a valuable team member by his colleagues. His professional interests are incorporating his knowledge in financial reporting to learn about the financial strengths of companies across many sectors. His career aspirations are to grow in his company and become a managing director in Finance and Risk Shared Services.
Waylan Ulrey graduated from the University of South Florida with a BS in Management Information Systems. After graduation, he was recruited by General Motors as a software developer, working with SQL and C#. He ultimately transitioned to a Business Analyst role and managed a team of four other Business Analysts. Ulrey would like to ultimately move into a leadership position, but for now his career aspiration is to move into a Data Scientist role within his current organization.
Akila Ramasamy graduated from Anna University, Chennai with a Bachelor of Engineering in Electronics and Communications in 2005. She started working as a programmer analyst at Cognizant Technology Solutions in 2006. She then worked in verticals such as consumer goods, technology, insurance and banking & financial services consulting for clients like Nestle, Coach, NetApp, and Metlife. Currently, Ramysamy works as a consultant for Citigroup in custody and securities services. She is a senior dot net developer with 14 years of IT experience and have excellent knowledge in C#, VB.Net, Javascript, Windows Communication Foundation, SQL server, SQL server Integration services and SQL Server Reporting Services. She also has Microsoft certifications in Developing and Implementing web applications in C#.net and Quering Microsoft SQL server 2012/2014.
Chris Greifenberger
Chris Greifenberger holds an undergraduate degree in Business Analysis & Information Systems and a master of science in Cybersecurity Cyber Intelligence both from USF. His professional career includes serving as a soldier in the U.S. Army, as a law enforcement officer in Florida, and currently employed by IBM to serve NYPD. He feels most competent when given the chance to apply analytic trade-craft to solve problems with a team of specialists.
Karen Rader has a BA in Communications from the University of Louisville and an MEd in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of South Florida. She has never fully pursued a career in either field, but her education provided the groundwork and base knowledge for her to grow into her current career.
Gabriela Araujo-Acosta was born and raised in Brazil, then moved to the U.S. in 1996. She recieved her BA in business administration with concentration in accounting from St Leo in 2015. A few years after she moved to the US, Araujo-Acosta got a job at an e-commerce company helping clients with their website creation and maintenance. At Citigroup, she worked mostly with international securities, in the Brazilian, Colombian, Argentinian and Venezuelan markets. She worked closely with the development team performing testing and also with clients to improve their straight through processing (STP) where she was able to improve a client’s STP from 30 to 90%.
Elaine Vasconcelos was born and raised in Brazil. She holds a Master in Business and
two PMI certifications, PBA and ACP. She started in Citigroup in 2007 on the International
Settlements team working in different roles for the Brazilian Stock Market (settlement,
stock clearing, central bank reports, asset break monitoring), then in 2010 joined
the IT team doing production support and release management.
After 10 years working for ICG, Vasconcelos decided to change gears and moved to HRSS
as senior business analyst to support a global compensation application called Citi
Comp. She was part of a project called HR2020, worked on retiring 12 legacy applications
and roll-out of Workday across 96 countries. She then rejoined ICG as part of a BA/PM
Global Team.
Jacqueline Swartz
Jackie Swartz started her academic career by attending Hillsborough Community College. Once she graduated with her A.A, she went to the University of Tampa where she got two bachelor degrees- Accounting and Management. For the past two years, she has been working at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) as a tax accountant. Since November 2019 she has been a digital accelerator working on implicating and supporting the firm's proprietary system called Research Credit Solution while also working on creating a tool to automate FBAR filings.
Udaya Bhaskar Ivaturi
Udaya Bhaskar Ivaturi graduated in computer science from Andhra University in India. His first job involved working on an application development side for a Business Process Re-Engineering (BPR) project leveraging SAP ERP, and then started his specialization in the SAP/Enterprise Applications space. His career highlights include playing key roles in several enterprise transformation projects in finance, supply chain and customer space across the retail, telecom, utilities and consumer industries. Ivaturi has deep skills in implementing suite of solutions using SAP ERP and currently works in a Big 4 consulting firm as a Senior Manager.
