Our Team

  

Major Accomplishments Of The Leadership Team

The leaders of Aginity have spent their careers leveraging data to transform companies and whole industries.

A sampling of relevant major accomplishments include:

• Built IRI’s Behaviorscan® offering from the ground up. 
• Built IRI’s Loyalty Analytic Frequent Shopper Card offering. 
• Built 10 of AC Nielsen’s analytic delivery products during the 90’s. 
• Built a measurement and market research service for online ad response behavior with NPD and Nielsen/Claritas.
• Built a SaaS offering at Click Commerce that leveraged data and analytics to integrate the activities of industrial Karetsu’s.
• Partner of Slack Barshinger, the largest B2B agency in the U.S. Built and launched the first web-based global supply chain ASP.
• Built the platform on which American Express first brought card holders’ data to the Web.
• Built highly scalable VLDB warehouse and analytic systems across marketing, CPG, financial services and hospitality.

Doug Grimsted, CEO

Doug has been building successful businesses and leading the development of data-centric solutions for 25 years.  From the early 80’s of local computer “databases”, to client-server architectures, to ASP and SaaS, to present-day, high-end data appliances, and cloud computing, Doug and the companies he has started and run can be found leading each “game changer” in the broad world of “data analytics”.

Doug’s pioneering leadership encompasses:

• Data and Information Delivery: Doug led the development of software products, services, and tools that have data and information delivery at their core for companies like  ACNielsen, Kraft Foods and, Kimberley Clark.  Doug had direct involvement in building 10 of ACNielsen’s consumer insight delivery platforms including: Retail Price Simulator™, Automated Lan Production System™, Sales Advisor™, Spaceman Production System™ and Category Manager™.
• Data-intensive Clients: AT&T, AC Nielsen, Dun & Bradstreet, Hewlett Packard, Kimberley Clark, Kraft Foods and Motorola.
• Agile Development – At Geneer and now at Aginity, Doug has pioneered the use of agile development methodologies, reducing risks and time-to-market for software product launches
• Software Services – Under Doug’s leadership, Geneer helped launch some of the earliest Application Service Provider (ASP) business models, building products for companies such as logistics and supply chain vendor Celarix and VisiBILLity, the insurance industry’s collaborative litigation management solution. At Aginity, he is leading the development of a new generation of Software as a Service applications, built on delivering intelligence along the value chain.

In addition to Aginity and Geneer, Doug founded and served as President and COO of Adaptive RFID, a software services company that enables business process improvement and compliance with radio frequency identification (RFID) tagging mandates in the retail supply chain and defense contracting industries.

A major figure in the world of tech entrepreneurship, Doug is a member of the Chicago/NW Indiana Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame, won the KPMG High Tech Award, and has been an E &Y Entrepreneur of the Year Award finalist on two occasions. He has incubated and facilitated the launch of eight new companies through the Kellogg School Entrepreneurship & Innovation Program.

Dan Kuhn, CTO

A recognized authority in data and software development, Dan has been at the forefront of innovation for 18 years.

• Data Appliance Architecture: Dan is the principle architect of the award-winning CPG/Retail solutions provided by Market6 built on the Netezza data appliance.  In January 2009, Consumer Goods Technology Magazine awarded Market6 an “Editor’s Pick” for Supply Chain Support.  As recognition for his pivotal role in the success of Market6, Dan enjoys “most trusted advisor” status with the entire executive team of Market6.   Dan’s architecture supports the acquisition, data cleansing, and reporting of multi-terabytes of data per week.
• Dan led software development at American Express, where he helped design and develop the platform on which the company first brought card holders’ information to the Web.
• He served as Chief Software Architect and CTO of Click Commerce, where he developed enterprise-level supply chain management and e-commerce platforms that allowed major B2B companies such as Delphi, Callaway Golf and Carrier to successfully do business on the Web.
• A technology leader, Dan served as a member of the Microsoft .NET Advisory Council, providing feedback and direction for Microsoft's .NET Platform. He also co-founded Anticipating Minds, a company that built award-winning tools to enable and manage the software development process.

Having begun his career as an engineer, Dan has brought a real-world, solution-driven approach to his years of leadership in the software industry. His achievements include winning two U.S. patents for cutting-edge thermodynamics solutions in the aerospace industry. In between his career accomplishments, Dan found time to join the Peace Corps, providing engineering support to developing nations in Africa.

