Ayasdi Team

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We are a team of passionate problem solvers with backgrounds in mathematics, computer science, engineering, biology, business and finance.

We share the common goal to help our customers learn from data and find breakthrough outcomes.

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Gurjeet Singh

Co-Founder & CEO

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Gunnar Carlsson

Co-Founder

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Harlan Sexton

Co-Founder and VP of Research

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Pek Lum

VP of Solutions and Chief Data Scientist

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Ben Mann

Vice President, Federal Operations

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Jeff Yoshimura

Vice President, Marketing

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Gary Hagmueller

Chief Financial Officer

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Vikram Makhija

Vice President, Engineering

Data Science

Jeff Garcia, M.S.

Jeff holds a BSc. with Honors in Evolutionary Biology from UC Santa Cruz and MS in Ecological Genetics at the University of Wyoming. Jeff enjoys traveling -- most often in South America for the spectacular bird watching.

Jeff Garcia

Data Science

Alan Lehman, Ph.D

Alan came to Ayasdi from Ingenuity Systems where he was an ontology engineer. After receiving a Ph.D. in genetics from UC Davis, where he studied transcriptional regulation, he picked up a love for large data sets, expensive road bikes and European dark chocolate.

Alan Lehman

Data Science

Alexis Johnson, M.S.

Alexis received her Masters Degree in Astronomy from Boston University. She spent five years with the Boston University Five College Radio Astronomy Observatory (BU-FCRAO) Galactic Ring Survey studying turbulent structure in molecular clouds in the Milky Way Galaxy. She lives for the days the Boston Red Sox play in Oakland, and revels in her western wine country relocation.

Alexis Johnson

Data Science

Jesse Paquette, M.S.

Jesse leads the development of new features and pipelines that enhance user experience, particularly in the life sciences domain. Prior to Ayasdi, Jesse was a computational biologist at UCSF. He maintains an impressive collection of scar tissue, perpetuated by weekly overdoses of pick-up soccer.

Jesse Paquette

Data Science

Ajith Warrier, Ph.D.

Ajith joined Ayasdi as a Translational Engineer after completing his postdoctoral work at UC Berkeley, in the fields of neuroscience and bioinformatics. He will work for Volleyball.

Ajith Warrier

Mathematics

Sachin Adlakha, Ph.D.

Sachin came to Ayasdi from Caltech where he was a postdoctoral scholar in the Center for Mathematics of Information. Prior to Caltech he finished his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Stanford University. He hopes to visit sites of various ancient civilizations in his lifetime.

Sachin Adlakha

Data Science

Eithon Cadag, Ph.D.

Eithon holds a Ph.D. in biomedical informatics from University of Washington. Prior to Ayasdi, he worked in the government sector doing statistical analysis and software development for chemical and biological defense. He enjoys fishing in spare time.

Eithon Cadag

Sales

Kevin Heller

After Graduating from the US Military Academy, Kevin spent 5 years as an Armor Officer in the Army. He has spent over 20 years selling and managing teams in the Chemical, Healthcare, and Information Technology markets across the country. Kevin hopes to compete in the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii.

Kevin Heller

Engineering

Peter Pham, M.S.

Dragon slaying break;
Many lines must one man write;
To be true Master;

Peter Pham

Engineering

Jessa Lee. M.S.

Jessa holds a B.S. in Physics and an M.S. Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. As a member of Ayasdi’s software engineering team Jessa develops and implements new product features. She previously worked at Pacific Biosciences, and is a beekeeper in her spare time.

Jessa Lee

Does It All

Karen Rist

Karen whips the team and office into professional shape when she is not paddleboarding off Kauai's Hanalei beach or designing jewelry. Previously, Karen was Director of Messaging and Collaborative Services at PeopleSoft. She holds a degree in philosophy from UCSB.

Karen Rist

Mathematics

Jennifer Kloke, Ph.D.

After receiving her Ph.D. in mathematics focusing on topological data analysis (TDA) from Stanford University, Jennifer became the second employee at Ayasdi. She now focuses on creating exciting new products that explore unstructured data. When not thinking about TDA, she is busy in her large vegetable garden.

Jennifer Kloke

Sales

Jason Smith

Jason holds a degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Waterloo in Canada. He has 25 years of experience selling and building software sales teams in both commercial and government markets. Jason lives in Maryland with his wife and two children and is working on his first album of original tunes.

