Join the conversation at Iowa’s premier analytics event.
October 2, 2025
Community Choice Credit Union Convention Center
Des Moines, Iowa
Business Analytics Symposium
Unlock the full potential of your data.
Keynotes
Driving Business Value Through Transformation
Advisory AI Managing Director Dina Brozzetti will share invaluable lessons learned from leading PwC’s own digital and AI transformation, as well as guiding clients through multiple complex technology-driven changes. Drawing on her extensive experience in AI adoption and innovation, she will explore how these initiatives have enabled organizational change, upskilled talent, and delivered measurable business value. Dina will offer practical insights into overcoming challenges and accelerating transformation in today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape.
Dina Brozzetti leads PwC’s Advisory AI delivery excellence and adoption efforts, leveraging AI to transform how PwC delivers consulting services to clients. As part of this role, she also advises clients on AI enablement and adoption, as well as AI and emerging technology innovation strategies. She has over 20 years of experience in tech strategy and consulting.
Dina also served as the chief of staff to PwC’s chief digital officer, acting as the overall project lead for PwC’s own digital transformation journey. Dina implemented PwC’s digital transformation vision in the United States, working directly with the C-suite leadership team to democratize innovation at the firm. The primary focus of the program was to digitally enable the firm, upskill talent, and drive adoption of tech investments at scale. As PwC took this transformation global to all 280,000+ employees, she worked directly with C-suite leadership teams at PwC member firms to stand up this program in each territory.
Dina earned a bachelor’s degree in business and management information systems from Drexel University and graduate certificates in executive leadership (Yale University), AI (University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business), advanced management (University of Southern California), and Lean Six Sigma (Villanova University).
Data, Decisions, and Disruption: The Evolving CIO and the Future of IT
A mainstage conversation with IT leaders
Matt Behrens is a lifelong technology advocate and educator. He has spent over 25 years developing, managing, and leading technology projects in the public sector. Since 2015, he has led broadband programs in Iowa to reduce the digital divide, providing over $750 million in funding for the expansion of internet service to rural locations across the state. He also serves as the State of Iowa’s chief information officer, where he led a generational reorganization of IT for the State of Iowa, centralizing IT functions across dozens of state agencies.
Matt holds a PhD in human-computer interaction from Iowa State University and an MBA with distinction from the University of Iowa. He serves on the faculty of Iowa State’s Department of Political Science where he teaches courses in cybersecurity ethics. Matt has been nationally recognized as a Council of State Governments Henry Toll Fellow and was named 2022 State Executive of the Year by StateScoop magazine.
Troy Fridley is the senior vice president of information technology at KENT WORLDWIDE, a diversified, family-owned enterprise in the food, beverage, and agriculture sectors. Since joining KENT in 2011, Troy has led enterprise-wide technology strategy and business process transformation across a global portfolio of operating companies.
With over three decades of experience in IT and strategic operations, Troy has held leadership roles at Bridgestone Americas and Bandag Incorporated, specializing in strategic planning, business process design, and enterprise program management. At KENT, he oversees a global IT shared service organization with regional support for Asia-Pacific and the UK, driving digital modernization by aligning technology investments with business objectives. Troy holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Iowa and an MBA from St. Ambrose University. He is passionate about driving business outcomes with technology, mentoring future leaders, and fostering a culture of innovation and data-driven decision-making.
Nick Volpe is the chief technology officer at American Equity Investment Life Insurance Company. Prior to joining American Equity in August 2022, Nick held multiple roles at Guardian Life, including chief information officer of individual markets and head of enterprise customer technology (2017-2022) and vice president of distribution technology strategy and operations (2010-2014). Before that, he worked at AXA Equitable, starting as senior vice president in 2001 and leaving as senior information officer in 2010. Nick received his bachelor’s degree in business administration and management from Boston University.
The Four Pillars of AI-Driven Innovation
Bill Schmarzo is pioneering the next frontier of human-centered innovation with The AI-Human Edge—a framework for empowering high-impact individuals through AI-driven learning systems. His work focuses on how intelligence technologies, such as generative AI, agentic AI, language models, and reinforcement learning, can be integrated into dynamic, real-time decision systems that amplify human potential. From professional athletes and healthcare workers to teachers and engineers, Bill’s research explores how AI doesn’t replace people—it elevates them. By designing reusable intelligence assets such as entity propensity models (EPMs) and entity language models (ELMs), his work helps organizations transform data into a strategic advantage that continuously learns, adapts, and drives personalized value across business and society.