Ted Westerheide, Chief Architect

A 20+ year “Big Data” veteran, Ted is the architect behind The Netezza Enterprise Data Factory and Customer Intelligence Appliance..

Ted remains actively involved with customers, bringing his passion to dig into the technology and create big data solutions. Ted came to Aginity from ShopLocal, a provider of online media, where he was responsible for building and launching an innovative information and analytic business used by marketers to measure the online and offline effect of online advertising on e-commerce and in-store purchasing. Prior to ShopLocal, Ted was Senior Vice President of Loyalty Analytics at market researcher Information Resources. Ted has also held leadership positions as the technology Partner at Fusion Ventures, an early stage venture fund and Chief Technology Officer at Xcelerate (acquired by Avenue A Razorfish/ Microsoft), where he was instrumental in growing the technology and interactive marketing services company from a start-up to over $30 million in annual revenue.

A few of Ted's career achievements include:

• Building a measurement and market research service for online ad response behavior with NPD and Nielsen/Claritas.
• Building an Information Resources (IRI) division from the ground up to create a service for customer-centric retailing. Innovative (patent pending) technology and an ASP service to change retail, enabling targeted marketing and shopper specific merchandising, pricing and promotion.
• As a venture capitalist at Fusion Ventures, Ted provided seed stage venture funding for SaaS and consumer behavior companies. He was an active coach and worked with early stage companies as board member and principal.
• Built highly scalable VLDB warehouse and analytic systems across marketing, CPG, financial services and hospitality.

Mason Thelen, Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer

Mason Thelen has over a decade of experience in sales, marketing, loyalty marketing/CRM, business strategy, finance, product and channel development, and applied advanced analytics. His clients have included Fortune 100 companies such as Home Depot, Starbucks, Nascar, Sprint, Pepsi, Best Buy, JCPenney and Aetna, to name a few. He is an avid entrepreneur and strategist and a frequent lecturer on the topic of entrepreneurship at the University of St. Thomas, Schulze School of Entrepreneurship.

Chuck Densinger, Chief Customer Intelligence Officer

Chuck Densinger has 20+ years of experience holding executive positions in IT, Finance, Operations Marketing, and Business Development with Target and Best Buy, and led product development for a 100-person healthcare startup. His areas of expertise include strategic planning and implementation (especially as enabled by applied technology), customer relationship marketing, risk/fraud management, and digital media strategies.

Jim Byrne, Chief Operating Officer

A recognized leader in international professional services, Jim has been implementing analytic and business intelligence solutions for over 20 years primarily for retail and CPG companies.

• Jim recently headed worldwide professional services for SymphonyIRI Group where he oversaw professional services practices specializing in data integration, custom solutions, analytics, and retailer solutions.  Jim personally ran a full P&L in excess of 50 million dollars and oversaw >120 employees worldwide.
• Jim’s organizations received financial excellence awards which recognized his group as being highly operationally efficient and highly client value driven.
• Jim personally partnered closely with SymphonyIRI’s most strategic customers and produced custom business intelligence solutions that provided significant competitive advantage in the marketplace.
• Prior to SymphonyIRI Jim was at Breakaway Solutions where he oversaw their healthcare practice and was responsible for building a telecommunications and mobile practice on leading edge technologies.  He personally headed Breakaway’s largest account: Merck.
• Jim has spoken through the years at a number of conferences and user groups.  He has also served as a primary contributor to a number of whitepapers and publications.

Jeff Schlitt, Consulting Delivery Manager

A recognized leader and consultant in the data warehousing industry, Jeff has been implementing BI Solutions for 15 years for Fortune 500 companies.

• A proven consulting leader Jeff has architected and managed large teams of Consultants through the implementation of VLDB analytical systems for some of the largest Chicagoland companies including Baxter and Allstate.
• While at Daugherty Business Solutions, Jeff lead the BI Line of Service responsible for building a BI methodology merging industry proven techniques and a variety of management processes including waterfall and agile methods.
• Jeff developed the ACE (Accelerated Consulting Engagements) at Daugherty which helped their clients achieve business results with minimal expense and in short timeframes.
• At Braun Consulting, Jeff was awarded the Technical Manager of the Year and Partner Manager of the Year by Business Objects for his work with complex implementations and customization using the software development kit (SDK).
• Jeff has spoken through the years at numerous DCI conferences, industry focus groups and software users groups.

