The Tech Trek

Meet: Daniel Gremmell is the Head of Data at Policygenius where he leads data engineering, data analysis, and data science. Before Policygenius, he was VP of Data Science at Plated. Daniel has experience in numerous industries including automotive, aerospace, and publishing. Daniel holds 2 master's degrees including an MS in Statistics from Rochester Institute of Technology. What you’ll learn: Fin...

Meet: Peter has held management-level positions at Hearst and Freestar, before landing at Teachable, where he is the Head of Data. He also has his MBA from NYU. What you’ll learn: Building your data science team - case study and lessons learned 3rd party applications - pros/cons and the debate, to build in-house or buy If you have any questions for Peter, please feel free to reach out to him via L...

Meet: Marnie Benney is an Independent Curator working at the juncture of contemporary art and technology. Over the last decade, she has produced 27 exhibitions in city centers, public spaces, galleries, and festivals around the world including the New York Hall of Science, University of Cambridge London, the National Aquarium in Maryland, and The Nook Gallery in Los Angeles. Benney is the Co-found...

Meet: Bryan has worked at Facebook and Indeed on the Data Science and Machine Learning teams. He’s currently the Data Science Manager at Nextdoor. What you’ll learn: Grad School - the pros and cons and what you can do to jumpstart your career Remote work - the pros and cons If you have any questions for Bryan, please feel free to reach out to him via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryangilb...

Meet: Josh Scott, an experienced security leader that focuses on building high performing and innovative security programs that are business-focused. Passionate about delivering security solutions that are maintainable, deliver value to the organization, and are as transparent as possible to customers both internal and external. More than 20 years of security experience in many security and techno...

Meet: Sean has worked at Google and Facebook. He was a Data Science Manager at Facebook working on the VR team before moving over to Goodwater Capital as their Data Science Manager. What you’ll learn: Data Moat - insight collection, defining success, operationalizing data applications Showing your value - examples for data scientists to show their value If you have any questions for Sean, please f...

Meet: Clare Corthell is an entrepreneur and product manager in mapping and data science. She founded companies in drone mapping, data science consulting, and consumer ridesharing. She started the Open Source Data Science Masters, used as the blueprint for university accredited degrees since 2014. She is currently the Product Manager of map data at Lyft, hails from Stanford Engineering, and grew up...

Meet: Silvano has 20 years of experience in IT and Information Security and his interests include DevSecOps, AppSec, and business-driven risk-based approach. Silvano is a proponent of Security integrated into the product development lifecycle to create a seamless culture of security by design. What you’ll learn: Finding the right balance as a product-focused CISO Compliance requirements as a part...

Meet: Jesse Lehmier is a data engineering manager at ASAPP. He previously worked in analytics, big data, and full-stack software engineering roles. What you’ll learn: Seize opportunities to develop soft skills Transitioning from a software engineering role into data engineering Don’t spin your wheels, ask for help sooner If you have any questions for Jesse, please feel free to reach out to him via...

Meet: Adam Oliner, Head of Machine Learning at Slack. Prior to Slack, Adam was leading the team at Splunk. He has his Masters and Ph. D. in Computer Science from Stanford and did his undergraduate degree at MIT. What you’ll learn: Commoditization of tooling - how it affects your career Structuring your Machine Learning organization - best practices and approaches Machine Learning Projects - how to...

Meet: Rohit Vashisht is the co-founder and CEO of whiz.ai, a conversational AI platform for Life Sciences commercial ops and field teams. Previously, Rohit was CEO and co-founder of Sverve – an influencer marketplace that was acquired by Bloglovin’ and rebranded as Activate. Rohit holds an M.B.A from the NYU Stern School of Business and an engineering degree from I.I.T, Delhi. What you’ll learn: W...

Meet: Jeshua Bratman is an expert in building technology products powered by artificial intelligence. He’s a founding member of Abnormal Security and head of machine learning. Prior to joining Abnormal, Jeshua played a critical role in building Twitter’s machine learning platform and detecting and preventing abusive behavior on the Twitter product. Prior to Twitter, Jeshua built the AI engine that...

Meet: Gagan Sandhu, Sr. Engineering Director at Square. He leads the ML, Data Engineering and Mobile engineers within the e-commerce product division at Square. What you’ll learn: Machine Learning - How to apply ML effectively to your organization: from getting buy-in for projects, managing expectations, and solving the right problems by working with the right people. Mentorship - Different strate...

