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November 25, 2014

RapidMiner Adds Analytics Veteran to Team

BOSTON, Mass., Nov. 25 — Pioneering predictive analytics leader RapidMiner today announced that Jon Shepherd has joined its executive team as senior vice president of sales. He brings more than 20 years of high-tech experience to his role at RapidMiner and holds an impressive track record for selling enterprise analytics software. Shepherd joins the recently announced president and COO of RapidMiner, Michele Chambers, as the second, high profile former IBM Netezza executive joining RapidMiner.

“I am very excited to join the RapidMiner team. My professional career has been with leading technology companies and, in the past 10 years, I have had a laser focus on selling advanced analytics solutions,” said Shepherd. “My history of success with sales and partner teams, within a variety of vertical, regional and worldwide markets, will add to RapidMiner’s sales growth, momentum and velocity.”

“Jon is a proven professional with extensive experience working with enterprise software and technology companies,” said Chambers. “He is very market driven, focusing on customer and partner success. Jon has a unique talent that helps customers understand how complex technology — including big data, machine learning and predictive analytics — can be simplified and used to drive value for their organization. Jon will have an opportunity to make a real impact on our growth and penetration into the market.”

Most recently, Shepherd was senior vice president of sales at EagleEye Analytics, a leading provider of predictive analytics for the property and casualty industry, where he pivoted sales from consulting projects to repeatable and scalable sales using a combination of direct and inside sales models. Prior to EagleEye, he was vice president of sales at Netezza, an IBM company, running Big Data sales for the Netezza data warehouse appliance. During his tenure there, Shepherd was the sales startup leader, tapped repeatedly to develop a successful sales model for new lines of business, and then expand the line of business. He has a proven track record managing businesses from startup size to large, highly successful and execution-focused sales teams. Shepherd’s last role at IBM involved managing over 100 direct sales people. Throughout his high tech experience, he has been successful at product strategy and launch, and maintaining C-level relationships with customers, partners, resellers and prospects.

Shepherd has also had executive management roles at Silknet/Kana, and CODA, and was the Founder of Direct Link Flowers and Courthouse Data. He was named one of the Top 10 Entrepreneurs under 35 in Georgia, and is a frequent speaker at software and government industry events discussing the value of big data, location data, analytics and fact based decision-making.

Shepherd graduated from Vanderbilt University with degrees in Economics and Psychology.

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