Bill Schmarzo is the customer data and AI innovation strategist at Dell Technologies. He works with Dell’s strategic customers to help them understand where and how AI and other intelligence technologies can unleash new sources of customer, operational, and societal value. Bill is the former chief innovation officer at Hitachi Vantara, where he was responsible for driving their data science and “co-creation” efforts. He received Hitachi Limited’s 2020 Solution Innovation Award for his ground-breaking work in data science and automated machine learning.
Bill previously served as chief technology officer at Dell EMC, where he formulated the company’s Big Data Practice strategy, identified target markets, developed solution frameworks, and led analytics client engagements using his Vision Workshop methodology, which links an organization’s strategic business initiatives with supporting data and analytics. As the vice president of advertiser analytics at Yahoo, Bill delivered analytics tools and actionable insights that optimized advertisers’ online marketing spend. He is the author of several books, including Big Data: Understanding How Data Powers Big Business; Big Data MBA: Driving Business Strategies with Data Science; The Economics of Data, Analytics, and Digital Transformation; AI & Data Literacy: Empowering Citizens of Data Science; and The Art of Thinking Like a Data Scientist. His upcoming book is The AI-Human Edge: Winning with Intelligence Technologies—On the Field and Beyond.
Breakout sessions
Utilizing Data for Facility Optimization at NBCUniversal
Dan Biersdorf, Vice President of Studio Operations, NBCUniversal
NBCUniversal runs multiple large scale facilities, the largest being a 400-acre film/TV production hub in Los Angeles. More than 10,000 people are on the NBCUniversal lot each day, including employees, production crews, contractors, vendors, and daily workers who all drive different requirements and needs. Learn how NBCUniversal utilizes data and systems to proactively and preventatively manage various workloads, including work orders, labor scheduling, food management, office services, and more.
Beyond Automation: How AI Is Revolutionizing Manufacturing
Maher Lahmar, Chief Technology Officer, Facilis.ai
In today’s competitive landscape, processing industries face relentless pressure to maximize yield, reduce waste, and minimize operational costs. Suboptimal manufacturing processes, inadequate data infrastructure, and limited investment in data science talent can often lead to missed production targets and significant revenue leakage.
In this presentation, Maher will outline different use cases of AI in manufacturing organizations, and then describe how Facilis.ai partnered with a Midwestern food and industrial ingredients manufacturer that faced challenges ensuring consistent quality of its industrial starch products. Using Facilis.ai AI-powered platform, the manufacturer rapidly identified process improvements for the starch dry thinning process, achieving a significant lift ranging between 10 and 20bps in in-spec rates. The improvements in product quality are estimated to deliver over $3M annual incremental revenue, and be expanded to other processes and sites, paving the way for a digitally empowered manufacturing operations future.
The Analytics Value Chain: Aligning Data, People, and Purpose
David Kuhn, Data Management Vice President, Farm Bureau Financial Services
Katie Hughes, Enterprise Data and AI Governance Vice President, Farm Bureau Financial Services
In this session, David Kuhn and Katie Hughes will share how the team at Farm Bureau Financial Services works to create and sustain a cohesive analytics strategy. Katie and David will discuss the importance of data governance and quality, talent and organizational alignment, and strategic KPIs and value realization.
From Hype to Impact: The AI-First Enterprise
Camila Almeida, Senior Manager – Strategic Initiatives, Salesforce
The media is filled with projections about AI’s transformative power, but what does it take for an organization to truly become “AI-first”? In this presentation, we will explore how to create impact, champion a culture of innovation, and align your teams to start delivering real, measurable value. You will leave with the strategic insights needed to turn your enterprise from a spectator into a leader in the AI revolution.
Data Governance and Management in the Age of AI
Elisabeth Rizzi, Manager – Business Intelligence, Data Strategy, and Governance, RSM US LLP
Craig Niemoeller, Data and Digital Services Consulting Manager, RSM US LLP
In this session, Elisabeth and Craig will explore how robust data governance and management practices are foundational to achieving trusted, available, compliant, and well-understood AI outcomes. Attendees will learn how clear data ownership, quality controls, and regulatory alignment not only reduce risk but also enhance the reliability and transparency of AI systems. We’ll discuss practical strategies for embedding governance into the AI lifecycle—from data sourcing to model deployment—and how this enables organizations to build AI that stakeholders can trust and audit with confidence.
