We’re the people with satisfying answers.Headquartered in Redondo Beach, Calif., Ayax Systems, Inc. (Ayax) is a multidisciplinary, multilingual team of experts in Custom Decision Systems (CDS). Several of us are former Fortune 500 executives; you might also call us escapees from the world of traditional thinking. What brings us together is the desire to create innovative on-line tools to help people make better decisions. Having come from large multinational companies, we’ve seen how frustrating and ineffective traditional decision-making processes and systems can be. Ayax’s solutions, customized to each customer’s specific needs, help decision-maker end-users think through their decisions, explore alternatives, consider uncertainties, make trade-offs, and evaluate their options, as well as, in many cases, improve the efficiency and comfort of their choices by being able to tap into collective knowledge related to their decision. |
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Flexibility is key.Big consulting firms – big overheads. In today’s rapidly shifting marketplace, executives need a partner that is smart. Ayax works cleverly by leveraging executive experience with innovative methods. Ayax is nimble – and affordable – because it offers adaptable, on-demand resources that quickly expand or contract as needed. Delivering on a promise of flexibility and adaptability shapes Ayax. We’re well aware that budgets are tight. We know you’re under pressure to do more with less. That’s why, when you work with us, we design a solution that gives you tangible results with the nimbleness and flexibility you need — and without big-consultancy overhead. Our experienced project managers assemble the teams needed to meet specific project requirements. No more. No less. One more thing. Because we developed and operate LetSimonDecide.com, Ayax’s live decision innovation laboratory, we are constantly designing and testing new decision tools and processes – learning which work best for what purpose. We can build on that knowledge for you. Ask for our custom decision solutions. |
Ricardo Solar
President & CEO
Ricardo has 15 years of combined experience in the fields of strategic sales planning, shopper marketing, new business development and brand marketing for consumer product companies. He has worked with major global and regional retailers in the US, Latin America and Europe.
Prior to founding Ayax Systems, Ricardo was Sr. Director of World Wide Brand Merchandising at Mattel Inc., leading global retail initiatives in Asia and Latin America.
While working at Mattel Inc. he formed and managed the Strategic Sales Planning team for the US, where he was in charge of generating demand for the toy category through non conventional sales practices like category management, in-store planning and design, shopper research and on-line promotions for all of Mattel’s brand portfolios with major retailers in the US.
In Latin America, he opened the Customer Marketing department in seven countries and worked on numerous consumer research and POS data analysis initiatives, generating consumer insights and translating them into go-to market and business development strategies. In 2007 he was nominated as a “People to Watch” by the In-Store Marketing Institute.
He holds a BA in Industrial Design from the National Autonomous University in México City and a Specialization in Marketing from the Technologic Institute of Monterrey.
Ramiro Sanchez
Chief Operating Officer
Ramiro Sanchez manages the Analytics Division, which is responsible for collecting a wide variety of consumer data and then turning it into market information and insights, customer decision models, and market projections. He is also responsible for planning and delivering client-defined consulting engagements and off-the-shelf strategic market reports.
He has 15 years of experience in developing, marketing, selling and implementing technology projects in the US and Latin America. He has worked on defining functional and commercial requirements for business-to-consumer and business-to-business software applications. His professional roles at corporations such as Oracle Corporation (US), Bechtel Corporation (US), Brasiliana Consulting (Brazil), and Tidewater, Inc. (US-Venezuela) has given him significant experience in managing local and remote projects, teams with different backgrounds, and driving projects in risky business dynamics.
Prior to joining Ayax Systems, Ramiro Sanchez was the principal at Maxioma Consulting, a firm that helped American companies to expand their business in Latin America. He holds a BS degree in Civil Engineering from Universidad Iberoamericana (Mexico), an MS in Geomechanics and an MS in Construction Engineering and Management from Stanford University (US), and an MBA from Georgetown University (US).
Language skills: fluent in Spanish (native language), English, and Portuguese.
Samuel Holtzman, PhD
Chief Innovation Officer
Since the late 1970s, Dr. Holtzman has focused his professional life on helping organizations and individuals make better decisions. At Ayax, he is responsible for designing such public decision systems as Let Simon Decide [www.letsimondecide.com] and private client systems.
Before joining Ayax, Dr. Holtzman focused on decisions in the pharmaceutical industry. He cofounded and was the chairman, president, and CEO of Rosa & Co. LLC (formerly Rosa Pharmaceuticals, Inc.). Previously, he cofounded and was chairman, president, and CEO of Entelos, Inc. [www.entelos.com], the world leader in systems biology for in silico drug discovery and development. Before Entelos, he was a partner of Strategic Decisions Group (SDG), an international management consultancy, where he worked extensively with pharmaceutical and other R&D-intensive companies.