Diana Sanchez-Montenegro has a Bachelors degree in Business Administration from Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico. She also has Scrum Master and Business Relationship Management certifications. She has worked for Citigroup starting in operations and in IT for the last 20 years. Currently she is the SME of a mainframe base application that supports global and domestic custody and clearing business for Canada and Latina America countries. Sanchez-Montenegro has had different roles such as QA tester, production support, business analyst, and most recently release management and project manager.
Terri-Ann Smith
Terri-Ann Smith graduated from St. Petersburg College with a BAS in Technology Data Management with a focus in Data Analytics. She started her career at Raymond James in an administrative role for a few years until she progressed into her current role of Business Intelligence Analyst. In her current role she helps to manage and develop an internal CRM, as well as facilitate the training of new users of the system.
Victoria Peralta
Victoria Peralta graduated from Universidad Pedro Henriquez Urena in the Dominican Republic with a bachelors degree in computer science. She started as data entry, then as a programmer analyst. She has developed software in different markets, from insurance, marketing, and marine supply to engineering.
Michelle Mancini received a Bachelor’s in Psychology from the University of South Florida and an MBA in Healthcare Management from Saint Leo University. Her professional experience and career path consists of finance, healthcare, and technology. Currently, Mancini works at BayCare Health System, Information Services, Project Management Office as a Strategic Business Planning Analyst. She is committed to BayCare’s mission and vision that focuses on the communities they serve. She is accountable for representing the Information Services service line to each BayCare facility and/or business partner through problem and service management, project planning, and strategic alignment of the facility’s and business partners strategic objectives. Mancini is also responsible for evaluating BayCare’s strategic organizational plan and developing action steps for Information Services to help meet the requirements of the strategic plan. Most importantly, she provides recommendations to C-Suite and senior leadership to align technology with strategic departmental business needs and implement new technology across the organization.
Vibha Na
Vibha Na graduated from UP technical university (India) with Bachelor of Technology in Information Technology in 2004. She has 15 years of experience in developing software applications and websites. She has worked in various industries in the past including healthcare, retail, and finance while serving big firms like Dell, HCL, Bank of America and American express. Na's major experience is in developing banking applications, payment gateways and other finance related solutions. She is well versed with C#, React, .net Core, MVC, Rest APIs, WCF services, Java script, SQL server, SSIS, SSRS, Microstrategy and oracle.
Lior Kimchi
Lior Kimchi is a 30 year IT veteran. For the last 20 years, he has been specializing in SQL Server, Database Architecture and Design, DBA, and SQL Development. Before that, he did C, Pascal and VB programming. Kimchi comes from Israel where he studied Computer Science and IS. Shortly after, he came to America and has been living and practicing here ever since.
Erich McCartney self-identifies as a software evangelist. Throughout his career in construction and engineering at enterprises and government agencies, one thing has remained constant: his innate passion to solve technology problems. Upon returning from active duty with the US Army, he enrolled at the University of Florida and earned a BS in Civil Engineering in 2009, and became a licensed professional engineer and general contractor in Florida. McCartney has worked in several project management roles in both vertical and horizontal construction since, consulting engineer, owner representation, and both specialty and general contractor firms. During his career, he has been continuously placed in positions of transformation change and selected to either start new work units or repair and re-tool dysfunctional projects on the verge of failure.
Sean Castanon graduated from the University of South Florida with a BS in General Studies with a concentration in Information Architecture. He is a Global Applications analyst at Capco. He project manages any financial related development work that is connected to our main HRMS, PeopleSoft. Castanon also oversees the implementation of any new applications that integrate into PeopleSoft Finance. He recently implemented an expense management application called Rydoo for Capco's European business units. Prior to Capco, he worked as an Implementation Specialist at ADP as well University of Central Florida as a Canvas LMS support specialist. Through experience, he gained a solid understanding of the Software Development Life Cycle. He has worked with various analytic applications such as Tableau, Microsoft Power BI and SAP.
Ryan Pumford
Ryan Pumford got his undergraduate degree at Michigan State University with a BS in Computer Science. He then joined US Air Force and was privileged to fly F-16s for twelve years, becoming an instructor pilot. He left the Air Force in 2012 and joined NextEra Energy Resources as a wind energy developer and has since transitioned to running a Market Intelligence team specializing in competitor behavior. Pumford got an MBA from Colorado State, and a MS in Real Estate Development from Nova Southeastern. His highlights at NextEra have been securing initial funding (and subsequent annual funding) for an internally developed business intelligence platform that is beginning to incorporate some basic AI elements.
