Tony Romo
Lead NFL Game Analyst, CBS Sports, and former quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys
Tony Romo
Lead NFL Game Analyst, CBS Sports, and former quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys
Tony Romo is the Lead NFL Game Analyst at CBS Sports. Prior to his broadcast debut, Tony played fourteen seasons with the Dallas Cowboys, retiring from the NFL in April 2017.
Despite showing great athletic talent and having a stellar collegiate career, Tony came into the NFL undrafted as a backup quarterback. He proceeded slowly in Dallas, working from third-string quarterback to starting quarterback over the course of four years. He was given a chance in 2006, as he replaced a veteran quarterback midway through the season resulting in a playoff appearance for the Cowboys after a three-year drought. Throughout his career, Tony has been selected to four Pro Bowl teams (NFL All-Star game) and led his team to four postseason appearances.
Romo currently holds the NFL records for most passing attempts through 100 starts, most consecutive road games with a touchdown pass (41), and most games with 135+ passer rating in a season (6).
It was not long before the media caught up with the small-town boy-turned-Dallas Cowboys quarterback. His immediate rise from a blue-collar background to Texas Royalty epitomizes the American Dream. He appeared regularly Sports Illustrated, ESPN the Magazine and The Sporting News. Midwestern origins and a close-knit family provide Tony with a strong foundation to handle challenges both on and off the field.
Tony currently resides in Dallas, with his wife Candice and their two children.
Marc Altshuller
President and CEO
Varicent
Marc Altshuller
President and CEO, Varicent
Marc Altshuller is President and CEO of Varicent. Under Marc’s watch, Varicent has also acquired and integrated Symon.AI, an augmented intelligence solution for data ingestion, data preparation, advanced analytics, data science and machine learning focused on business users.
Marc was the founder of Varicent in 2004, leading Varicent to become Canada’s fastest-growing company in 2010 and the 2010 Deloitte Fast 500 fastest growing software company in North America. Varicent was then acquired by IBM in 2012, where following the acquisition, Marc was promoted 5 times over the next 6 years, ultimately holding the role of General Manager of IBM’s approximately $1 billion Business Analytics Division. During this time, Marc brought Cognos back to growth, oversaw IBM's largest organic digital offering, Watson Analytics, and was on IBM’s Growth and Transformation Team comprised of the top 300 Executives at IBM.
Most recently before rejoining Varicent, Marc served as Executive in Residence at Information Venture Partners, a Toronto/NY based Fintech fund. He then partnered with Great Hill Partners and Spectrum Equity to buy back Varicent from IBM on December 31, 2019.
Nicole Kent
Senior Vice President, Product Strategy and Customer Success
Varicent
Nicole Kent
Senior Vice President, Product Strategy and Customer Success, Varicent
Nicole brings more than 20 years of experience as an accomplished organizational leader with significant operations, sales, merger and acquisition, and global human capital generalist expertise.
A former customer of Varicent while working at US-based healthcare company Optum, Nicole led a team of more than 20 compensation professionals in support of over 150,000 employees and 30,000 managers through compensation planning—including base salary, bonus, sales and quarterly variable incentives, and equity awards, with a strong focus on aligning rewards with performance.
Most recently Nicole served as SVP of Revenue and Operations at Datica, a digital health company focused on health IT’s most difficult challenges in interoperability and cloud compliance. Her extensive experience across all facets of sales performance management—as well as having been a long-time customer of Varicent—gives Nicole a unique edge in her role.
Colin Wong
General Manager, Financial Services
Varicent
Colin Wong
General Manager, Financial Services, Varicent
Colin Wong is the General Manager, Financial Services at Varicent. Colin brings to Varicent over 25 years banking experience with M&T Bank, Bank of America, SunTrust Bank and Citizens. In that time, he has lead customer-facing teams and had enterprise impact through a variety of corporate roles including leading teams focused on sales performance management and incentive plan administration.
Colin has a Bachelor of Computer Science from Carleton University and a Master of Business Administration in Finance and Economics from the Simon School at the University of Rochester.
Neil Whitney
Chief Operating Officer
Varicent
Neil Whitney
Chief Operating Officer, Varicent
Neil was a founding member of the original Varicent leadership team. He has led high growth teams in sales, marketing, product, design, services, cloud, support and operations. Neil's executive experience ranges from startup to large enterprise.
In his time at Ada Support Inc., Neil developed and launched new product integrations, intelligence and analytics features leading to millions in new revenue. As well, when at IBM Neil determined the product vision and strategy, with an aim to delight customers in every interaction with the product. From motivating small innovative teams to guiding large, distributed teams, Neil can deliver sophisticated platforms for a variety of use cases.
Neil is passionate about analytics, customer success and creating experiences users love. As COO, Neil oversees Varicent's product, service and customer operations.