Meet: Drew Silverstein is the CEO and co-founder of Amper Music. Founded in 2014, Amper Music combines the highest levels of artistry with groundbreaking technology to empower anyone to create unique, professional music, instantly. He is part of the Forbes class of 2018 "30 Under 30" list for music. Prior to Amper Music, Drew was an award-winning composer, producer, and songwriter for film, televi...

Meet: Adam Robertson is a DevOps Leader with more than 15 years of professional experience architecting and building technical organizations from early-stage startups to established long-running companies. Starting young at the beginning of the internet revolution he had a natural proclivity to everything technical and was building computers for friends and family by his early teens. After spendin...

Meet: Jude Gomila is currently CEO and Founder of the startup Golden. Jude Gomila was previously President and Co-Founder of Heyzap (Union Square Ventures and Y Combinator funded in 2009) which sold to Fyber for $45m in 2016. He has also made over 200 angel investments into startups. What you’ll learn: Focusing on solving search issues Applying trust to a data source and resolving the conflicts be...

Meet: Kunal Haria, Data Engineering Manager at StyleSeat. He has his Masters in Information Management from Syracuse University. What you’ll learn: Interviewing - tips for data engineers, from resumes to whiteboarding Transition to Management - lessons learned going from a lead to a manager Buy vs Build - how to evaluate to build in-house vs buying an off the shelf solution If you want to connect...

Meet: Phillip Schafer leads the data science team at IronNet. He has a PhD in physics from Penn State, where he developed voice recognition algorithms modeled on the human brain's processing of speech. He previously worked on algorithms for pricing and dispositioning returned retail goods at retail startup Optoro. At IronNet, he has implemented machine learning models to help enterprises defend th...

Meet: Ryan Scolnik, the Head of Data Science at FortressIQ. He was employee #4 and currently leads the company's data science, computer vision and AI strategy. Ryan holds a PhD in Statistics from Florida State University and enjoys Kaggle competitions and long bike rides in his spare time. What you’ll learn: Being the 1st Data hire - lessons learned and finding data vs simulating data Transition t...

Meet: Michael Weiss has spent the past 16 years in information security. While at Microsoft, he managed the Security Assurance Program for Windows 7. His latest role is as Chief Information Security Officer at Funding Circle, a fintech small business lender based in London. What you’ll learn: Look to security adjacent roles to find your next security hire natural interest in security is one of you...

Meet: Shailvi Wakhlu, the Head of Analytics at Komodo Health. She loves to volunteer, mentor, and inspire within the data and analytics community. What you’ll learn: Resume and Interviewing - tips for analysts Women in Data - how to share your achievements Women in Data - job promotion advice The best way to connect with Shailvi is on Twitter - @ShailviW

Meet: Daniel Barber is the CEO & Co-founder of DataGrail. In the new age of privacy, DataGrail is the only purpose-built privacy management platform that ensures sustained compliance with the GDPR, CCPA, and forthcoming regulation. Prior to DataGrail, Daniel led revenue teams at DocuSign, Datanyze (acquired by ZoomInfo), ToutApp (acquired by Marketo), and Responsys (acquired by Oracle). He als...

Meet: Chris Byington is VP of Data at Updater, where he leads the Data team in partnering with stakeholders to bring data to bear on the company’s toughest problems.  Before Updater Chris led Analytics at Heroku, a Salesforce company, where he used data to deeply understand software developers and help them be more successful.  A recovering stats nerd, Chris’s favorite statistical techni...

Meet: Mahesh Ramasubramanian is the co-founder and CEO of Loom.ai, a San Francisco-based company that has developed an end-to-end deep learning platform for deploying personalized 3D avatars for enterprise applications. With over 15 years of experience leading visual effects for several blockbuster movies at DreamWorks Animation, Mahesh is also a voting member of the Oscars Academy of Motion Pictu...

Meet: Lisa Mirkovic, VP of Data Engineering at Capital Group. Lisa has been at the Capital Group for over 20 years and is passionate about paying it forward whenever possible, especially within the data and engineering community. What you’ll learn: Career Advice - how to be self-aware and be happy in your career Data Engineering - the key attributes it takes to be a good data engineer Leveling Up...