Rishi Bhatnagar Founder/Chairman
Sarah Guidry President
John Thomas Secretary
Richard Sheinis Board Member
Marissa Miller Board Member
Sarah Guidry Board Member
Swaroop Yalla Board Member
Zwick Tang. Board Member
Rishi Bhatnagar
Founder/Chairman
Rishi Bhatnagar is CEO of Syntelli Solutions Inc., a premium provider of advanced analytics services. He is a powerhouse of all things data, emanating new ideas for making data work! Syntelli stands for ‘Synchronizing Intelligence with Data’. Rishi is also the Founding Chair of the Analytics & Big Data Society (ABDS), which contributes to the community by Using Data for Social Good. The ABD Society forms a community where corporates, practitioners, and educational institutions come together to share ideas, experiences, and use-cases. Rishi serves on many different advisory boards, enjoys playing chess with his son, and hiking with family and friends.
SARAH BACHA
President
Sarah Bacha serves as the Head of Strategy, Analytics, and AI at LendingTree, where she drives enterprise transformation through data-driven decision-making, AI innovation, and strategic alignment. Sarah’s career began in banking and finance at Wachovia, but her self-taught path into analytics propelled her into senior roles across data science, digital strategy, and executive leadership. Her experience spans corporate strategy, product innovation, change management and operational excellence—blending deep technical fluency with a pragmatic approach to delivering business impact.
She believes that community is just as essential in our professional lives as it is in our personal ones. Through her work with ABD Society, she’s committed to fostering a vibrant, inclusive network where professionals can learn, grow, and support one another—while also inspiring the next generation of data leaders.
Sarah lives in Charlotte, NC, with her husband Chris and their son Jude, and is passionate about building both a stronger data community and a vibrant future for the next generation
John Thomas
SECRETARY
John Thomas currently serves as EVP & CTO/CDO at RVO Health, a joint venture between Red Ventures and UnitedHealth Group’s Optum. Prior to RVO, John has started and led several data and technology teams in a variety of industries including social media analytics, online advertising, and telecom analytics. Prior to RVO, including the CTO of Fynn.io, CDO of Benefitfocus and EVP Data Science at Red Ventures.
John earned his BS in Mathematics and Computer Science from Gettysburg College and MS and PhD in Computer Science at Dartmouth College.
Outside of RVO, he serves as a member of the advisory board of Wake Forests’ MS of Business Analytics program.
RICHARD SHEINIS
BOARD MEMBER
Mr. Sheinis is a Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP-US) and a Certified Information Privacy Technologist (CIPT) through the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP). He has also earned the designation of Fellow of Information Privacy from the International Association of Privacy Professionals. This designation is reserved for experts in the privacy industry and signifies that he has demonstrated a comprehensive knowledge of privacy law, privacy program management and essential data protection practices. As a member of the IAPP, Mr. Sheinis has served as the KnowledgeNet Co-Chair for the Charlotte region.
He works with companies to respond to security incidents and data breaches, develop enterprise data security programs, which includes HIPAA, COPPA, mobility, cloud technology, PCI DSS, cross border data transfer, privacy compliance, data inventory assessments, and data breach response plans. Mr. Sheinis' litigation background places him in a unique position to lead data breach investigations and limit potential exposure.
MARISSA MILLER
Board Member
ZWICK Tang
Board Member
Dr. Zwick Tang is a 20+ years veteran in the field of data science, mechine learning and artificial intelligence both as a technologist and a leader. He currently serving as the Vice President of Data Science and Advanced Analytics at Universal Music Group (UMG). In this role, Zwick and his team aspire to developing data insights and predictive models to enable deeper and personalized engagement between UMG artists and their fans across the world.
Prior to UMG, Zwick has previously held leadership positions in multiple industry domains, including financial services, digital media, marketing and advertising, industrial automation and etc. Zwick holds a Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from The Ohio State University.
Outside UMG, Zwick also serves as an Advisory Board Member and Adjunct Faculty for UNC Charlotte’s School of Data Science.