Jessica Greenlee graduated from the University of South Florida in 2013 with a BS degree in Information Systems Management. Most of her career since then has been spent working in the startup industry, which helped her develop a diverse set of skills through hands on experience in each phase of the SDLC. Currently as the senior developer at a startup, Greenlee plays the roles of database engineer and full stack developer.
Wadnerson Boileau graduated from the State University of Haiti (U.E.H) with a BSc in Electronic Engineering. He started his career as analyst programmer where he developed customized software for small businesses. In 2003, while he was implementing a SAS Times Series Project for Central Bank of Haiti, he became SAS certified. In 2007, Boileau joined the Oracle Partner Company in Haiti providing support in process documentation and Java-Oracle features development for the Caribbean Remittance consortium. In 2010, he was called by the largest road construction company to implement SAGE ERP Accpac, and customize and accommodate the SAGE US Payroll module for Haitian Tax law. In 2014, he moved to the U.S. to work in the financial sector as a financial consultant until 2019, when he joined the Manatee county government as a business analyst.
2020 COHORT- WEEKEND EXECUTIVE PROGRAM
Nakano earned an MBA from the University of South Florida in 2005, a MSc in Computer Science from the University of Virginia (Charlottesville, VA) in 2000, a MSc in Electrical Engineering - Digital Systems from the Escola Politécnica da Universidade de São Paulo (São Paulo, Brazil) in 1993, and a Professional Engineer in Electrical Engineering from the Escola Politécnica da Universidade de São Paulo (São Paulo, Brazil) in 1991. While at UVa, Nakano worked with safety-critical systems, formal methods, and reliability analysis, using diverse case studies such as the UVa Nuclear Reactor and the Magnetic Stereotaxis System. His first masters degree at EPUSP included a geometrical approach to feature selection, and his final project for the engineering degree included collaborations to a simulation tool for discrete events that was adopted by the Rio de Janeiro Metro system.
Avie Mohan received a Bachelor of Science in Psychology with a minor in statistics from Florida State University. Mohan's career journey began at Amazon in Human Resources, he then was pulled to support Chewy’s network of HR professionals as an HR Business Partner and then transitioned to PSCU. He worked to develop, deploy, and knowledge sharing business intelligence best practices – he led the creation of metrics, dashboards, and implemented analytics methodology to strengthen HR partnership with the operations team. His goal is to refine his abilities in analytics, dive into machine learning to complement his existing skills and lead an analytics team.
Austin Johnson has served in a variety of capacities including financial database and ETL development, business analysis, and project management. Recently, he has led company-wide system implementation projects supporting knowledge and learning management, as well as financial system integration projects. Johnson has served as a software build coordinator for International Paper in Memphis, Tennessee. In 2015, he earned a Bachelor of Science in Management Information Systems from the University of Alabama, completing capstone projects for the Tuscaloosa Police Department and PwC.
Travis Weadock
Travis Weadock supports the Institutional Clients Group compensation team for Citigroup. He has supported the compensation team for the last five years. Weadock has innovated new tools, standardized many processes across compensation, created many reports that are leveraged throughout HR and ICG throughout the year. Prior to working in HR, he worked for the global sanctions operations anti-money laundering team for three years. During his time in AML, he was consistently a Top 3 performer, selected to lead offsite training for special projects at different Citi hubs, and helped to standardize the training curriculum for newly on boarded analysts. Travis graduated with a bachelors of science in finance in 2013 from the University of South Florida.
Currently employed with Capgemini US with total IT experience of ~12 years in banking and finance domain, Bibhas K Bera has worked with financial organizations such as Bank of America, Credit Suisse, Citibank and NSDL India. Bera has been helping ORM team to successfully implement operational risk information reports and dashboard functionality in support of OCC Part 30: 2A-11 requirements. The project is valued at more than $5 million. His primary role has been to define business problems/reporting requirements, provide functional/data solutions, define operational and maintenance processes and suggest process improvements plans for legacy systems. Bera also manages user acceptance testing and quality assurance team and provides project management support to project managers and product owners within ORM Technology. Bera earned abachelor's degree from BMS College of Engineering which is considered one of the top-ranked colleges in India.
