Our Team

Paul Sill

Founder & Senior Managing Director

Paul Sill began his career in 1994 working in the real estate research department at Blockbuster Entertainment in Fort Lauderdale, FL helping to develop a sales forecasting tool in a geospatial environment during the peak of their global store expansion. From there he moved further into retail data mining at Sears Roebuck and Co. during the Softer-Side retail resurgence and developed a wide variety of forecasting models for a number of their off-mall concepts.

In 2001, Paul founded Forum Analytics to build upon his experience combining complex analytics with cutting-edge mapping technology. In 2007, Forum conducted a successful round of private financing for its continued expansion and has since introduced numerous industry-changing platforms, most notably the Strategic Integrated Mapping and Modeling System (SIMMS), Cannibalytics, and the VEXRAY site filtering module.

Paul holds a Master of Science in Geography and was an Adjunct Professor of Geography at Northern Illinois University for a number of years. He has taught retail analytic coursework at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, on behalf of the International Council of Shopping Centers, and has spoken at numerous national conventions on retail and research related topics. He is an avid pinball enthusiast and has an odd affection for neon signs.

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Sarah Baumgartner

Senior Director & Chief Client Officer

As Forum’s longest tenured employee, Sarah is responsible for the quality of all projects and deliverables, from user experience to final executive presentations. In her capacity as Chief Client Officer she leads the helm of a dedicated staff of statisticians, project managers, support analysts, and QA team members to ensure our clients receive the exceptional quality they expect from us. Her laser focus and attention to detail coupled with her management and communication skills have endeared her to every Forum client and associate. 

Having interned for local celebrity weatherman Tom Skilling, Sarah considers herself an amateur meteorologist. She has been with Forum Analytics for over twelve years and holds a Bachelor of Science in Geography from Northern Illinois University.

Sarah’s personal approach to every project has earned her the unofficial title of “Office Mom.” Her standards of excellence gave rise to the phrase “Not on My Watch!” trending throughout the office.

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Anne Anderson

Senior Account Director

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Alex Ulp

Senior Project Manager

For over seven years, Alex Ulp has brought her high standard of quality to the Forum Analytics project team. Starting as a GIS Analyst and working up to her current role as Senior Project Manager, her vigilance working on client projects is a key factor in the company’s client retention rate. In addition to being the main account owner for over 25 clients and managing all aspects of a system’s development from the data discovery through delivery, Alex also provides guidance to Forum’s junior project managers.

Alex graduated from DePaul University with a BA in Geography, GIS certificate, and minor in Environmental Science. In her senior year, she received DePaul’s “Betty Leahy Memorial Travel Scholarship” for a paper on the “Land Cover and Change Analysis of the Shrinking Aral Sea.” She also worked as a TA in both DePaul’s Geographic and Environmental Science departments in 2010 and 2011. When not managing client projects, she can be seen hitting the field for a game of Ultimate Frisbee.

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Anthony Conti

Senior Vice President of New Business Development

Tony Conti has over 30 years of technology, business services, and software sales and marketing experience. Tony began his career with Data General Corporation, now part of EMC, as part of their groundbreaking technology sales engineering training program, eventually earning Rookie of the Year, #1 Northeast Sales Champion, and President’s Club awards. Tony then moved to the business applications market.

In his role at Forum, Tony manages sales and marketing resources and is directly responsible for all major account development and consulting business channels. Tony resides in the Boston area and was educated in Industrial Engineering at both Georgia Tech and Northeastern. In his spare time he serves as Board Director and Development Chair of Notre Dame Cristo Rey High School in Lawrence, MA.
 

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Kenna Brannon

Vice President, Technical Sales

Kenna’s 12 years of experience includes client relationship management, market research and planning, and account development. Prior to joining Forum, she advanced through several account management roles where her responsibilities included client relationship management and developing predictive models to assist clients in retail site selection, market planning, and targeted marketing programs.

In her role at Forum, Kenna is responsible for the technical construction and development of client solutions to support business needs and corporate strategy. Kenna resides in Tulsa and holds a BBA in Marketing with Distinction from the University of Oklahoma. She is an avid Sooner fan and amateur chicken farmer, much to the delight of her northern colleagues.

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Mike Jersha

Solutions Architect

In his role at Forum, Mike assists in new business development and technical sales and is responsible for new and existing account development. He started with Forum in a client services role, working directly with clients through the implementation and final deliverable stages. As a Forum Analytics project manager he worked closely with the statisticians and information technology teams for product development.

Mike began his career as a GIS research associate at DePaul University for two long-established research studies. His team’s work went on to be published across several outlets, both written and digital and lead to his receiving the GIS Student of the Year Award from the Illinois GIS Association. He resides in Chicago and was educated in Geography, Economic Development, and GIS at DePaul. Mike also spent time volunteering with Global Brigades by building schools in Honduras.

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Paige Stover

Senior Director of Analytics

Paige Stover has over 14 years of retail modeling experience working for firms such as Shopper Trak and Management Science Associates. Since joining Forum she has been overseeing and developing the modeling capabilities at Forum. She has initiated and continually adapted the application of machine learning techniques to real estate in order to improve both outcomes and efficiency for Forum’s clients. Her team has also worked to integrate and develop new data sources like Massive Mobile Data and social media tracking into real estate applications.  Paige also oversaw the creation and development of ShopoGraphics, the first-of-its-kind retail segmentation database for real estate modeling.

Paige holds a Bachelor of Science in statistics and decision sciences from Carnegie Mellon University.

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Taras Skavinskyy

Senior Statistician

Taras Skavinskyy began his career in data analytics at Aon Hewitt and consumer insights analytics at Kemper before joining the Forum team. For nearly five years, he has been building multivariate regression models to understand customers and modeling real estate site selection for various industries from QSRs to big box retailers.

Taras holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Mathematics and Economics from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and he is currently pursuing a Master’s Degree in Analytics from the University of Chicago.

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