Engage3 Leadership and Board Members

Ken Ouimet is the Chair of Strategic Planning and Founder of Engage3 and is credited with creating the retail revenue management and price optimization market. His first company, Khimetrics, led the industry for almost a decade before being successfully acquired by SAP in 2006. Engage3 is once again pioneering the next big thing in retail business models in the era.

Ken literally grew up in the business starting as a 7 year-old auditing in-store prices while working for his parent’s business, Comparative Prices International. Ken earned a BS in Chemical Engineering from UC Davis (where he received the 2018 Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award) and went on to UC Santa Barbara to pursue his PhD work in Chemical Engineering and Theoretical Physics. While studying Statistical Physics he realized he could utilize these same principles to model retail markets and optimize retail pricing decisions. With his unique perspective and insight, Ken applied statistical physics to create an entirely new approach. Ken served on the Board of Directors of Revionics between 2007-2011 and as Chief Scientist & VP of Innovations at SAP AG between 2006-2007.

Tim Ouimet is a Founder and Board Member at Engage3 and is a recognized industry innovator in retail pricing strategies. Tim and his brother Ken founded Khimetrics in 1997 to help retailers forecast sales and optimize pricing and promotional decisions. Khimetrics provided the highest value point solution on the market and helped retailers roughly double their net profits. Fortune magazine listed Khimetrics as one of the 25 break-out innovative companies. Inc magazine listed Khimetrics as one of the fastest growing companies 2 years in a row, before Khimetrics was acquired by SAP in 2006. Tim served on the Board of Advisors of Rivalwatch between 2008-2012.

Edris Bemanian is the Chief Executive Officer of Engage3. Edris is a retail marketing expert and a multi-faceted entrepreneurial leader with a passion for start-ups, technology, retail, and consumer marketing.

Edris is a panelist, contributor, and domain expert with Brick Meets Click, an organization dedicated to exploring and understanding how technology impacts consumers and what the implications are for retailers, manufacturers, and service providers. Edris also serves as an Advisory Council Member for California State University, Chico.

Prior to Engage3, he led initiatives across companies including Sodexo, Andnowuknow.com, and Mercado Software. He also founded entrepreneurship programs that were incorporated into the UC Davis Graduate School of Management.

Edris is a recipient of Sacramento Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 award.

Edris earned dual degrees in Economics and Environmental Policy Analysis and Planning from UC Davis.

Robert is a seasoned SaaS financial executive in charge of Engage3’s financial operations and investor relations. He has a wealth of cross-industry experience in accelerating companies’ growth and raising capital, having spent more than fifteen years in SaaS companies as CFO and COO in industries as varied as manufacturing and biotech. Some of the companies he has worked for are Worcester Controls Corporation, iRobot Corporation, and Mirror Image Internet.

Andrews is a CPA and received his MBA from Whittemore School of Business and Economics, University of New Hampshire in Durham, NH. He received his B.S. and B.A. in Accounting and Management with a minor in Computer Science from Northeastern University in Boston, MA.

Anup has a deep enthusiasm for leading cross-functional teams to extract and deploy actionable, predictive insights from data. He has a track record of developing innovative solutions from conception to delivery, in support of highly predictive user experiences across industries including retail, manufacturing, cyber-physical security, automotive, and finance. Prior to Engage3, Anup served as Senior Scientist at Opera Solutions where he led development of analytic products with a focus on unstructured text mining, social media analytics, anomaly detection, and behavior prediction. He previously worked as a Post-doctoral Researcher at UC San Diego where he led collaborations with industry partners to deploy intelligent human-computer safety systems based on prediction of driver behaviors. Anup has published over 25 peer-reviewed papers in the fields of human behavior analysis, intent prediction, computer vision, and artificial intelligence. Anup holds a PhD in Electrical Engineering (Signal and Image Processing) from UC San Diego and an Integrated MS and BS in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.

Morgan is a versatile analytics and product leader and has served as a trusted advisor to over 65% of the Fortune 500 fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) retailers and manufacturers. He joins Engage3 from Nielsen where he served as Managing Director of their US Analytics Business Unit. Morgan led Nielsen’s analytics portfolio that included revenue management, assortment optimization and shopper analytics.