Shawn McGinty has been employed in the Medicare insurance space since 2005, holding senior leadership roles, and leading teams in business development, operations, sales, and national account management. McGinty was employed with Coventry Healthcare (2005-2013), UnitedHealthGroup (2013-2016). He is a U.S. Navy veteran, serving for six years in the U.S. Submarine Service. McGinty graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in 1998 with a bachelor’s degree in finance.
Jerry Marks
Jerry Marks has held numerous leadership positions in finance, financial analysis, and strategy at leading E-Commerce companies and on Wall Street. In 2004, he was named one of the "Best on the Street" in the Wall Street Journal Survey of Analysts in the Specialty Retail Category. He has been director of business analytics and project management at Revival Parts for the past four years.
Hemu Dabbirru
Hemu Dabbirru handles requirements analysis, identifying technical and business impacts, working with the dev team to offer business solutions per requirements. Effective communication and organizing complex business needs into understandable requirements are her key strengths. Dabbirru was nominated by her management for Advancing Women Leaders program, an initiative focused on helping women develop leadership capabilities as well as gain senior leadership exposure to grow and advance in their career. Dabbirru earned a Master of Science in Information Systems from Andhra University, India. She is an active participant in the Diversity and inclusion employee group at DTCC and is serving as Tampa site co-lead for Asian business professional network.
Sutama Mitra has a rich experience of 10 years. She currently leads the technical aspects of the entire Global Trade Billing application for multiple jurisdictions across the globe. She has worked for DTTC, Deutsche Bank, Citi Bank, American Bureau of Shipping, and New York Stock Exchange. She has a bachelor’s degree in computer science and engineering from Maulana Abul Kalam Azad University of Technology, India.
Kirti Vasdev is a seasoned result-oriented and skilled Project Management Professional with 15+ years experience in computer science, with end to end knowledge and implementation experience of software and data architecture and development in the field of Geographic Information Systems & Microsoft Technologies. Extensive experience in industry verticals includes Energy & Utility, Oil & Gas and Telecom. Vasdev earned a bachelor’s degree in computer application in 2000 and earned master's degree in computer application in 2003. He worked with companies such as IBM India, Cyient Inc., Williams Energy, Exxon Mobil as Tech. Lead/Architect on different software development projects. Vasdev worked as project manager, handling large teams spread across various geographies.
Angela Jones
Angela Jones is a senior compensation analyst for Citigroup in Tampa. She supports global compensation initiatives that span across all businesses within Citi. Prior to Citigroup, Jones held various compensation and accounting roles at Raymond James & Associates and Kforce Professional Staffing. Angela earned a Bachelor of Science in General Business with concentrations in Accounting and Management Information Systems from the University of South Florida as well as an MBA with a concentration in Human Resource Management from Saint Leo University.
Deborah Gause
Deborah Gause graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Information Systems Management from the University of South Florida in 2003. She also earned a Bachelor of Science in Nutrition and Dietetics from the University of Arizona. She has worked for HCA Healthcare for 25 years, 18 years as a clinical dietitian and currently as the food and nutrition services analyst for HCA's West Florida division.
Alex Seufert is a cloud data engineer. Previously, Seufert worked as an a software engineer at Nielsen Global Connect an integration engineer and oversaw implements of Nielsen’s Digital Content and Digital TV Ratings SDK for major clients, including Buzzfeed, Vice Media, and Comcast. Prior to joining Nielsen, Seufert worked within a wide range of roles, including business intelligence, web analytics, and technical writing. Seufert earned a master's degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a bachelor's degree from the University of South Florida.
Laura Hinderliter-Zamora is passionate about analyzing big data in the healthcare space. Her career has evolved from doing desktop in a helpdesk setting to supporting church secretaries on the West Side of Missouri to eventually becoming the communications director and winning national awards for best conference newspaper, best conference website and youngest electronic journalist for the United Methodist Church. From there her career evolved to becoming an Adobe Certified instructor for FedEx Office and becoming a regional rechnology manager for 11 states and 55 locations, managing everything from the telephony, copiers, the technologists and the back office computers, networks and all the hardware and eventually the SQL reporting and all the implementations for all the roll-outs. Her career evolved to the healthcare data space, where she has consulted on database revamps that saved one safety-net hospital over $13 million in claims and helped them turn claims around from over six months into less-than-60-day denials. She earned a bachelor's degree in education with a Mmajor in English and a minor in journalism.
