Hetz
Data Program
Browse industry insights from our Data Advisors below.

Yuda Borochov finds leadership to be his calling: "I'm passionate about data. I love what I do. I've been fortunate to lead teams that have a delivery track record of numerous massively large strategic initiatives from vision to implementations, in startups, global public and private companies, and Fortune-100 enterprises.I’m currently leading the Data organization in one of the world's largest esports and competitive gaming companies.I'm on a lifelong mission to study true leadership. It has yielded tight families. Also called teams."
"Leadership leads people, managers manage stuff. If we remember to have values around a heart-first and people-first core. If we put systems in play to support this mindset. Over time our Org's outcomes will surpass any immediate goal one single manager's perspective can conjure."

Gilad Lotan, Head of Data Science and Analytics at BuzzFeed Inc. spearheads a team developing cutting-edge analytics, insights, and data products used by thousands and experienced by hundreds of millions of content consumers worldwide. Prior to BuzzFeed, Gilad led Data Science at Betaworks, an NYC-based startup studio and seed-stage VC firm that launched services such as Bitly, Chartbeat, Giphy and SocialFlow. Earlier, Gilad contributed to data product development at Microsoft where his team integrated social data streams into a range of products. His work, particularly on propaganda and bias within algorithmic ranking systems, has been widely recognized in academic journals and publications.
"Organizations should stop seeing data as merely a source of information and begin to recognize its transformative potential in reshaping decision-making processes and driving innovative product development."
Recent Works:
Even This Data Guru Is Creeped Out By What Anonymous Location Data Reveals About Us

As Head of AI/ML Strategy at Snowflake, Ahmad leverages his expertise in AI/ML to help customers optimize their workloads on Snowflake. Working closely with the Snowflake product team, he helps define the ML feature set within Snowflake based on customer feedback. Prior to joining Snowflake, Ahmad spent over 4 years at AWS where he focused on the AWS stack of ML services, and was involved in early proof of concepts for AWS SageMaker. Ahmad holds a Masters in Electrical & Computer Engineering from the University of Southern California.
"The one thing you have to earn in a customer interaction is trust. Everything else can come later. Listen, learn and acknowledge the gaps in your product or service as you pitch to your customers. Once, you have trust, the customers will wait for you to fill the gaps. Let the voice of the customer be a co-pilot as you drive your roadmap."

Amit Sethi is a strategic technology executive with over two decades of experience building and leading high-performing Data Engineering, Platform, and Data Science. Amit is passionate about leveraging data to drive business outcomes and provide a competitive advantage. His expertise covers: Development and management of data engineering pipelines and platforms at a petabyte scale; Development and execution of AI and data strategy for the company; Building cloud-scale data products and integrating with enterprise data sets; Modernizing Data Infrastructure (how data is instrumented, collected, stored, and insights are derived and shared with enterprise applications) through continuous evolution of processes, technologies, and adoption of SDLC principles; Building and retaining top talent, motivating and managing dispersed teams; Defining and executing of Data-driven operating environment that accelerated business outcomes (customer acquisition, conversion, and retention) and provided a competitive advantage; Migrations of large-scale on-prem big data platforms to the cloud (lift and shift, re-platform, and re-architecture strategies).
"Although numerous companies embarked on their journey nearly a decade ago, only a select few have successfully established and operated a data-driven operating model fueled by actionable insights. Those who have mastered this art have catapulted themselves ahead, leaving their competition in the dust."
Recent Works:
Podcast interview on The Next Big Question

Prasad is a seasoned analytics leader focused on managing innovative data/machine learning/artificial intelligence driven technology solutions to complex business problems. Prasad excels in setting big vision, executing with relentless intellectual curiosity and bringing the best out of people.
"It’s about ideas, execution and people. Dream big, execute relentlessly, treasure your relationships, bring the best out of everyone around you, and everything else follows."
Recent Works:
Interview with Institute of Product Leadership's AMA Series

Sumesh Kumar is a Sales Operations and Analytics leader responsible for driving ARR and Revenue growth. He has a proven track record of optimizing sales processes, implementing revenue-generating initiatives, and managing high-performing sales strategy and analytics teams. Sumesh has a record of strong analytical skills and experience using data-driven and Generative AI techniques to disrupt traditional Sales models and decision making. He is passionate about leveraging technology and innovation to drive Sales strategy and P&L.
"Disrupting traditional sales models through AI and Generative AI."