Dr. Holtzman led the design and development of R&D Decision Advisor® , an intelligent decision system (IDS) that has been applied to R&D portfolio management decisions by major corporations worldwide. He has also directed several other IDS efforts in such areas as infertile patient treatment, critical-care patient treatment, pharmaceutical development, and plant management. His IDS work is the subject of his book, Intelligent Decision Systems, published by Addison-Wesley Publishing Co.
Dr. Holtzman is a consulting associate professor in Management Science and Engineering (MS&E at Stanford University, where he teaches and directs research in business decision analysis, medical decision analysis, and decision systems. He received a doctorate in decision analysis from the EES (now MS&E) department at Stanford University and holds graduate and undergraduate degrees in electrical engineering and computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Caryl Bloom, Ph.D,MFT
Lead Psychologist
Dr. Caryl Bloom received her Ph.D in Psychology in 1998 at the California Graduate Institute, following a BA and MA in counseling psychology from Loyola Marymount University. She earlier had an advanced degree and career in medical technology. Academically, she has been a faculty member in the graduate psychology program at Argosy University, Mount St. Mary’s College, and the undergraduate program at West Los Angeles College. Dr. Bloom has an active and successful practice in Los Angeles California, where her specialties include personality assessment and therapy for Axis I disorders. A skilled diagnostician with considerable experience in teaching and administering the Millon Inventories, she has a strong research and clinical background. Currently, Dr. Bloom is a Senior Consultant at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Personology and Psychopathology in the area of Medical Applications. She is also a co-editor of the upcoming book The Millon Inventories, 2nd Ed., with Dr. T. Millon. Dr. Bloom is on the lecture circuit, presenting trainings and workshops on Millon theory, taxonomy, assessment, and intervention.
Dr. Bloom has been working with Ayax Systems in the development of multiple proprietary psychological tests to help users match their personalities with their alternatives through the decision making process.
Lorena Isla
Market Research Adviser
Lorena has more than seven years of experience in consulting and market research projects in Latin America. Her work focuses on researching and tracking market dynamics in the Automotive, Transportation and Logistics industries, providing quantitative sizing and forecasting for the region.
She has worked on several research studies and consulting projects in areas such as commercial vehicles market analysis in Latin America and the Caribbean, vehicle tracking systems in Latin America, telematics systems market and aftermarket, fuel pumps and oxygen sensors aftermarket analysis in Mexico, and value-chain analysis in the Latin American logistics market, among others.
Her experience with customer research comes from projects developed for the transportation, logistics, and shipping markets in Latin America, where she measured consumers’ flow, motivators, and client profiles for different companies in the industry.
Prior to joining Ayax Systems, Lorena Isla was the Research Manager for the Transportation Group at Frost & Sullivan, a consulting and market research company based in Palo Alto, California, where she gained significant market knowledge and experience in managing region-wide projects.
Lorena Isla holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico (ITAM), in Mexico City.
Claire Rissman-Sherr
Community Manager
As Senior Editor of Ayax Systems, Claire Rissman-Sherr is responsible for editing and polishing all site-related content. She also researches and creates original articles and content on a variety of subjects, including the blog, tips articles, and checklists.
Her writing has appeared in Brilliant Magazine, Austin Monthly, and Penguin’s Students’ Guide to Colleges. She currently teaches a creative writing class to lower-income elementary school students and edits a published anthology of their work.
Prior to joining Ayax Systems, Claire was the Assistant Editor at Brilliant Magazine, a luxury lifestyle magazine based out of Austin, Texas. As Assistant Editor, Claire was responsible not only for editing and proofreading the entire monthly magazine, but also for writing original content, from book reviews to celebrity interviews.
Claire graduated from Northwestern University with a BA in Communication Studies, with a concentration in English Literature and Creative Writing. She is currently a Master of Fine Arts candidate at Bennington College, where she studies Non-Fiction Writing.
Jose Manuel Benita
Senior Analyst
Jose Manuel has over eight years of experience combining forecasting models, applied statistics and applied mathematics, particularly dynamical systems in neuroscience.
Currently, he is completing a PhD in Applied Mathematics at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain, where his research focuses on understanding the phenomenon of short-term synaptic depression from a computational and mathematical point of view.
Prior to joining Ayax Systems, Jose Manuel Benita was working at Mattel Mexico as a Trade Marketing Manager, where he developed forecasting models and statistical analysis for the commercial area. These projects centered around promotional analysis, point of sale forecasting, and market research at the retail level.
Jose Manuel Benita holds a Bachelor’s degree in Actuarial Sciences from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), in Mexico City.
Luis Cuellar
Lead Web Developer
Luis Cuellar is the co-founder, senior project manager and original recruiter for inQbation™. Luis has a degree in computer science and design from the Universidad del Valle, Cali, Colombia. Prior to co-founding inQbation™, Luis worked at Designia, another upstart web design company. Luis has over ten years of experience in web consulting. Luis studied English in Cambridge, England. Luis is also a semi-professional cinematographer (photographer specializing in the TV and film industry) and a skilled graphic illustrator.