MEET OTHOT

Othot cofounder, Andy Hannah, now serves as the chairman and chief partnership officer. In his role, he promotes the use of AI and prescriptive analytics to enable colleges and universities to understand their students better and make informed decisions throughout the entire student-to-alumni lifecycle.

Hannah is an adjunct professor of Entrepreneurship and Analytics and an Entrepreneur in Residence at the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) School of Business. At Pitt, he is developing and delivering curriculum and student experiences at the intersection of analytics and entrepreneurship that develop skills for graduates to be leaders in the growing business analytics field. In addition, he is a senior advisor and faculty member of the International Institute of Analytics.

Hannah has played leading C-Suite roles at four high-tech startups over the past two-plus decades. An entrepreneur at heart, he has a successful track record of launching progressive ventures in a variety of industries and collaborating with prominent venture firms.

Hannah is a graduate of Penn State University. He received his MBA from the Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business at the University of Pittsburgh and completed Carnegie Mellon’s Entrepreneurial Management Program.

John Abbatico has long distinguished himself as an innovator in the system applications and data management arena, focusing on enhanced customer-specific platforms. Abbatico, cofounder and current chief technical officer at Othot, leveraged his extensive experience in developing SaaS platforms to build the unique Othot platform.

Previously, he was the cofounder and CTO of Hiperos, a comprehensive SaaS solution in the 3rd-party management space, which was ultimately acquired by Coupa Software. He also led product solutions at Venafi in the early stages of the company. Abbatico has broad experience working in cutting-edge software companies, serving in critical technology leadership, sales engineering and consulting roles for Oracle, SAP and Ariba. He began his career at General Electric working as a nuclear physicist.

A graduate of Penn State University, Abbatico earned bachelor’s of science degrees in both Physics and Nuclear Engineering.

Jeremy Garvey is a cofounder, board member, and operations architect at Othot. In this role, he oversees the organization’s operational and customer-focused processes to ensure efficiency, and develops and implements infrastructure technology initiatives.

Garvey is also a practicing attorney and concentrates his practice on venture capital, corporate law, and mergers and acquisitions. He has over 20 years of experience counseling and advising early-stage growth companies.

Garvey earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and government from Colgate University, and his Juris Doctor from University of Pennsylvania Law School.

As the data science architect at Othot, Mark Voortman oversees and builds the engines that power Othot’s predictive analytics platform. He also created the Othot Data Science Language (ODSL) that is used to process analytics for colleges and universities. Voortman is passionate about building intelligent systems that solve important problems and his skills range from analyzing data science problems to designing and implementing technical solutions to solve them.

Voortman is an associate professor and director of the applied computer science program at Point Park University where he teaches a variety of courses including programming, databases, and business analytics. He also teaches graduate level courses in the MS in information systems and business analytics program as well as the business analytics concentration of the MBA program.

While pursuing his PhD, Voortman made several significant contributions to the GeNIe and SMILE software developed by the Decision Systems Laboratory, mostly related to learning Bayesian networks from data and causality. The software is used by universities and companies all over the world, including well-known brands such as Intel, Oracle, Boeing, and HRL Laboratories.

He earned his master and bachelor of science degrees from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands and his PhD in Information Science from the University of Pittsburgh.

Robert DiMaggio, Othot’s vice president of product, creates thoughtful, problem-solving software, and enjoys working on data-heavy products with complex architectures and requirements.

Prior to joining Othot, DiMaggio was the senior vice president and chief product officer at fi360, overseeing the company’s portfolio of software applications, training, and certifications. He was also the product manager at Predictive Solutions where he developed a new predictive analytics platform to prevent workplace injuries and death, and at Deem, Inc. where he worked on the design, marketing and advertising of e-commerce products.

DiMaggio earned both his undergraduate degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering as well as his Master of Business from Carnegie Mellon University.

Zach Varga is the vice president of Partner Success and Business Partnership at Othot where he collaborates with higher education institutions to interpret insights through advanced analytics—recommending actions that help colleges and universities meet or exceed their enrollment and student success goals.

Over the last 15 years, Varga has worked in a variety of industries in customer success, project management, and operations roles. His focus has always been on improving the customer experience, and he’s managed customer success teams at Seegrid, a material-handling robotics company, and Bombardier Transportation, one of the world’s largest rail manufacturers.

Varga received both a Master of Business and bachelor’s degree from Duquesne University.

Dr. Patricia (Patty) Beeson is the Director of Research at Othot. A provost emerita at the University of Pittsburgh, she leverages her academic experience to identify and lead cross-organizational research projects that support the needs of higher-education leaders. The combination of Beeson's higher education leadership experience and rich academic research background, combined with Othot’s data science capabilities, offers a disciplined yet fresh and innovative approach to the research.

Beeson served as provost and senior vice chancellor from 2010-18. Her tenure as provost was marked by her innovative and ambitious academic vision for the University of Pittsburgh and her focus on data and analytics to help achieve the university’s goals. Beeson came to Pitt in 1983 as a professor of economics and, before she was elected provost and senior vice chancellor, held several administrative posts, including associate dean for undergraduate studies in the Dietrich School, vice provost for graduate studies, and vice provost for graduate and undergraduate studies.

Beeson earned her Ph.D. at the University of Oregon.

Chris Lucier is the Director of Partner Relationships at Othot, leveraging over 20 years of experience in admissions and strategic enrollment management to help colleges and universities adopt data-driven decision making in addressing enrollment and students success challenges.

Before joining Othot in 2019, Lucier was the vice president for Enrollment Management at the University of Delaware (UD) where he developed, implemented, assessed and refined a management strategy to mitigate the challenges presented by a volatile enrollment environment. In this capacity, he was responsible for undergraduate admissions, the registrar’s office, and student financial services. Prior to UD, he was the vice president for enrollment management at the University of Vermont, where he developed and shaped the overall enrollment strategy and implemented operational programs to recruit, admit, retain and graduate undergraduate students. In 2001, after a 21 year career as an US Army Officer, Lucier started his career in higher education as Director of Recruitment & Operations in the University of Michigan Office of Undergraduate Admissions.

Lucier received his undergraduate degree from the University of Arizona and a Master of Public Administration degree from Western Kentucky University. He is a graduate of the US Army Command and General Staff College.