Martin specializes in delivering effective solutions and enhancing user experience and service delivery. With expertise in code-complete design and development, enterprise architecture, deployment, data security, and compliance, he brings valuable process and building knowledge to the table. His track record of success includes directing cross-functional and multi-site international teams in agile scrum, along with Scaled Agile, environments and managing IT projects, capacity planning, and implementation with ease. Areas of Martin's expertise include: Framework and improved processes for continuous improvement; Global Cloud Solutions: IaaS, PaaS, DCaaS, SaaS, NSOC, SOC; Data Science at scale with Machine Learning, ModelOps, MLOps; Observability to Explainability: ITIM, APM, Metrics, Patterns, Actionable; Security: Prevention, Detection, Remediation, DevSecOps.
"Leadership lies in inspiring others to unlock their full potential, delivering more, fostering a collaborative environment where diverse perspectives flourish, and engaging continuous improvement and growth."
Recent Works:
The Future of AI and ML in the Software Development Industry & Much More

Simon Stiebellehner has been building Machine Learning Platforms for more than half a decade. Recently, after leading the development of the ML Platform at Transaction Monitoring Netherlands (TMNL) as Lead Engineer MLOps, his current focus is on scaling effective collaboration across multiple engineering teams as Manager Engineering & Development. Next to his work at TMNL, Simon is also university lecturer for Data Mining & Data Warehousing and loves to share his expertise in the field of MLOps through conferences, podcasts, blog posts and LinkedIn content.
"The Wild West is history. Organizations must prepare for increasing compliance requirements for Machine Learning systems. Tooling and platforms that support this will be key."
Recent Works:
Vertical first, horizontal second: Why you should break through to production early when developing machine learning systems and how MLOps facilitates this.
Featured on How AI Built This podcast

Aurimas is a seasoned data professional with over a decade experience in Data Science, Data/ML/MLOps Engineering fields. He is obsessed with building out data capabilities at scale and helping organisations implement their Data Driven visions. He is driven by the belief that a strong self service data and ML platform is key for organisations to be successful in scaling out their data efforts. To achieve it there is both a need of Cultural and Technical transformation. He also helps practitioners to level up in MLOps, data engineering, machine learning and related data fields by sharing his knowledge and experience in easy-to-understand, digestible way.

Demetrios Brinkmann is founder of the MLOps Community. He is an avid traveler who taught English as a second language to see the world and learn about new cultures. Brinkmann fell into the Machine Learning Operations world, and since, has interviewed the leading names around MLOps, Data Science, and Machine Learning. When he is not conducting interviews you can find him making stone stackings with his daughter in the woods or playing the ukulele by the campfire.
"Lots of talk about community these days but its hard to get right. Developers are quick to sniff out products with the wrong intentions who use community as a way to generate leads."
Recent Works:

Wendy has over 10 years of experience building data product teams through different stages of scale from 0 - 1 to 1 - n. Currently, Wendy is the Director of Engineering & Data for Core Optimize at Shopify. Wendy and her teams are focused on exploring how to better support user analytic workflows through building experiences and infrastructure foundations that help merchants understand and grow their business.
"Investing in foundations early will deliver exponential value down the road when you're ready to leverage a new scale of data maturity for your organization."
Recent Works:
On AI Ethics: Wendy Foster, Director Of Engineering And Data Science At Shopify

Sathish is a seasoned data executive with 22 years of experience in all facets of data lifecycle management who takes pride in connecting strategy to execution and promoting data-driven culture.
"When it comes to organizations, survival of the fittest is no longer true.. it will be the survival of the most nimble, innovative, data-driven & self-disruptive companies."

Erik is an analytics and business professional with over a decade of experience providing insights, building high performing teams, and leading data driven decision making throughout organizations. He is currently the Head of BI and Analytics at Hyperscience, where he was the first centralized BI and Analytics hire, responsible for building out the analytics capabilities and function at Hyperscience from the ground up. His team is accountable for driving data informed decision-making and maturing data literacy across the entire organization.
"I'm lazy. But it's the lazy people who invented the wheel and the bicycle because they didn't like walking or carrying things." [Lech Walesa]