The Retail Equation Expands Analytics Group with Five Advanced-Degree Data Scientists

Expansion Supports Customer Base Growth and
Company’s Predictive Analytics Services

IRVINE, Calif. – The Retail Equation, the industry leader in retail transaction optimization solutions, today announced it has expanded the company’s analytics team with the addition of five new data scientists: Jason Kuang, Ph.D., Issam Mayassi, M.S., James Holland, M.A., Hao Nguyen, M.S., and Peyman Motlagh, M.A. The five will be instrumental in supporting The Retail Equation’s growing customer base and its predictive analytics services.

“As retailers continue to realize significant value from The Retail Equation’s Verify® return authorization solution, this team of data scientists will play an important role in applying increasingly more complex algorithms and modeling techniques to the Big Data that the retail industry is now collecting,” said David Speights, Ph.D., chief statistician for The Retail Equation. “Their combined expertise will allow us to advance the development of our shopper and product-level predictive behavior models—elevating our ability to improve model precision and rapidly develop new solutions for targeted incentives and fraud detection and prevention.”

They will work closely with Speights and the entire analytics team at The Retail Equation to improve upon its unique capabilities in the use of statistical models to maximize revenue and margins for retailers. In addition to the new scientists, the company recently acquired two IBM-Netezza N1001 (TwinFin 12) data warehouse appliances in order to enhance its ability to meet retailers’ need for increased speed of analysis and model complexity.

Prior to joining The Retail Equation, Kuang was a senior statistician for advanced analytics with Kelley Blue Book Co. Inc., where he maintained and refined statistical forecasting models to provide accurate used car values and clustered analysis for consumer segmentation. He earned his doctorate in mathematics and a master’s degree in statistics from the University of California, Riverside, where he also served as an adjunct lecturer for various advanced mathematics courses such as Calculus, Game Theory and Differential Equations. Kuang earned his bachelor’s degree in applied mathematics from South China University of Technology.

Mayassi is joining The Retail Equation after working at TESCO Fresh and Easy Market as a forecasting and demand planning analyst, where he managed the main key performance indicator ordering system to forecast bias and error, lost sales and customer service levels. He also previously worked with CVS as a gross margin analyst to improve margin and profit. He earned his master’s degree in applied statistics and mathematics from California State University, Long Beach and received a bachelor’s degree in applied mathematics from York University, Toronto.

Holland previously held the position of senior software engineer at The Retail Equation, where he was responsible for developing and maintaining the system architecture of the Verify product. He has expertise in low-level networking, database development and administration, and real-time transaction performance. Prior to joining the company, Holland was a software engineer at Credit Suisse First Boston, developing software used for fixed income derivatives trading. He holds a master's degree in mathematics and philosophy from the University of Oxford, United Kingdom.

Nguyen was with the City of Hope Cancer Center as a statistical analyst for seven years prior to joining TRE. He is proficient in statistical programming using SAS and developing reports using both SQL Server Reporting Services and Transact-SQL. He has a master’s degree in applied statistics from California State University-Long Beach and a bachelor’s degree in math from California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo.

Motlagh joins TRE from Chickasaw Nations Industries where he was an ETL/Data Analyst for the company. Previously, he worked for NCI as the data analysis research and development chief. He is experienced in SAS and SQL. Motlagh earned a master’s degree in accounting from Belmont University and a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Hawaii.

About The Retail Equation

The Retail Equation, headquartered in Irvine, Calif., optimizes retailers’ revenue and margin by shaping behavior in every customer transaction. The company’s solutions use predictive analytics to turn each individual shopper visit into a more profitable experience. This yields immediate financial payback, increasing store comps by as much as two percent, with significant return on investment. The Software-as-a-Service applications operate in more than 27,000 stores in North America, supporting a diverse retail base of specialty apparel, footwear, hard goods, department, big box, auto parts and more. For more information, visit www.theretailequation.com.

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