Shyam Attiganal is a techno-functional analyst with 15+ years of FinTech industry experience. He has been in various roles ranging from programming to business analysis, while building IT solutions for FX Trading, Equity Research and Core Compliance teams of financial institutions. In his current role, Attiganal oversees development of a strategic global platform. Attiganal earned a Master of Science in Software Engineering from BITS Pilani (2006).
Sarah Wasselle graduated from the University of Florida with a degree in industrial and systems engineering. She works as a business intelligence developer for MyMatrixx, an Express Scripts Company. Her previous professional experience includes analytics roles at Pepsi, Cummins Inc., and Physician Partners of America.
Rameez Badri worked as a business integration analyst in a techno-functional role for the Compliance Technology Organization at Citigroup, Tampa, in the anti-money laundering and sanctions screening space. Prior to 2014, he spent the first five years of his career as a developer and a support engineer in India (Offshore) serving the Cash Operations division (UK) and various payment processors at Citibank EMEA. Badri graduated from Bharath University, India in 2009 with a bachelor's degree in computer science.
Neelima Ketineni is a Software Quality Assurance Analyst at Transaction Network Services, Inc., a privately held multinational company in the payments, financial and telecommunications. She has been with TNS since 2008 and is skilled in agile methodologies, software development life cycle, quality assurance and software testing. Ketineni earned a Master of Business Administration from Osmania University, India.
Neeraj Kumar is global head of Data Intelligence and Analytics function in Citigroup Anti-Money Laundering & Counter Terrorist Financing department. Kumar has worked and led teams across ASIA/Japan/EMEA/LATAM/Mexico & North America. Kumar leads a global team of data miner, SMEs, data scientists, data/behavior analytics strategists and intelligent analyst geared in developing new methods to detect AML risk via benign normal and risky behavior. This incorporates new analytics techniques, methods, building algorithm, models, implementation of intelligence methods and many more practical/social problems to be solved using data science methods. He has worked in technology, operation, business across multiple countries and locations. Kumar earned a Bachelor of Engineering degree and Executive Masters in Business Administration.
Eapen John manages a global team of audit professionals covering risk management, treasury, capital planning and finance. John has more than 25 years of experience in analytical finance and economics. He began his career in Fixed Income Analytics before transitioning to more senior roles in various global banks in market risk, credit risk analytics, and capital modelling. John's academic background includes master’s degrees in economics, political science and an MBA in Finance.
Aurora Alarcon is a systems engineer who graduated from Distrital FJC University in Colombia in 1989. In 1992 she earned a master’s degree in computer science. Alarcon has 15 years’ experience with Citigroup and more than 20 years’ overall experience in IT environments. Previously, Alarcon served as vice president for Citi’s LATAM / Mexico Anti-Money Laundering Department, supporting global project implementations for 23 countries. She has worked with major organizations including Bank of America, Hewlett-Packard, BP and Novartis. For eight years, Alarcon also served as a professor at Antonio Narino University in Colombia.
Venkata Telaprolu has over a decade of experience working there on various software development projects especially in the risk domain. He loves coding innovative applications. His fluency in various computer languages combined with his high analytical and problem-solving skills helps him solve various production problems and manage multiple projects at once. Telaprolu worked for UPS, Huntington Bank, HSBC and WellPoint in the past. He has a bachelor's degree in engineering degree in electronics and communication from the University of Madras.
Shiva Nepal is a technical lead at Citigroup's Global Trading Profit and Loss team since 2017. In his current role, he primarily works for GAAP accounting, financial risk, and general ledger for balance sheet and P&L reporting for the security product processor. He has 12 years of experience working in the information technology, engineering and urban planning industries. Prior to working with Citigroup, he worked with Fannie Mae, Express Scripts, Travelers Insurance, and Broadridge Financial Solutions as an IT consultant and with multi-disciplinary consultancy, Nepal, as an urban planner. Nepal has master degree in transportation engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington (2009), a master's degree in urban planning (2006), and bachelor's degree in civil engineering (2004) from the Institute of Engineering, Tribhuvan University, Nepal.
