About: Executive Team

Prior to founding Datalogix, Robert Gierkink co-founded three of the world’s largest cross-merchant loyalty programs. He was most recently CEO of Loyalty Management Group (LMG), the company that operates the United Kingdom’s largest loyalty program, Nectar, with over 50% of UK households participating. Under Gierkink’s leadership, the company grew from start-up to over $400 million in revenues in under 6 years. LMG was sold to Group Aeroplan in December 2007 in a $750 million cash transaction. Gierkink also co-founded the largest loyalty programs in Canada (Air Miles Reward Program) and the Netherlands (Air Miles Program) which today have 70% and 50% of households participating in their respective countries. He has keynoted the DMA’s annual conference, and served as a guest lecturer at Harvard Business School and London Business School.

Robert was born in Canada and holds a Bachelor of Business Management from Ryerson University in Toronto, Ontario and a Masters in Business Administration from Harvard Business School in Boston.

Since Eric joined Datalogix in 2007, the company has emerged as the leader at integrating database marketing and digital media to the benefit of marketers and consumers. In prior roles, Roza helped launch the first multi-bank online banking service, the first commercial video-on-demand service, and the first integrated digital media center (awarded “Best Product” at the 2002 Consumer Electronics Show). Most recently, Roza founded the Managed Wireless division of Asurion, a company that has delivered a 1000x return to its original investors. He began his career with Bain & Company.

Roza is a dual-citizen of the US and France, and holds degrees from the University of Michigan and Stanford. His extracurricular passions include music, food and fitness.

John Hillyard is a senior technology executive with over twenty-five years experience in financial and operations leadership positions. He’s been a CFO in both public and private companies with extensive international and merger & acquisition experience. John enjoys, and has demonstrated a strong track record in, high growth companies. Most recently Hillyard was CFO of LeftHand Networks, a Boulder-based technology company that was sold to HP for $360 million. Prior to LeftHand, he was EVP, Finance & Operations and CFO of FrontRange Solutions, a publicly traded company with operations in ten countries. Additionally, he has served on the Board of Directors for two publicly-traded companies.

John has a BA in Business Economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara and is a Certified Public Accountant.

Finnegan Faldi joined Datalogix in 2011 as its Chief Operating Officer. Prior to joining Datalogix, Finn headed up a number of Yahoo’s businesses as their VP, Global Broadband, Search Affiliate, NA Mobile and Strategic Partnerships & Operations. Prior to that, he held various senior operational and business development positions. He built and headed the sales, marketing, product and business development teams for both the eCommerce and Direct Merchant business at Solidus Networks (SN) since August 2004. During his tenure, he added nearly 100,000 small and mid-size merchants to SN and contributed significantly to SN’s rise as one of the few full-service processors to handle both domestic and multi-currency online transactions in North America.

Finn received a BS degree in Economics, with a concentration in Strategic and Entrepreneurial Management, from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He earned his MBA degree from the Graziadio School at Pepperdine University. Finnegan and his family are now calling Colorado their home and are thrilled with the Rocky Mountains and loads of sunny weather.

Joseph Benjamin drives Datalogix’s technology strategy and leads the team responsible for software development and management of our seven billion record database. He has more than 15 years of IT experience, beginning with a six-year stint as a developer and systems architect for IBM Global Services. After IBM, Benjamin founded an IT consulting practice and served in senior management roles for several successful start-up companies including NetIdentity and NamePlanet.com. Benjamin earned his bachelor’s degree in history & economics from the University of California, Berkeley and an MBA from the University of Denver.

Rob Holland is General Manager of the DLX Consumer Products vertical responsible for managing sales, product development and operations for Advertiser and Retail solutions. Rob joined Datalogix after successful roles at Nielsen, Safeway and Clorox where he engaged retailers and CPG marketers enabling sales and profit growth by developing innovative technology-based analytic solutions. At Nielsen, Rob was most recently the global leader for the Retail and Shopper practice where he led the creation of next generation Loyalty analytics solutions. Rob managed Nielsen’s Retail Measurement and Consumer Panel product groups and successfully co-launched the product development group that created the Nielsen Answers On-Demand analytics platform. Rob led the corporate marketing analytics function at Safeway and held various financial and business analytics roles at Clorox. He holds a BS in Business Administration from San Diego State University.