Kimberly Deobald
General Manager, Symon.AI
Varicent
Kimberly Deobald
General Manager, Symon.AI, Varicent
Kimberly Deobald is the General Manager of Symon.AI at Varicent. She has been helping customers achieve big outcomes with Data Analytics, Data Science and AI for years now.
Prior to joining Varicent, Kimberly was the Vice President of Global Sales for Data Science and AI at IBM. With a history spanning over 25 years of bolstering multimillion dollar growth and leading intuitive go-to-market strategies, Kimberly has dedicated herself to delivering cross-enterprise transformation while mentoring her team, cultivating fundamental partnerships, and empowering customer success. Kimberly has a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Georgetown University, and a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Mathematics from Randolph-Macon College.
Mike Meisenheimer
Principal, Marketing and Sales Analytics, The Alexander Group
Mike Meisenheimer
Principal, Marketing and Sales Analytics, The Alexander Group
Mike Meisenheimer is a Principal and Marketing Leader with the Alexander Group, a revenue growth management consulting firm, and is responsible for the firm’s corporate, industry and content marketing efforts. He has more than 25 years of sales effectiveness consulting and technology experience. Mike works with sales, marketing and service executives to design and execute solutions to increase productivity and reduce operational expense. Previously he led the firms analytics practice and has held multiple leadership roles within the technology industry. Mike is an expert in the areas of sales compensation management and sales performance management.
Marcus Hearne
Chief Marketing Officer
Varicent
Marcus Hearne
Chief Marketing Officer, Varicent
Marcus Hearne is the Chief Marketing Officer at Varicent. Prior to joining Varicent, Marcus was the Senior Vice President of Product & Solutions Management at SDL, and has previous experience advancing marketing and product objectives at Tata Consulting Services, IBM, and SPSS.
With over 20+ years of experience in global B2B marketing and product management, Marcus has often played a direct role in the delivery of multi-million dollar revenues—facilitating sustainable growth, and creating market leadership. He is an expert at developing offerings and marketing strategies to penetrate global markets across industries, having successfully developed and launched new products, and strengthened positions in highly competitive and dynamic domestic and international markets. Marcus has a Bachelor of Commerce (BCom) from the University of Melbourne.
Sunshine Zhou
Senior Customer Success Manager
Varicent
Sunshine Zhou
Senior Customer Success Manager, Varicent
Sunshine has been with Varicent for 6 years, starting her career as a Technical Analyst fresh out of post-secondary, and most recently as a Senior Customer Success Manager.
Sunshine is focused on helping customers succeed by realizing the most value out of the solution, including driving adoption of exciting new features.
Outside of work, she enjoys the sunshine (ha), Rubik’s cubes, and weightlifting.
Sunshine holds a Master of Engineering in Chemical Engineering from the University of Toronto.
Kevin McFaul
Senior Product Management
Varicent
Kevin McFaul
Senior Product Management, Varicent
Kevin McFaul, Senior Product Management, is driving the evolution of Varicent's analytics capabilities. His commitment to improving the business user experience is evident as he champions the focus on empowering users to communicate their data and findings in a more effective and engaging manner through self-learning.
Joel Shapiro
Chief Analytics Officer at Varicent and Clinical Associate Professor of Data Analytics at Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management
Joel Shapiro
Chief Analytics Officer at Varicent and Clinical Associate Professor of Data Analytics at Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management
Professor Joel Shapiro is an expert on helping organizations generate business value with data analytics. He consults on how to scale enterprise-wide analytics expertise and develop profitable analytics investments and strategies.
Joel currently serves as Chief Analytics Officer of Varicent, a leading Sales Performance Management solution provider. His work has been featured nationally and globally; he is a Contributor to Forbes and CNBC, has recently delivered keynote addresses at IBM Analytics University in Berlin and Allstate Insurance’s inaugural D3 (data science) Conference, regularly publishes in top journals, such as Harvard Business Review, and is often cited by top business publications, such as Business Insider.
Joel is also a widely recognized expert on the creation of “high value” professional education and training. He has built and implemented analytics programs for thousands of business leaders and managers at numerous organizations. An expert in digital teaching and learning strategy, Joel led the creation and rapid growth of online learning at Northwestern University’s School of Professional Studies, which educates working professionals across the world. He was awarded the Blackboard Catalyst Award in 2013 for exemplary online teaching.
At Northwestern, Joel teaches MBA students at Kellogg, MS in Analytics students at the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and hundreds of Kellogg executive education students each year. He is on the Board of Directors of Tacit Corporation, a leading mobile food ordering technology company. Joel holds a PhD in policy analysis from the RAND Graduate School, a JD from Northwestern University School of Law, and a BS in physics from the University of Michigan.
