We help retailers reach their full potential.

Michael Osborne is the chief executive officer of Appriss Retail.

A people-first leader who closely works with investors, directors, partners, and employees to quickly achieve results, he has over two decades of experience bringing disruptive and innovative solutions to market in the B2B ecommerce, marketing technology, and enterprise software industries.

His experience spans the range of co-founding and leading seed-stage companies and growing businesses to nearly one thousand employees.

Before joining Appriss Retail, Michael was the President of Wunderkind, where he oversaw various commercial functions, including sales and marketing, strategic alliances, and international partnerships. He has also served as the CEO, president, CRO, SVP of sales, member of the board of directors, and advisor for over a dozen companies, including SmarterHQ, which was purchased by Wunderkind.

He has a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical and computer engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.

Heather Magaro is the chief financial officer of Appriss Retail.

She’s a strategic finance professional with over two decades of experience leading, managing, and guiding small businesses and global multinationals. She’s handled all finance and accounting capabilities at companies, including FP&A, AP, AR, and financial strategy.

Additionally, she’s led multiple successful M&A processes on both the buy and sell side.

She has a degree in finance from the University of Southern California.

Dr. Vishal Patel is the chief technology officer of Appriss Retail. 

He oversees all engineering functions, including building and supporting the product suite and bringing new products to market to better serve Appriss Retail’s clients. 

He has more than a decade of software and programming experience, having worked with various technology stacks, database solutions, and cloud providers. Previously, as Appris Retail’s director of data science R&D, he was responsible for building and deploying data application and machine learning models for retail customers. 

Vishal has a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of California, Irvine. There, he focused on machine learning and data integration challenges and published more than a dozen peer-reviewed research papers. He has also taught professional classes in data science.

Pedro Ramos is the chief revenue officer of Appriss Retail. With more than 20 years of experience in fraud and loss prevention, he has extensive knowledge of the retail space, as well as experience managing revenue-generating organizations. Pedro oversees Appriss Retail’s customer growth and retention departments, including sales, customer success, and marketing.

Prior to joining Appriss, Pedro spent much of his career as the assistant vice president of loss prevention at Pathmark Stores. He entered the loss prevention technology industry in 2008.

He received his Bachelor of Science degree from Kean University.

Melissa Trelfa leads Appriss Retail’s talent and development strategy. 

With more than 20 years of experience in human resources leadership, organization design and development, and operations management, Melissa has blended her organization development and operations background with strategic culture and talent initiatives to build high-performing teams that drive businesses forward. 

Previously in her career, Melissa served as a human resources executive in other industries, including manufacturing, health insurance, and large hospital systems.

She’s passionate about recognizing the potential in people and organizations and serving as a catalyst to move them forward with steady, purposeful, and consistent action. 

She has a Bachelor of Arts in political science from the University of Michigan and a Master of Arts in human and organization development from Oakland University.

Amy Wilson is the chief product officer of Appriss Retail. 

A forward thinker with a flair for innovation, she has an extensive background in data analytics and product strategy. Her past experience includes helping pivot a product strategy from a customer-reactive approach to a SaaS-driven revenue model. 

Additionally, she has experience in personalization services for online retailers, digital advertising services, audience engagement products, ecommerce martech, and predictive analytics.

Prior to joining Appriss, Amy served as the SVP of product management for Planalytics, where she built the product function from scratch and helped the company determine its user story and scalable product-market fit.

She received her Bachelor of Science degree, magna cum laude, from Rutgers University.

Dean Abbott is the chief data scientist of Appriss Retail. With more than three decades of experience, he is an internationally recognized thought leader and innovator in data science and predictive analytics. He has solved problems in customer analytics, fraud detection, risk modeling, text mining, and survey analysis.

Prior to joining Appriss Retail, Dean co-founded and was the chief data scientist at SmarterHQ, which later merged with Wunderkind. Additionally, Dean is the founder and president of Abbott Analytics and was the Bodily Bicentennial Professor of Analytics at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business from 2023-2024. He is the author of Applied Predictive Analytics (Wiley, 2014) and serves on the advisory board for several university data science programs.

Dean holds a bachelor’s degree in computational mathematics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a master’s degree in applied mathematics from the University of Virginia.

Kara Holthaus is the chief customer officer at Appriss Retail.

She has a background in ecommerce and marketing technology. A results-oriented marketing professional with over 15 years of experience at companies in various growth stages, Kara excels in delivering exceptional value to clients and leading high-performing customer-facing teams.

Earlier in her career, Kara immersed herself in the world of retail ecommerce and then went on to focus on customer success and professional services.

Before joining Appriss Retail, she led the customer success team at Contentsquare, where she fostered company growth and strong relationships with clients, and served as the vice president of client success at SmarterHQ, where she played a pivotal role in the company’s growth— ultimately leading to its acquisition by Wunderkind.

She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism and communication from Butler University.

Barry Clark is the senior vice president of corporate strategy at Appriss Retail. He has more than 30 years of experience in executive leadership roles in B2B ecommerce, end-to-end retail, marketing technology, and supply chain solutions. He’s served various organizations, ranging from startups to Fortune 50 enterprises, across multiple industries.

Prior to joining Appriss Retail, Barry was the SVP of business development for Relex Solutions. His other roles include the VP of global sales for Oracle Retail and the chief revenue officer for the Art Technology Group. He’s also active in board advisor roles for multiple companies.

He has a Bachelor of Science degree from Ball State University.

Emily Rhodes is the vice president of marketing at Appriss Retail. As a dynamic and results-driven marketing leader, Emily brings over 19 years of experience creating and executing innovative marketing strategies that drive business growth and brand success. 

Passionate about delivering exceptional customer experiences and achieving marketing excellence, she has a track record of building high-performing marketing teams, harnessing cutting-edge technology, and developing data-driven campaigns.

She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of South Carolina.

Kellie Beckman is the general counsel and data protection officer for Appriss Retail. 

A Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP/US), her experience involves overseeing complex litigation, advising on employment law matters, managing M&A transactions, and organizing comprehensive global compliance programs. 

Prior to joining Appriss Retail, Kellie was a member of the business litigation team at Frost Brown Todd LLC in Louisville, KY.

She has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Transylvania University and a Juris Doctorate degree from the University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law.