Prior to his six years at Nielsen, Morgan led Trade Strategy and Insights at The Coca-Cola Company, served as a pricing practice area lead with Kantar Retail, and led shopper insights programs with Cannondale Associates. He received his Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Political Science from Williams College.

Helena is a retail industry expert in competitive pricing operations and customer success. Her background in retail management, including ten years at Target, provided Helena with insight into customer relations, store services, signage, planograms, price changes and vendor relations. Helena moved into retail data management with Comparative Prices International (CPI) beginning as an in-store professional auditor. She joined Engage3 as part of the acquisition of CPI in 2012. With more than 15 years of experience between CPI and Engage3, Helena is responsible for all in-store pricing data operations while maintaining the company’s lofty set of service standards for clients and partners both old and new.

Lyle began his career working for Kroger in Pricing and Category Management, and most recently served as Vice President of Business Development with dunnhumby. He has also led pricing innovation initiatives with retailers in various roles with Tata Consulting, IRI and Retalix/NCR. Prior to his current position as VP of Strategic Enablement, Walker worked with Engage3 as VP of Strategic Accounts from 2014 to 2015. He has a focus and passion for leveraging technology and data to assist retailers in developing long-lasting, relevant relationships with their shoppers and a unique background with hands-on business experience in retail in the areas of pricing, price optimization, and product management/marketing and messaging.

Mary is our resident finance and accounting expert. In addition to her 10+ years with Engage3, she also led strategic finance and accounting initiatives at KhiMetrics—our founders’ prior price optimization company. Prior to Engage3, Mary held finance roles with start-ups like Innovative Brands and companies like West Law Publishing and Cargill in the Financial Markets Division.

Mary graduated from the College of St. Catherine’s in St. Paul, Minnesota with a B.A. in Accounting.

Rob Culin is the Advisor of Business Development & Personalization at Engage3. Over the past decade, Rob developed deep expertise in the areas of Customer Loyalty, Shopper Insights, and Advanced Analytics via hands-on experience with some of the world’s largest retailers and leading CPG companies. He has held positions with management consulting firms such as Kurt Salmon Associates where he was a Principal, as well as Andersen Consulting and AT Kearney. Rob holds an MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management and a BA in Engineering and Economics from Brown University. Culin spent five years with dunnhumbyUSA as the Senior Vice President of Shopper Insights and Strategic Programs, supporting over 300 US manufacturer clients through shopper insights and targeted marketing. Culin also served as the Senior Vice President of Consumer Products Industry and Collaborative Programs for IBM DemandTec, where he led the delivery of SaaS based trade optimization solutions between retailers and consumer products companies such as Target and Procter & Gamble.

Toler is the Chairman of Swift Communications, a leading digital marketing and newspaper publishing company based in Carson City, Nevada serving communities in 7 western US states. Prior to Swift Communications, he served as Vice President with The Procter & Gamble Company and General Manager for Oral Care Profession (Crest & Oral-B brands). Toler was involved in many of P&G’s largest acquisitions during his 29-year tenure with the company and helped pioneer P&G’s Customer Business Development approach, which has become the industry standard not only with CPGs but many other industries as well.

Doug Degn brings 32 years of experience in retail, consumer packaged goods, healthcare and pharmacy. During his 24 years with Walmart, he built deep relationships with senior executives across a wide range of companies (CPG, electronics, food, consumables, general merchandise) and helped Walmart gain access to the vast resources within the supplier community. Mr. Degn is routinely engaged in retail/supplier consulting and advises many CPG companies. He retired as executive vice president of food, consumables, and hardlines merchandising for Walmart in 2007. He began his career at Walmart in 1983 as a pharmacist and held leadership positions in pharmacy operations and systems, specialty groups and merchandising. Mr. Degn served on Walmart’s executive committee from 2000 until his retirement. He received the prestigious Sam M. Walton Entrepreneur of the Year award in 1997 while at Walmart. The recipient of this award is chosen by the Walton Family and the award is the highest recognition given in the company. The award recognizes individuals who demonstrate the entrepreneurial skills that Sam Walton demonstrated throughout his life.

Itzhak leverages over three decades of mergers, acquisitions and initial public offerings experience, as an entrepreneur, investment manager and acquirer. As the former executive vice president of Global Business Development for Nielsen (until 2014), he was responsible for strategic business development initiatives and mergers and acquisitions that enhanced Nielsen’s capabilities. Itzhak deployed over $3 billion of investments for Nielsen, in over 30 ventures, ranging in size from $500,000 investments to over $1.3 billion, and serves as an advisor to Nielsen.

