About Symphony RetailAI

Symphony RetailAI is the leading global provider of Artificial Intelligence-enabled decision platforms, solutions and customer-centric insights that drive validated growth for retailers and CPG manufacturers, from customer intelligence to personalized marketing, and merchandising and category management, to supply chain and retail operations. Our organization is innovating rapidly to drive faster, more profitable decisions through AI, machine learning and voice technologies. We are trusted by over 1,200 organizations including 15 of the world’s 25 largest grocery retailers, thousands of retail brands, and hundreds of national and regional chains worldwide to help solve their toughest business problems, through AI-powered customer intelligence and retail solutions.

There are two primary reasons why no other company has the depth and breadth of capabilities specifically to support high volume retail that we have at Symphony RetailAI.

First, we build and enhance our solutions and technology based on our decades of deep work with retailers and CPG manufacturers.

Second is our rich heritage drawn from the acquisition of industry-leading software organizations. This intentional history is the bloodline that enables us to provide critical insights and solutions to our customers around the world – and help them solve their toughest business problems.

Acquisitions & Heritage at a glance:

2018

Symphony GOLD and Symphony EYC are merged to form Symphony RetailAI, creating a cohesive solution platform to meet the evolving needs of FMCG retailers and manufacturers.

2016

Metiri Mensus – Exclusive distributor for the organization’s Merchandising and Category Management solutions in Australia and New Zealand, the acquisition strengthened the company’s ability to support existing business while positioning itself for continued growth in the region.

Fifth Dimension – Acquisition added virtual reality and advanced store planning to the organization’s broad solution portfolio, helping our customers accelerate the concept to in-store execution time at lower cost.

2012

Aldata and EYC – Rebranded as Symphony GOLD and Symphony EYC respectively, under the ownership of Symphony Technology Group. The combined strength of the organizations enabled customer insight and engagement strategies to link directly into retail assortment, merchandising and supply chain optimization to meet customer driven demand in real time.

2010

Cosmic Solutions Ltd – UK-based specialist was acquired as the next step in the organization’s Category Management strategy following the acquisition of Apollo in 2008.

2008

Apollo – Acquired the assets of Information Resources Inc’s (IRI) Apollo Store Specific Space Planning.

2003

EYC – Founded with a mission to provide a strategic direction to identify and drive customer loyalty programs for retailers as well as engage the manufacturers in collaboration on those customer-centric insights and strategies.

1986

Aldata – With its flagship product line GOLD, Aldata was formed in 1986 to provide retailers and wholesalers a comprehensive solution for unifying demand forecasting, merchandise management, store operations and supply chain management to reduce costs, increase efficiency and improve margins.

The technological capability to deliver real decision support and intelligence systems has come of age. Today, FMCG retailers have a lot of questions to answer, and data and deep insights to deliver. We launched CINDE (Conversation INsights and Decision Engine), the first and only personal decision coach specifically for grocery and hard goods retail, to address these issues. CINDE incorporates Artificial Intelligence, machine learning, natural language speech technology, and immersive visualization in a prescriptive analytics system that is visually rich and easy to use. Initially used in our retail category managers and CPG category managers suite of applications, we are committed to aggressively bringing CINDE skills to other areas across marketing, merchandising and supply chain.

Chris Koziol
Chief Executive Officer & Board Member

Chris is an experienced President & CEO with a demonstrated 35-year history of leading technology growth organizations including 10+ years in the global enterprise software industry. Prior to joining Symphony RetailAI, Chris served as President and CEO of Aspect Software for six and a half years, and before that, as COO, JDA Software. Chris also held CEO positions at Mission Advisors and MicroAge Inc. Further, his deep technology operations expertise includes direct sales, partner channels, professional services & support, product development and management, marketing, business development, and mergers & acquisitions. He holds a General Management degree from Harvard Business School and Marketing degree from The University of Arizona.

Graeme Cooksley
President, Chief Operating & Revenue Officer

Previously, Graeme held the role of CEO & President, Symphony GOLD where he was responsible for global operations. Prior to this, he was Head of Europe & International for Symphony GOLD, with responsibility for overseeing sales and service operations as well as developing the Channels operation. He has over 25 years of international experience focused on the enterprise software industry within both private and public companies. Graeme has held a variety of executive positions including President and Chief Operating Officer of a leading European retail technology provider, as well as Executive Vice President of SSA Global Technologies and Chief Executive Officer of Baan NV.

Glenn Etherington
Chief Financial Officer

Glenn is Chief Financial Officer of Symphony RetailAI, responsible for all financial operations of the Company. Prior to Symphony, he spent eleven years with ECI Software Solutions, Inc., a developer and marketer of ERP Software solutions to small to mid-sized businesses around the world. Glenn was responsible for all finance, accounting, HR and IT operations for ECI and was a principal contributory to three private equity backed transactions during that period. Prior to ECI, Glenn spent twenty years as the CFO of two publicly traded companies, completing two public offerings and numerous M&A transactions. Glenn began his career as a CPA with Arthur Andersen & Co.

Kevin Sterneckert
Chief Marketing Officer

Kevin has more than 25 years of comprehensive industry experience, bringing a keen understanding of retail, manufacturing and logistics challenges. Previous roles include GVP of Innovation Strategies and Solution Marketing for JDA, CMO for both Predictix (an Infor Company) and OrderDynamics as well as Gartner Research Vice President overseeing analysis of hundreds of retail-focused software solutions. Kevin’s industry experience includes serving as chief information officer, supply chain executive, development of innovative technology solutions, inventor, and store operations development for both physical and digital retail.

