Meet the Experts

Thomas H. Davenport
Author and President's Distinguished Professor
Babson College

Thomas H. Davenport is the President's Distinguished Professor of Information Technology and Management at Babson College and co-directs research for the Business Analytics research program at nGenera (formerly BSG Concours).

He is the former director of research centers at Accenture, Ernst & Young, and McKinsey, and has taught at Harvard Business School, Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business, and the University of Texas at Austin. Davenport is a frequent contributor to Harvard Business Review and other leading journals; his “Competing on Analytics” article was Harvard Business Review’s most-requested article reprint of 2006.

Davenport is the author or co-author of 12 books, including the best-sellers Working Knowledge: How Organizations Manage What They Know, and Process Innovation: Reengineering Work Through Information Technology. His latest book, Competing on Analytics: The New Science of Winning, has become a best-seller and is being translated into 10 languages.

Ed Dupee
Vice President, Global Industry Solutions for Retail
Teradata Corp.

As Vice President of Global Industry Solutions for Retail at Teradata, Ed Dupee provides strategic direction and marketing for the company’s retail business. He also ensures that Teradata has the proper solutions, services and partnerships to ensure its continued leadership in retail enterprise data warehousing and business intelligence solutions.

Dupee has more than 20 years of experience in sales, consulting and marketing, working with many of the world’s leading retailers. Previous Teradata positions held by Dupee include Vice President of Demand Chain Management and Director of Retail Data Warehousing. Dupee earned a bachelor’s degree from The State University of New York and an MBA from the Crummer Graduate School at Rollins College.

Jeff Levitan
General Manager, Customer Intelligence Practice and Global Retail Practice
SAS

During a career spanning more than 25 years, Jeff Levitan has held executive-level positions and guided the strategic direction of some of the most successful companies in retail, consumer products, pharmaceuticals, banking, telecommunications and e-commerce. Prior to his appointment as General Manager of the SAS Global Customer Intelligence and Retail business units, he was Chief Operating Officer of Veridiem, which SAS acquired in 2006.

Previously, Levitan was Vice Chairman of the TransNational Group, a multimillion-dollar portfolio of marketing-based companies. Prior to that position, he contributed to the growth and dominance of Staples in the office products industry as an executive officer of Staples Inc. and Executive Vice President of Staples.com. He founded and launched Staples.com and guided its domestic growth strategy and international expansion.

Before joining Staples, Levitan was a strategist with the Boston Consulting Group, where he specialized in management consulting to large retail and consumer packaged goods companies. Early in his career, he held a variety of brand management positions at The Gillette Co. and The Stride Rite Corp. Levitan earned his MBA from the Wharton School and holds a bachelor's degree from Cornell University.

Eric Olson
Senior Director, Education Strategies
National Retail Federation

Eric Olson develops and delivers educational content to NRF members and others through the organization’s annual convention, conferences, summits and Web seminars. Prior to joining NRF, Olson worked with member-based organization Vendor Compliance Federation (VCF) as Director of Content and Programming. He also spent more than 13 years with Retail Systems Alert Group in various management roles, including Vice President of Content and Vice President of Products and Services.

Olson has an extensive understanding of retail IT, supply chain process, retail-supplier collaboration and international retailing, including Asia Pacific and Europe. He graduated from University of California, Santa Barbara, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English.

Alexi Sarnevitz
Senior Director, Retail Strategy
SAS Global Retail Practice

Alexi Sarnevitz guides SAS' retail vertical go-to-market strategies and solution development priorities on the basis of the latest industry trends. His responsibilities also include alliance relation approaches, analyst relations guidance and evaluating competitive intelligence implications. Sarnevitz works closely with retail product management, R&D, product marketing and the SAS regional retail field organizations around the globe.

Before joining SAS, Sarnevitz was Research Director for Retail at AMR Research, where he advised clients on their processes and IT strategies and offered insight into retail enterprise application market technology trends and dynamics. Prior to his work at AMR, Sarnevitz was an associate partner at Accenture, where he led the rollout of new processes and enabling technologies in the merchandising, marketing, supply chain and store operations areas for a variety of leading retailers.

Sarnevitz holds a bachelor's degree from Brandeis University and a master's degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration.