Sara Brumbaugh is Managing Principal of Ceres Analytics, a consultancy specializing in applied mathematics, statistics, and machine learning. Sara’s roots are in business forecasting: she’s worked with the IBF for over 20 years, and is the 2015 recipient of IBF’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Sara’s work in predictive analytics began with construction of forecast drivers to predict stock returns. Her recent work supported genetic brain research at Harvard Medical School. Other recent work includes, patent-pending algorithms to detect financial fraud, and genetic models to predict success of cancer chemotherapy. Sara holds a masters in Economics from Florida State University, and is a currently pursuing a second masters (Biology) at Harvard University.

Eric is a predictive analytics and business planning innovator, author, and speaker. He is the Director of Thought Leadership at the IBF. Prior to this he worked as the Director of Demand Planning at Escalade Sports, Director of Demand Planning at Berry Plastics, and Director of Demand Planning & S&OP at Tempur Sealy International. In 2016, he received the Excellence in Business Forecasting & Planning award from the IBF. He is an IBF Advanced Certified Professional Forecaster (ACPF) with over 20 years of experience. Eric is a visionary in his field, a frequent speaker and panelist for many executive forums and professional conferences and has written numerous articles in publications such as The Journal of Business Forecasting and APICS Magazine. He is also the author of the books Cultural Cycles and Predictive Analytics for Business Forecasting & Planning.