Jeff has a BS in Electrical Engineering from Northwestern University and has completed course work at DePaul University towards his Masters in Computer Science. Jeff is an avid Triathlete with over thirty finishes including the Arizona Ironman.

Ken Florian, Chief People Officer

Ken has 20 years of hands-on technology leadership experience as a company owner, executive leader, marketer, and software developer.  Ken was Doug Grimsted's president and business partner for a dozen years at Geneer.  Ken has participated in every aspect of growing and managing a software development company.

• Way back when, he cut code for Geneer’s largest clients.  Ken takes great pleasure in the fact that an application he authored in the early 1990's still generates 7-figure income for that client.
• When he needed strong leadership, Grimsted promoted him to VP of Software Development.  In this role, Ken lead all aspects of service delivery to Fortune 1000 clients. 
• In 1995 Ken became president of Geneer and continued to work with Doug and the executive team to create a high-performing software development organization.
• For the past 6 years Ken has focused exclusively on the marketing of software development services.  Prior to re-joining Doug at Aginity in 2008, Ken was the VP of Marketing at Geneca, LLC.  While at Geneca, Ken drove the marketing efforts that grew company revenue 4-fold in three years. Keys to this success included consistent and focused messaging, public relations, and attracting top-grade talent to the company.   One notable contribution was Ken's invention of a "Feet on The Desk" technology strategy workshop.

Ken’s work has been externally recognized by repeat invitations spanning his career to teach workshops on the various development methodologies, training programs, and people systems he used to help build a software development company. At Aginity, Ken's job is to find prospective clients and show them how a data factory built by Aginity can turn them into an aggressive competitor and profit machine.

Michael Cacicio, Partner - Marketing and Strategic Partnerships

A marketing and research veteran, Mike has spent twenty years helping companies leverage the power of research and analytics to optimize their businesses.

• Mike held leadership positions in operations and business development at Information Resources, Inc. (IRI) the world’s leading provider of enterprise market information solutions and services.
• He led the market research services division at Slack Barshinger, the largest B2B advertising agency in the US, helping some of most world’s leading companies understand the dynamics of their markets and find opportunity.

Mike has consulted with virtually every major consumer packaged goods manufacturer and retailer as well as several of the world's largest business-to-business marketers, empowering the development and execution of profitable strategies and tactics for a rapidly changing marketplace

Oleg Popivnenko, VP of Technology, Kharkiv

Oleg has 18 years of experience in all phases of software development. He started his career as a software engineer but soon augmented his technical skills to include requirements gathering and definition, architecture design, testing, and complete SDLC and team management.

Four years ago, Oleg extended his already deep database development skills to include building VLDB’s on the Netezza massively parallel (MPP) database appliance. As a certified Netezza engineer, Oleg currently leads the development of analytic data factories for multi-terabyte databases. Oleg’s leadership includes architectural design and coding across the entire data life cycle – from raw data arriving from dozens of heterogeneous systems, to performing analytical data processing and forecasting, to building dimensional tables and fact cubes for reporting purposes.

Prior to his recent focus on building VLDB analytic data factories, Oleg built a wide range of data-driven applications for Web, Windows and Windows Mobile platforms. He is an experienced practitioner of agile development methodologies especially as they apply to building terabyte and larger database systems. Oleg is proficient in multiple programming languages, tools, and databases.

In his career he has led the design and development for an enormous variety of applications. A small sample includes: -

• Enterprise data warehouses
• ETL and ELT solutions
• Data synchronization solutions
• Supply chain management systems
• E-Learning platforms
• Municipal accounting and quality control systems.

Oleg holds a master’s degree in engineering from Kharkov State Polytechnic University as well as numerous technical and platform certifications.

Andrey Gamayun, Director of BI Architecture, Kharkiv

Andrey has more than 15 years of experience in technical architecture, programming and team leadership. He has designed and implemented large scale data centric software and business intelligence solutions across multiple industries, using a wide range of technology platforms, including Microsoft, Oracle and MySQL. The systems he has built have included wholesale telecommunication financial and transaction applications, customer web portals and customer relationship management applications.

An expert in managing electronic transactions, Andrey has substantial experience designing and building ecommerce systems and other electronic data exchange applications. Prior to Aginity, Andrey worked as a software engineer for several Ukrainian firms specializing in business intelligence, data management and online collaboration.

Certified in multiple programming disciplines including object-oriented analysis and information system design, Andrey holds a master’s degree in applied mathematics from Kharkov Polytechnic Institute.