Simon Li has facilitated numerous turnkey solution deliveries and hardware refresh rollouts, valued at over $100 million in product sales. He recently assisted a client with a challenging lift-and-shift migration of their entire legacy infrastructure for post-merger integration across multiple geographies. Simon earned his bachelor's degree from the University of Florida, where he double majored in history and anthropology. While at UF, Simon interned jointly with the university museum and library systems to assist in their efforts in digitization.
Eric Young is a Tampa Bay native with a Master of Business Administration and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from University of South Florida. Young is currently employed by Humana managing a claims research department for Medicaid Network Operations. Young is a U.S. Navy veteran with 10 years of data analytics and operations management experience in healthcare organizations.
Manoj Remela
Manoj Remela is a technical lead for Repository & Derivatives Services at DTCC. He has 10+ years of experience on a diverse range of information technology projects in the banking, finance and healthcare domains. Since joining the DTCC in 2015, Remela has been in various roles ranging from programming to project management, while building IT solutions for data warehouse and reporting projects with extensive knowledge of ETL Development, regulatory reporting services for derivatives and securities financing transactions business using ETL tool and MPP Databases. Prior to DTCC he worked for financial and healthcare organizations such as UBS, Aetna, United health Care, and Wells Fargo. Remela earned a bachelor’s degree in electronics and communication engineering and Master of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering. He is an IBM certified Solution Developer for InfoSphere DataStage and AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate level.
Brian Hammond is the vice president and chief technology officer for Tampa General Hospital. Hammond has more than 25 years' experience working in information technology and is responsible for the IT infrastructure, communications, system integration, analytics, biomedical equipment, and data architecture of the organization. Hammond enjoys the challenges of healthcare and working with clinical teams to improve efficiency. Prior to TGH, he managed application development teams for various organizations developing custom database applications. Brian is a graduate of Auburn University.
2019 COHORT- WEEKEND EXECUTIVE PROGRAM
Madye Bell
Laura Delaney
Laura Delaney was intrigued by the power behind "data storytelling" and "data visualization" in business analytics. She earned a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Florida.
James received a Bachelor of Science and an MBA in Finance from St. John’s University in New York. He has worked various investment banking, hedge fund, hedge fund administrator, and banking jobs. He is pursuing a career change and accomplished an Associates in Programming, learning Python, Java, C++ and C# as well as SQL, ASP.Net and MySQL from Saint Petersburg College. Farley was Computer Science Student of the Year 2015 – 2016. He received a second bachelor's degree from Saint Petersburg College in technology development and management, data analytics. Farley recently worked at Citibank in the Anti-Money Laundering unit.
Christopher Fennig
Jasmine Gilbert has experience in the supply chain and financial services industries analyzing, developing and implementing data solutions. She possesses extensive technical training, including knowledge of various programming languages and business software packages.
Venkatesh Prasanna Gobichettipalayam Murthy
Sid Handoo has more than 22 years of hands-on and management experience in delivering process-centric ERP and analytics solutions to various companies across the globe. Handoo has led several full lifecycle implementation of diverse Oracle ERP systems with responsibility for delivering innovative and effective solutions. Working with prestigious clients including Department of Defense, Air Force, SCES, Motorola, Boeing, Starbucks, US Steel, National Institutes of Health, Veterans Affairs, Rockefeller University has earned Handoo extraordinary experience in the planning and execution of all aspects of business process improvement with specific focus on program and project management on large business transformation programs.
Rajender Katyal has worked on software development, tech refresh, release controls, cyber security and risk management projects. He is currently providing DevOps support to application development and data warehousing teams to build and deploy apps and automate various processes. Katyal also manages code repositories and release version controls.
Jithin Kocheril Jinan
Melissa (Mel) Kurtz is a driven professional with a broad range of data analytics experience in human resources and project management. She takes pride in resolving challenges through teamwork and technical innovation, enabling data-driven decision-making capabilities, and building foundational relationships with global stakeholders. In 2016, she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of South Florida.
Andy Lawrence is a Clearwater native and proud graduate of the working professional MBA program of the University of Florida. His business intelligence experience began as an analyst at a medical academy before moving to report engineering for a Danish firm. He has worked at CCG Analytics as a Power BI consultant, where he was certified by Microsoft in SQL data modeling as well as data visualization with Power BI.
