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Kelami Ertan Bio

Kelami is Confida's CTO and leads our Business Intelligence practice. He has been instrumental in leading Confida's product development efforts. He has many years of experience consulting with Fortune 500 companies to identify and implement strategic business opportunities. His work in the field of strategic planning covers many industries including financial services, telecommunications, consumer goods, high technology and insurance.

Some examples from Kelami's consulting experience include:

Real Estate: Developed a data warehouse and created a web-based customer decision support system aggregating strategic-level client information for one of the largest real estate companies in the world.

Semiconductors: Led the development of a proprietary strategic inventory management decision support system for a large semiconductor equipment company that resulted in a 60% reduction in manufacturing inventory without affecting service levels. This large scale system effort was piggy-backed off of a year long strategic assessment and reorganization effort for the entire manufacturing and service operations.

Financial Services: Designed and developed a decision support system that assisted management in understanding real-time profitability for any segment of their business. The sophisticated activity-based costing engine determined costs, revenues and profitability by sales person, branch office, industry, product line or any combination thereof.

Banking: Conducted strategic analysis on the merging of four government-controlled banks in Jamaica. Provided recommendations regarding systems conversion, operational transition and Y2K preparedness.

Computer Software: Performed market assessment and strategic business definition work for a startup speech recognition company.

Computer Storage: Architected a new market plan and redesigned the development process for a manufacturer of optical storage disks. Process-mapped the "media development cycle" required for the production of an Electron Trapping Optical Memory (ETOM)-based optical storage device and built a technical model of various end-user applications including "video-on-demand."

Reinsurance: Developed a strategic framework as part of a business process reengineering effort at one of the largest reinsurance companies in the world. Created a high-level view of the reinsurance industry geared at enhancing the team's understanding of global competitive dynamics, product line dynamics and segmentation parameters.

Consumer Durables: Led the turnaround effort for one of the largest distributors of safety supplies in the world. Orchestrated an enterprise-wide strategic directive and led the implementation of the effort in three territories. Designed various tools, including strategic profitability mappings and control mechanisms, before implementing them initially in pilot sites and thereafter across the country.

Electronics: Conducted a strategic business opportunity evaluation for a manufacturer of consumer electronics. Conducted primary market research to determine the potential consumer reception for various configurations of multi-functional products.

Financial Services: Provided market segmentation and strategic business definition for a multi-billion dollar writer of property and casualty insurance in the U.S. This effort was punctuated by a large-scale primary research effort involving over 200 risk managers across the country.

Before joining Confida, Kelami started a number of businesses including a high-end children's clothing company, manufacturing products in Turkey and distributing them via the Internet and traditional channels in the United States. He is also the founder of Tamba, a biotechnology company providing immunoassay-based products to emerging markets.

After receiving his M.B.A, he worked for four years at the consulting firm Symmetrix, where he provided broad-based strategic and turnaround consulting services to clients. Previous to that, Kelami worked in the strategic planning unit of Braun Inc., a division of the Gillette Company.

He is a masters-level graduate of both the School of Business and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Columbia University; he earned his undergraduate degree in Management Engineering from Istanbul Technical University.

Kelami is a proud owner of a new vineyard (Merlot and Cabernet grapes) in the Aegean region of Turkey.