From Data to Dollars: Transforming Insights into Profitable Growth
Janell Pittman, Fractional Chief Marketing Officer, Chief Outsiders
Learn from real-world cases where analytics have directly propelled small to medium-sized businesses into new growth phases. This session will cover practical applications using accessible tools to turn data into strategic gold mines and propel change.
What I’ve Learned from Conversations with Senior Leaders: Their Thoughts on AI, Data Analytics, and Quantum Computing
Partha Anbil, Senior Advisor, NextGenInvent Corporation
Experienced consultant and AI start-up advisor Partha Anbil has been interviewing chief experience officers for MIT’s Sloan School of Management, discussing the evolution of the data and analytics landscape and how AI technologies are leveraged to analyze and create insights. This session will distill his experience and conversations with CXOs to explore how AI technology is being applied today.
Presentations with Purpose: 3 Strategies for Audience-Centric Data Presentations That Maximize Value
Susan Fleming, Chief Product and Learning Officer, Girls with Impact; Assistant Teaching Professor in Marketing, Iowa State University
Data and AI are embedded in every corner of business—but the true value of analytics is only unlocked when insights are meaningful, relevant, and actionable. This session addresses a critical—but often overlooked—component of data-driven organizations: the analyst’s ability to present information in ways that resonate with decision-makers. And surprisingly, in a data-driven business, this has very little to do with the data itself.
We’ll explore three of the most common C-suite complaints about analyst presentations and provide practical strategies analysts can implement immediately. Attendees will leave with tools to enhance clarity, relevance, and influence—because how you present data doesn’t just shape decisions, it shapes your reputation. After all, we can’t know if transformation efforts are successful unless we can clearly measure and communicate the results.
Digital Data Science at John Deere: From Informing Sales Channel to Optimizing Customer Operations
Daniel Madison, Senior Manager – Data Science, John Deere
Ryan Kirk, Head of Digital Data Science, John Deere
Ryan Kirk and Daniel Madison will share how they are using data science to drive meaningful business outcomes for John Deere customers and dealers. Ryan will share data and analysis products being developed at John Deere that help make customers more profitable, productive, and sustainable. Daniel will share how data science is being leveraged to help increase the sales and adoption of these products.
Turning Analytics into Impact: How IBP Drives Forecast Precision, Inventory Control, and SKU Efficiency
Shannon Chambliss, Supply Chain Manager, KENT WORLDWIDE
David Pedersen, Finance Manager, KENT WORLDWIDE
AJ Schroeder, Supply Chain Data Scientist, KENT WORLDWIDE
Ricky Webster, Integrated Tactical Planning Manager, KENT WORLDWIDE
Learn how KENT WORLDWIDE leverages data-driven approaches to optimize product portfolios, enhance inventory control, and identify strategic planning gaps to support the Integrated Business Planning (IBP) process. This session emphasizes the use of analytics to uncover inefficiencies, forecast demand more accurately, and align operational decisions with long-term business goals. Attendees will gain insights into applying quantitative methods that KENT used to drive IBP forward in the absence of supply chain planning software.
From Silence to Signals: Leveraging Predictive CX in Low-Response Environments
Melissa Hollis, Director – Data Analytics, Principal Enterprise Data and Analytics
Justin Claycomb, Assistant Director – Data Science, Principal Enterprise Data and Analytics
Traditional customer experience surveys often fall short—limited responses, lagging indicators, and subjective feedback can obscure the full picture. This session explores how predictive modeling can bridge those gaps by leveraging behavioral and transactional data to estimate satisfaction and uncover meaningful trends. Attendees will gain a clearer understanding of how these insights can enhance decision-making and support more proactive customer engagement.
Unlocking the Value of Analytics Through Collaboration
Kira Barclay, Founder and Managing Partner, Black Antler Advisory and Consulting
Jenny Schmidt, Career Coach and Founder of J Schmidt Consulting
Collaboration is a key to unlock the business impact of analytics and AI in an organization. The question is: how do I get more collaboration with those outside my department when there are so many competing and changing priorities? In this fireside chat, we will explore practical strategies for breaking down organizational silos and gaining alignment across multiple departments. Through real-world examples, we’ll highlight how collaboration accelerates the path from potential to actual value. Analytics professionals will gain new approaches to increase influence, gain commitment, and deliver greater value in their work.