Michelle Hulst has more than 15 years of experience focused on strategy, business development and new product development, with over 12 years in the online space. Before joining Datalogix, Hulst was Vice President at Entertainment Publications, an operating business of IAC/InterActiveCorp. There she was responsible for the strategic direction, cross-functional leadership and execution of a key new business initiative focused in the loyalty space. Prior to that, Hulst developed new Internet revenue opportunities leveraging synergies across the IAC companies and established partnerships that supported EPI’s online strategy. She holds a BA from the University of Michigan and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University.

As the leader of the DLX Automotive vertical, Joe Kyriakoza is responsible for sales, operations, management of the exclusive Polk Automotive relationship as well as development of vertical intelligence. Prior to joining DLX, Joe was VP of Product and Performance Strategy for Hachette Filipacchi Media US and Jumpstart Automotive Group. Joe was previously VP, Marketing & Insights for Jumpstart, VP of National Sales, and VP of Product Strategy, all during a 5 1/2 year stint with Jumpstart. Prior to joining Jumpstart, Joe was a partner and manager of all national digital media initiatives for Ford Motor Media, the media buying arm for Ford Motor Company. Joe directed the online advertising spending of all of Ford’s brands, including Ford Division, Lincoln, Mercury, Jaguar, Volvo, Land Rover and Mazda. Prior to Ford Motor Media, Joe was an account director at Beyond Interactive, heading up accounts including Nortel Networks, LensCrafters, GiftCertificates.com and Rodale Publishing.

As the leader of the Datalogix Analytics organization, Robin Opie is responsible for delivering and continuously improving the predictive algorithms, campaign optimization techniques, reporting capabilities, product development, client support, and testing strategies across all aspects of the business. Prior to joining Datalogix, Opie managed the Engineering Analytics function at Comcast, where he was responsible for evaluating billions of dollars in technology spending and is credited with saving hundreds of millions of dollars during his 4 years in the role. Opie’s prior roles have included analytics leadership positions at Microsoft, Cisco, Moxi Digital, Mercer Management Consulting and Chase Manhattan Bank. In addition to his role at Datalogix, Opie serves on the Board of Directors for Preceptor Associates, a hedge fund which leverages proprietary stochastic dominance techniques to drive portfolio optimization. Opie holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics and a Certificate in Dance from Princeton University.

Lori Paikin leads Datalogix’s client service team responsible for managing more than 1,200 customer relationships. Prior to joining Datalogix, Paikin spent 12 years at Abacus, most recently as the Senior Vice President of Sales. Before joining the co-op industry, she held positions at The Specialists where her main responsibility was list brokerage, and Mokrynski & Associates where she specialized in list management. Paikin holds a bachelor’s degree in business management / marketing from the State University of New York at Binghamton and an MBA from Iona College.

Chris Scoggins manages the sales, operations and product groups for the DLX Platform, our digital data business. He has spent his entire career building emerging products and start-up organizations. Scoggins joined the company after six years in venture capital, with Sequel Venture Partners and the Sprout Group, where he made investments in the digital media, enterprise software and Internet services sectors. He remains a Venture Partner with Sequel and continues to serve on the board of Yieldex, an inventory management platform for online publishers. Prior to principal investing, in 1997 Scoggins co-founded Internet Reports, an Internet infrastructure software company, where he ran the product and business development functions until its acquisition in 2000. He began his career at Andersen, where he rose to Manager in the Communications, Media & Entertainment group, focusing on new product development and pricing/costing analysis. He holds a BS from Trinity University and an MBA from Stanford University.

Lori Swanson is responsible for all aspects of human resources, including programs related to the attraction, development and retention of Datalogix’s talented team. Prior to joining Datalogix, Swanson held human resources management roles at Lightbridge, Inc. and Requisite Technology. Before joining Requisite, she spent ten years at JCPenney in merchandise and operations management roles. Swanson holds a bachelor’s degree in business from the University of Colorado, Boulder and a professional human resources certification.

Laurie Weisberg has over 15 years experience as a sales and marketing leader at various technology and marketing organizations. Before joining Datalogix, Laurie worked at top Ad Networks such as Glam Media and Sportgenic Inc. where she was responsible for Platform sales to other leading media companies and advertisers. Prior to that Laurie was at several start-up companies that got acquired by IBM (Tivoli and Crossworlds) and also spent 8 years running sales for Informative/Satmetrix helping advertisers to launch marketing programs to online audiences that also built strong CRM/loyalty programs. Laurie was born and educated in England, spent some of her childhood in Asia and came to USA to work in 1996 and now resides in New York city with her husband and 2 sons.