Taras Matiychuk is a fraud manager who works with a large, diverse, professional and talented team of Fraud Analysts. His passion is data mining, predictive modeling, fraud and loss prevention along with finding innovative solutions to turn large amounts of data into meaningful information.
Michael Mooney has held a variety of positions in publically traded corporations from a variety of industries including retail, manufacturing, banking, and transportation. The positions were mostly focused on using big data solutions to solve problems in revenue and cost analysis. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Fitchburg State University.
Abhishek Prasad
Khamsouk Sanvoravong
Alyssa Sison is an IT business analyst at the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation. She works as part of the settlement area in the application development department. Since she started at DTCC, Sison has worn multiple hats includingproject manager, DR coordinator, and certified Scrum Master (CSM). She earned a Bachelor of Science in Management Information Systems with a minor in management from the University of South Florida.
Vishal Sonawane
Emanuel Tirado is a senior business intelligence analyst and software developer at GC Services in Lakeland, Florida. With nearly 10 years of professional experience, Tirado manages the data warehousing and reporting operations for multiple business segments across the country. He also assists management with process automation solutions and creates tools to support the evolving needs of the business. His experience includes Sql Server, Sql Server Integration Services, Sql Server Reporting Services, C#, ASP.NET MVC, and JavaScript. Tirado earned a bachelor's degree in computer science with a concentration in cybersecurity and information assurance from Florida Polytechnic University. He was a member of the university's inaugural class and graduated Summa Cum Laude in 2017.
Anwut Wasupan is currently a data analyst at Zelis Payments. His responsibilities involve managing financial reports, creating executive dashboards, develop forecast models, and creating various reports. Before joining the data analytic field, Wasupan worked in several engineering roles includes tests and development of the various products from surgical medical devices to defense and aerospace PCBs. He earned a bachelor’s degree in management information systems from the University of South Florida.
2018 COHORT- WEEKEND EXECUTIVE PROGRAM
Brenton Basinger is an experienced SaaS Account Executive, relentless multi-channel outbound prospector, and connoisseur of engaging cold outbound sequences. Prior to joining Coca-Cola in 2013, Basinger was a full time student, earning an associate's degree at HCC in medical sciences, a bachelor's degree in political science at USF, and master's degree in entrepreneurship at USF. Basinger completed all three degree programs in only three years and nine months. He was honored to be selected as the 2013 "Student of Year" by the USF Center for Entrepreneurship. Additionally, he recently completed a Certificate in Python Programming at the University of Washington.
Blanca Camoretti-Mercado has spent all her professional life in academia. She is assistant professor of medicine at the University of South Florida. She earned a master's degree and Ph.D. degree from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and conducted a post-doctoral fellowship at The University of Chicago. She joined the faculty at UC, and in November 2012 she was recruited to USF. A recipient of Diversity, Mentor, and Teacher awards, Camoretti-Mercado is member of the Board of Directors of the American Thoracic Society, the premier professional society in pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine with over 18,000 national and international physicians and researchers members. She is the current chair of the ATS Assembly on Respiratory Structure and Function, and member of the ATS Finance Committee, and the Planning and Evaluation Committee. She served as chair of the ATS Programming and Nominating committees, and of the Women Lung Conference of the American Lung Association (ALA). Camoretti-Mercado has been grant reviewer in the National Institute of Health, American Heart Association and ALA, and is on the editorial board of various professional journals. She has published original scientific, reviews and editorial articles, and book chapters. Camoretti-Mercado organized and chaired numerous symposia and poster discussions, and presented her investigations at academic and non-academic institutions worldwide. The availability of extensive databases of human clinical and biochemical parameters as well as the capability of generating large amounts of information from human and non-human studies have paved the path of personalized and precision medicine.
Colt Carson is an institutional equity sales analyst who specializes in data analytics and reporting. Currently, he works for Raymond James & Associates, a diversified financial services firm based out of St. Petersburg, Florida. Carson is primarily responsible for tracking and analyzing institutional client consumption and payment data, as well as, provides analytical support for senior management within the department. Carson received a dual bachelor's degree in finance and business management from the University of South Florida, and also holds the Series 7 and Series 63 licenses.
Katherine Crandall
TongXiang Deng
Troy Donovan is an experienced analyst with a demonstrated history of process improvement in the insurance industry. He is proficient in data analysis and time management as well as SQL, T-SQL, PL-SQL and SAS. Dovovan received a Bachelor's degree focused in Statistics from the University of South Florida.