Dominique Tucci
Regional Manager
Varicent
Dominique Tucci
Regional Manager, Varicent
Dominique joined Varicent in 2015 and has since held various customer-facing roles in Technical Support, Product Management, and Customer Success.
As a Regional Sales Manager, Dominique spends her days helping organizations recognize the benefit of Varicent’s suite of products, and learn how to best leverage them to gain operational efficiency.
She’s passionate about problem-solving, analytics, and building strong relationships.
When she isn’t speaking with clients, Dominique enjoys cooking, trying new restaurants, and traveling. Once travel is permitted, she is looking forward to a European beach adventure.
Dominique holds a Bachelors of Applied Science in Chemical Engineering from the University of Toronto.
Zach Burnett
Senior Vice President, Sales
Varicent
Zach Burnett
Senior Vice President, Sales, Varicent
Zach has deep experience in transforming sales organizations to align client needs with technology. He comes to Varicent from IBM where he was responsible for revenue and go to market strategy for the Sales Performance Management business. Zach’s additional experiences at Pfizer, Avaya and IBM have created a profound understanding of a diverse set of markets. Zach has a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Minnesota and a Bachelor of Science from the University of Wisconsin.
Reed Chaikin
Sr. Solution Consultant
Varicent
Reed Chaikin
Sr. Solution Consultant, Varicent
Reed Chaikin has over 25 years’ experience working with Fortune 500 companies on Performance Management and Business Analytic solutions. He joined Varicent 1.0 in 2008, remained with the Varicent team thru the IBM years and is thrilled to contribute to Varicent 3.0’s success. Reed’s time with Varicent has focused on helping customers understand and best leverage solutions for Incentive Compensation and Sales Performance Management.
Reed has 35+ years consulting experience bringing new products to market, helping startups flourish and facilitating customer success. Reed has never had a Facebook account, enjoys intimate dinners with real friends and is ready to be a grandpa (though his son isn’t currently doing anything to make that a reality).
Scott Werstlein
Vice President, North American Sales, OpenSymmetry
Scott Werstlein
Vice President, North American Sales, OpenSymmetry
Scott Werstlein is the Vice President of North American Sales at OpenSymmetry. Scott has over 20 years of experience in the configuration and deployment of incentive compensation management (ICM) applications at companies of all sizes, ranging from SMBs to Fortune 50 companies. Having managed commissions teams as well as the technology side of ICM applications, Scott brings a unique focus on customer success that comes from first-hand experience of the challenges of managing and optimizing ICM beyond just the technology. Scott ensures the team at OpenSymmetry has a commitment to relational continuity with clients for long-term success.
Lillian Muller
Manager of Financial Planning & Reporting at Carnival Cruise Line
Lillian Muller
Manager of Financial Planning & Reporting at Carnival Cruise Line
Lillian Muller is the Sr. Manager of Commercial Operations Analysis & Reporting at Carnival Cruise Line. She is responsible for the creation and ongoing support of reporting for Carnival’s Global Contact Center, as well as creation, maintenance, tracking, and budgeting for all Commercial incentive plans.
Lillian has more than 30 years of Commercial and Contact Center experience and leads and mentors a team of analysts that provide reporting, analytics, and incentive plan processing. In addition, she is a trusted resource for both peers and executive leadership; and provides the guidance necessary for making critical business decisions. Her team is also responsible for supporting and executing initiatives proposed by executive management, including strategic automation, process improvements, and result-driven incentive plans.
Frederic Potvin
Director of Sales Performance Management (SPM) Shared Services for Citizens Financial Group
Frederic Potvin
Director of Sales Performance Management (SPM) Shared Services for Citizens Financial Group
Frederic Potvin is the Director of Sales Performance Management (SPM) Shared Services for Citizens Financial Group. In his current role, he manages the following SPM teams: ICM Platform Strategy & Delivery, ICM Administrator Support (Colleague Support & Quality Assurance), and SPM Process & Data Modernization. He has spent the last 20 years of his financial services career managing and implementing complex projects, improving processes, growing business, and providing innovative technical solutions.
Before arriving at Citizens, Frederic led a team to establish and mature the Business Architecture practice for Consumer Banking, Consumer Operations, and OMNI Channels at SunTrust. Before that, he was a Business Architect Principal Consultant at a boutique firm that assisted large financial institutions develop and implement complex Sales & Service software solutions. Prior to his consulting work, Frederic held several consumer bank leadership roles with responsibilities ranging from business development to systems development.
Frederic holds a Bachelor of Science in Finance degree from the University of Central Florida and is a TOGAF Certified Architect. A native of Montreal, Canada, he has resided in the United States for 30 years and lives with his husband, Brent Kelleher, and two dogs, Luna & Stella, in Oviedo, Florida.