Sam Sheriff
Chief People Officer

Sam is responsible for the HR and Facilities functions globally. She has extensive experience in setting HR strategy, people development, organization design, employee relations, talent management, change management, M&A and reward. A Chartered Fellow of the CIPD and NLP Practitioner, Sam has held HR roles across technology, construction and hospitality before joining Symphony RetailAI in 2012.

Brad Bell
SVP Americas

Brad leads the Americas Sales and Presales organization focusing on the rapid expansion of Symphony RetailAI’s Supply Chain, Category Planning, Personalized Marketing, and Customer Centric Retail Solutions fuelled by AI and machine learning. He has more than 25 years of experience in Retail and CPG operations including supply chain, category planning and customer centric retailing. Previous roles include SVP of CPG development at Symphony RetailAI, VP of Sales at JDA Software, and VP of Sales and Marketing at o9 Solutions.

Patrick Buellet
Chief Strategy Officer, SCM

Patrick oversees technology and ensures product alignment to overall business strategies. With more than 25 years of experience leading supply chain strategy, research and development for companies across Europe, he plays an integral role in helping Symphony RetailAI innovate rapidly to enable precise, real-time supply chain decisions for FMCG retailers and CPG manufacturers through the application of AI, machine learning and voice technologies.

Mark Croxton
VP Customer Support

Mark ensures that Symphony RetailAI’s customers receive world-class support across their business operations. After spending seven years running strategic IT development for ASDA stores, Mark went onto spend the majority of his career in the retail and supply chain IT sector in a variety of commercial and management roles. In 2004, he joined Aldata as MD of the UK and Ireland business.

Sy Fahimi
SVP Product

Sy oversees product strategy and execution for Symphony RetailAI. Having decades of executive experience in software, e-commerce, and digital media, he has shaped our solutions into a leading customer-centric retailing platform. Prior to this role, Sy has been an Operating Partner with Symphony Technology Group. Previously, Sy held various executive positions including head of Yahoo’s advertising products globally and COO for Intuit’s Quickbooks business.

Arnaud Gauthier
President & COO, EMEA Sales

Arnaud is responsible for sales, services and customer success across Europe, the Middle East and Africa for all Symphony RetailAI product and services lines. He champions the company’s rapid expansion of its category management, supply chain, personalized marketing and customer insights solutions fueled by AI and machine learning capabilities. Arnaud came to Symphony RetaiAI from JDA Software where, as senior sales director EMEA for the past four years, he was responsible for consulting, Cloud and education sales.

Guru Iyer
Chief Information Officer

Guru is a solution-oriented IT strategist with nearly 30 years of managerial and technical expertise in implementing mission-critical IT infrastructure solutions. This includes designing, consolidating and maintaining these large solutions and extensive experience on Cloud adoption strategy for medium and large enterprises. Previous roles include Head of Global IT and Cloud Practice, Bristlecone, a supply chain consulting company, and Head of IT at i2 Technologies (currently JDA). Industry experience includes serving as CIO, heading infrastructure and Cloud services.

Charisse Jacques
SVP Client Partner

Charisse leads US client teams as well as the Global analytics shared service supporting client teams. Charisse has 20 plus years of experience across management consulting, retail and consumer-oriented organizations. Her consulting experience includes roles at McKinsey & Company, A.T. Kearney as well as boutique firms. In addition, she has held industry roles in merchandising / category management, strategy, innovation and other operational roles.

Raj Marimuthu
Head of Global Professional Services

Raj is a services professional with 25+ years of experience in solutions delivery. Raj is passionate about rapid value-realization by integrating an optimal mix of prescriptive yet adaptive approaches, use-case based starter kits and a global delivery mix that includes regional, nearshore and offshore expertise. He joined Symphony RetailAI from JDA, where he was Regional Vice President, Professional Services. Raj has also previously held leadership roles overseeing Professional Services, Customer Support and Cloud functions at Avaya, Oracle and Tata Infotech.

Corey Pearson
SVP Client Lead

Corey leads US client teams, delivering customer insights, personalized marketing and category management. He joined Symphony RetailAI leading the Merchandising Insights team for the Ahold account (2015) and became the Client Lead for: Ahold (2017), Giant Eagle & Topco (2018), Rite Aid and Southeastern Grocers (2019). Prior to Symphony RetailAI, Corey’s career includes senior leadership roles in retail operations, training, project management, franchising, category management, merchandising and consulting for companies including Supervalu Retail, A&P and IBM.

Nigel Pratt
SVP Development

Nigel joined Symphony Technology Group (STG) in 2015 as EIR – Technology Adviser, leading tech strategy and architecture on business transformation. He has decades of experience leading teams for data and analytic solutions. Prior to STG, Nigel was CTO at Symphony Health Solutions directing transformation to Cloud data solutions, SaaS software solutions, restructuring infrastructure and establishing offshore development. Prior roles include CTO, Symphony Advanced Media; SVP Development for new products, Symphony IRI, SVP Development, i2 technologies.

SymphonyAI Group is the fastest-growing private group of B2B AI companies, backed by a $1 billion commitment to deliver next-generation AI solutions for transforming the enterprise. Since its founding in 2017, SymphonyAI Group has grown rapidly to a group of six companies with a combined revenue run rate approaching $300 million. Over 1,600 talented leaders, data scientists, and other professionals operate the group under the leadership of one of Silicon Valley’s most successful serial entrepreneurs, Dr. Romesh Wadhwani. More at www.symphonyai.com