Before working in technology, John Goodacre had a career in the hospitality field as an executive chef. Goodacre uses his hospitality skills daily to assist internal and external customers of the county. As a team lead, he manages enterprise and department specific solutions, including application development, system analysis, and business intelligence needs. John leverages his knowledge and experience as a SharePoint administrator and developer, Microsoft Dynamics CRM administrator and developer, and OnBase administrator to support enterprise solutions. Additionally, his Lean Six Sigma experience allows him to review current business processes and develop new solutions using technologies which include: ASP.NET MVC, C#, SQL Server, AJAX, JSON, JavaScript, XML, CSS, and Bootstrap. The business intelligence platforms that he uses include SAP Business Objects, Crystal Reporting, SQL Server Reporting Services, SQL Server Integration Services, and SQL Server Analysis Services. Goodacre earned a Bachelor of Technology, Information Technology: Web Development from State University of New York of Agriculture and Technology at Morrisville, New York graduating summa cum Laude in 2008. Since then, he advanced his professional development by completing Microsoft Courses in SQL Server, Data Warehousing, and Business Intelligence. In addition, he obtained certification as a Certified ScrumMaster in 2015.
Anitha Manogham
Ryan McMenamin's career path has not been a typical one. His early work focused on the hospitality industry and management. However, mid-career, a passion for S.T.E.M. drove him to engineering and analytics. Applying that passion, and a lot of hard work, he obtained his Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from USF, Tampa. With Verizon he has worked as an radio frequency designer, and system performance engineer. These jobs require a deep understanding of communications engineering principles, and are becoming more and more dependent on statistical methods and analysis to drive performance. He earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the University of South Florida, graduating magna cum laude.
Anusha Rangarajan is a QA lead in Verizon for the RMI applications. She is a software testing QA professional having rich experience and multi-tasking skills in performing all phases of test activities on different applications (of various domain) and software products, performing role of various test management activities, test analysis and execution. She has exposure to multicultural working environment with different locale. She has abachelor's degree with a major in corporate secretaryship, India and a master's degree in political science from the University of Madras, India. She has a Diploma in Business Management from Stratford Career Institute, Washington DC.
Eric Rosenberg has worked for DTCC. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Economics, Business, and Psychology from Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri.
Rajni Sachan is an experienced enterprise business transformation and quality assurance leader with more than 17 years' of experience. She started her career as a Microsoft developer and grew her experience in technologies for enterprise transformation with digital adoptions in cloud. She has a very keen interest in disruptive technologies and innovation and has conducted seminars and session on big data auality in conferences such as Starwest. She has published white papers on auality on big data platforms and digital technologies adoption in retail industries as technology evangelist. Sachan is a business leader and partner and her primary role is to provide IT services and digital business transformation strategies to grow their customer business by adopting new technologies. Sachan received a bachelor's degree in electronics and telecommunication engineering from University of Nagpur, India. She is also a certified Microsoft Solution Developer, CSQA and SAFe certified agilist.
Miles Scott is an entrepreneur and experienced IT professional. Currently, he works as a data protection engineer at a large international bio-tech company in the Tampa Bay area and runs two separate companies simultaneously. As an IT professiona, Scott has proven experience in the fields of data protection and enterprise storage technologies. In his role as CEO and vice presidentm, he is responsible for multiple facets of operational decision making and negotiations. Scott earned a Bachelor of Science from the University of South Florida with a concentration in management information systems. He also holds multiple IT certifications including, RedHat Certified Systems Administrator, NetApp Certified Solutions Engineer in Data Protection, and Symantec Certified specialist in NetBackup 7.5 for Windows.
Sujatha Thangaswamy Ramu is a senior member of technical staff in Verizon Data Services, with over 10 years experience in IT. She started her career with Verizon as an IT software developer, transitioned to solutions architect team and currently in a role of team lead for a very critical IT application. She always look out for opportunities to improve the IT processes and have played instrumental role in successful completion of several major projects in Verizon Finance IT group. Her prior experiences include IT instructor in a premier computer education institute, followed by working in Bluetooth technology and aerospace department in India. She earned a bachelor's degree in electronics and communication from Mysore University in India.
Bradley Watson