Jason Smith

Marketing

Ariane Sunder

Ariane comes to Ayasdi with 10 years of experience in marketing and consulting for technology start-ups. She now leads all aspects of demand generation at Ayasdi. Ariane holds a B.A. in Communications and an M.A. in Psychology. You can find her outdoors with her two kids, or traveling to foreign countries when she’s not working.

Ariane Sunder

Data Science

Muthu Alagappan

Muthu obtained a B.S. in Biomechanical Engineering with distinction from Stanford University, where he was a Mayfield Fellow, Award of Excellence recipient, and member of Tau Beta Pi, and is now pursuing his MD at Stanford School of Medicine. Muthu handles all sports analyses, which is convenient as he already spends much of his free time watching basketball.

Muthu Alagappan

Engineering

David Kamm, M.S.

David holds a B.S. and M.S. in Computer Science from Stanford University. He is currently an engineer at Ayasdi. In his free time, he enjoys rock climbing, swimming, and learning the art of haiku from Peter.

David Kamm

Finance

Regie Ducusin

Regie is a seasoned finance and accounting professional with experience in both startup and public companies. Regie is a CPA and previously worked for renewable energy, software and medical device companies. Regie likes to travel and rides his bike or goes for a run to decompress.

Regie Ducusin

Data Science

Damir Herman, Ph.D.

Damir received a Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics from CWRU and pursued his postdoc at NCBI to then plunge into the world of clinical trials and translational research as a Hem/Onc faculty member at Rockefeller Cancer Institute in Little Rock, AR. He also spent a year at Affymetix traveling around the world evangelizing personalized medicine. Outside of work, Damir is both a cabbie when hauling his three kids to various sports activities, and a coach when teaching them how to swim or play soccer.

Damir Herman

Sales

Jim Demetros

Jim leads sales for the East. Jim has 25 years of experience building companies and working with high-growth startups. Early in his career, he worked for Steve Jobs at NeXT and Apple and most recently ran Eastern U.S. enterprise sales for Zuora, the SaaS online billing leader.

Jim Demetros

Business Development

Michael Szelong

After graduating with a degree in Mathematics/Computer Science from UCLA, Mike spent most of his career in sales and sales management, later moving into a variety of marketing, corporate and business development roles among fast growing, high tech firms. Outside work, he enjoys his family, many outdoor activities and volunteering his time to the Boy Scouts and Rotary service clubs.

Michael Szelong

Marketing

Bob Berry

Bob is Ayasdi's first Sales Development Rep. After graduating from St. Mary's College of California with a B.A. in Communications, Bob worked as a recruiter for 121 Silicon Valley. He also was a 4-year intern for the Golden State Warriors and President of the St. Mary's Water Polo Club. In his free time, he enjoys mentoring college basketball players and supporting Stanford Football.

Bob Berry

Administration

Rachael Hughes

Rachael has more than 16 years of experience in executive administration. She comes to Ayasdi from the Comerica Bank where she supported a Sr. VP for over 8 years. She loves children, music, animals and being a part of contributing to finding a cure for cancer in any way she can.

Rachael Hughes

Engineering

Joshua Lewis, Ph.D.

As a postdoc at UC San Diego Josh built software and ran psychological studies to better understand how we interact with and reason about machine learning techniques. At Ayasdi he continues to work toward making data analysis more accessible. Outside the office Josh is a foodie, a gamer, and a dad.

Joshua Lewis

Marketing

TJ Laher

After graduating from UC Berkeley with a degree in Environmental Economics, TJ specialized in social media marketing. TJ has helped everyone from startups to publicly traded companies leverage social media within their marketing strategy. On the weekends TJ enjoys rock climbing, fly fishing, and wasting time in the park with his puppy.

TJ Laher

Sales

Mike Gormley, M.S.

Mike is responsible for Ayasdi's growth in supporting the U.S. military and intelligence community. He has a 20+ year track record building business and teams for this space. He holds an M.S. in Technology Management and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering. Mike lives in Annapolis, MD spending time with his wife and 2 children on their favorite bay – the Chesapeake.

Mike Gormley

Engineering

Abhishek Gupta, Ph.D.

Abhishek came to Ayasdi with over 9 years of technology experience in Large Scale Data Systems and Web Search at Google and Microsoft. He received a Ph.D. in Computer Science from UC Santa Barbara where he studied P2P systems at the Distributed Systems Lab. Apart from work, his interests include photography and driving, though not at the same time.