Prior to joining Nielsen, Itzhak executed multiple start-up-to sale successes. He was co-founder and chairman of Trendum, a leader in Internet search and linguistic analysis technologies. In 2005, he led Trendum’s acquisition of BuzzMetrics, an online word-of-mouth research leader, and negotiated its 2006 acquisition of Intelliseek. Itzhak served as chairman of the combined entity, BuzzMetrics,which was subsequently acquired by Nielsen in 2007 at a $110 million valuation. Following the acquisition, Itzhak served as the Chairman of Nielsen BuzzMetrics, the Executive Vice President of Global Product Leadership and the Executive Chairman of Nielsen’s Online division.

Harold is a Co-Founder and General Partner in The March Fund (TMF), and a Senior Scholar in the Graduate School of Management at the University of California, Davis. He advises the BioInnovation Institute established by the Novo Nordisk Foundation and to the AI Institute for Next-Generation Food Systems co-funded by the United States Department of Agriculture and the National Science Foundation.

Harold gained domain expertise in the global food industry via 25 years with Mars, Incorporated, including as the company’s Chief Science Officer.

Harold’s experiences enable unique visibility to world-class inventors, innovators, and companies defining the role of food in the new economy of health.

Christopher Lai is a seasoned venture capital investor with over a decade of experience in technology investment and venture building. He co-founded The March Fund (TMF) and leads all investments at the firm; and is active as a board member working closely with TMF portfolio companies.

Chris is a recognized thought leader in VC/PE (Forbes 30 under 30 Asia, Trusted Insight Top 30 Family Office Rising Stars) and is a founding VC member and mentor of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Advanced Venture Capital course.

Prior to TMF, Chris was the Director of Consumer and Retail Technologies at Horizons Ventures, the private investment arm of Mr. Li Ka Shing, and invested across the technology landscape globally and led investment in the US, Canada, Israel, France and China. He previously served as a member of the Board of Director at Agua Brands, Algama, Apollonia Health, Endless West, Bevi, Celsius (NASDAQ:CELH; as co-Chairman), Perfect Day, and QiFeng.

A Hong Kong native, Chris studied and worked extensively abroad spanning corporate finance and M&A (at Mooreland Partners – now part of Stifel Financial Corp. NYSE:SF), and biotech corporate and business development (at IRX Therapeutics - acquired by Brooklyn ImmunoTherapeutics). He holds B.A. degrees in Neuroscience and Behavior, Genetics, and Economics from Columbia University.

Bob is a lifelong entrepreneur with a career spanning banking/finance, agriculture, real estate, and more. Medearis founded the $4 billion Silicon Valley Bank where he served as Chairman between 1983-1989. Medearis is a retired Consulting Professor for Stanford University’s School of Engineering and at the University of California at Davis, Graduate School of Management. Medearis has served as the CEO of W&H Pacific, was a Founder of Tblisi Management Institute in Georgia and founded Risk Management Software.

Chris Ladd is a Managing Director at NewRoad Capital Partners, LLC, where he is responsible for all aspects of the investment process and post-investment operations of portfolio companies for the firm’s venture capital fund (New Road Ventures) and its growth equity fund in partnership with Los-Angeles-based Kayne Anderson (Kayne NewRoad Ventures Fund II). Prior to joining NewRoad Capital Partners, he was part of Walmart’s Corporate Development and Strategy teams, focusing on e-commerce acquisitions and strategic initiatives and the CFO/CIO of a Walmart-led investment fund. Before Walmart, he was an Associate at TPG Capital focusing on post-acquisition operations of its portfolio companies and an Associate at KSL Capital on the buyside. Mr. Ladd holds a B.A. in Economics from Cornell University and an M.B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin’s McCombs School of Business.

Lokesh Sikaria is the managing partner at Moneta Ventures. Prior to starting Moneta Ventures, Lokesh was the Founder CEO of Sparta Consulting, a global IT consulting firm, which grew to over $100 million in just five years. Before Sparta, Lokesh served as the Chief Operating Officer at Rapidigm, Inc. and managed more than $250+ million in annual revenue.