Abhishek Gupta

Mathematics

Anthony Bak, Ph.D.

Prior to coming to Ayasdi, Anthony was at Stanford University where he did a postdoc with Ayasdi co-founder Gunnar Carlsson working on new methods and applications of Topological Data Analysis. He did his Ph.D. work in algebraic geometry with applications to string theory at the University of Pennsylvania and along the way worked at the Max Planck Institute in Germany, Mount Holyoke college in Massachusetts and the American Institute of Mathematics in California. In his free time he wanders the back alleys of the Bay Area searching for the perfect xiaolongbao with wife and son.

Anthony Bak

Technical Documentation

Neal Kaplan

Neal is responsible for Ayasdi's user documentation and customer support. He brings 18 years of experience as a technical communicator, having created documentation for companies ranging from start-ups to multinationals. At home, Neal spends time with his wife and two daughters, and tries to bring some order to his back yard.

Neal Kaplan

Sales

Robert Tri, M.S.

With over twenty years in high-tech sales, Robert enjoys helping leading customers achieve key business results, such as increased revenues, lower costs, faster time to market, and higher employee productivity. He earned his BS in Computer Science from Columbia University and his MS in Finance from Golden Gate University. Robert lives in Palo Alto with his wife, two children, and three dogs; volunteers with Habitat for Humanity; and mentors Columbia University students in the school's entrepreneurship program.

Robert Tri

Data Science

Tanya Petrossian, Ph.D.

Tanya joins the Ayasdi team as head of Academic Affairs. She is a double graduate in Biochemistry from UCLA with fellowship training at Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. After completing her postdoctoral studies in Bioinformatics and Systems Biology, Tanya helped revolutionize genomics for cytogenetics applications at Affymetrix. In her spare time, she likes to swim and practice latte art as an aspiring barista.

Tanya Petrossian

Engineering

Pinar Altin Yilmaz, M.S.

Pinar followed the gold rush to California after getting her M.S degree from NJIT and worked at several small and large companies and finally found a home at Ayasdi. She is passionate about work that matters. She loves to explore the shoreline Bay Trail on her bike with her daughter.

Pinar Altin Yilmaz

Recruiting

Raj Singh

Raj is the Director of Talent at Ayasdi. He has several years of experience building and recruiting high performance teams. If you are interested in any opening at Ayasdi, talk to Raj. On evenings and weekends, Raj can be found at the local racquetball courts or a nearby hiking trail.

Raj Singh

Data Science

Seth Howell, Ph.D.

Seth received his Ph.D. in Mathematics from Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL). He spent the following 9 years in the government sector as an Operations Research Analyst prior to joining the Ayasdi team. Seth is complemented by his wife (a statistician) as they raise two active children.

Seth Howell

Engineering

Lawrence Spracklen, Ph.D.

Lawrence holds a Ph.D. in EE from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland and a B.S. in Computational Physics from the University of York, England. Prior to joining Ayasdi, Lawrence worked at VMware, Nvidia, and Sun Microsystems, where he focused on performance analysis and computer architecture.

Lawrence Spracklen

Marketing

Robert Gilson

After graduating from UC Berkeley with a degree in Political Science and four years on the Men's Heavyweight Crew Team, Robert followed the lure of technology to Silicon Valley. He comes to Ayasdi from Eventbrite where he spent several years working in Sales. He is Ayasdi's second Sales Development Rep. When not in the office, you can find Robert on his bike exploring the paths of San Francisco or wrestling with his three dogs.

Robert Gilson

Engineering

Saam Barrager

Saam holds a BS in Economics from UC Berkeley. He has 15 years of experience in Quality Assurance and specializes in Big Data applications and continuous integration in startup environments. When not working, Saam raises his 4 beautiful and energetic children.

Saam Barrager

YOU

Board Advisors

Ann Miura-Ko

General Partner, FLOODGATE

Todd Rulon-Miller

Venture Advisor

Gunnar Carlsson

Co-Founder, Ayasdi

Gurjeet Singh

Co-Founder & CEO, Ayasdi

Academic Advisory Board

Jeffrey Heer, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Computer Science, Stanford University

Eric Schadt, Ph.D.

Professor & Chair, Genetics and Genomic Sciences, Mount Sinai School of Medicine

Joel Dudley, Ph.D.

Director, Biomedical Informatics, Mount Sinai School of Medicine