About Us
Career Opportunites
If you’re interested in the opportunity to work with renowned scientists and experienced merchants, to learn and grow professionaly with the best in the industry contact us.
Executive Management
Lance Jacobs | Chief Executive Officer
Lance brings more than 25 years of experience in the retail industry to KSS Retail. Before that, he served as chairman of TCI Solutions*, a leading provider of integrated enterprise software solutions for the retail industry. Prior to TCI, Lance was president of a software and consulting firm serving the retail industry. He started his career with The Kroger Co. in the financial and operations areas. Lance earned a BA in a business administration from the University of South Florida, and an MBA in finance from the University of Cincinnati. Lance joined the company in September 2005.
David Auerbach | Executive Vice President
David brings wide-ranging pricing and promotion systems knowledge to KSS Retail. As the former president of Connect3 Systems and executive vice president and chief operating officer of TCI Solutions*, David gained more than 14 years of experience in retail sectors. Prior to his retail software career he was senior vice president, sales and marketing at Scantron Corporation. Prior to he held sales, marketing and senior management positions at Xerox Corporation. David joined KSS Retail in October 2005. David is a graduate of Cal State University, Long Beach with a BS in marketing.
David G. Ristow | Chief Financial Officer
David brings over ten years of financial management experience in both the private and public sectors to KSS Retail. Prior to joining KSS Retail, Dave served in various strategic financial management roles at Nexiant and at TCI Solutions*. There, he was instrumental in growing company revenues from $6.2 to $23 million. David is a licensed certified public accountant who began his career with Deloitte & Touché, LLP and earned a BS in accounting from the University of Southern California. David is also proud to have served in the United States Marine Corps. David joined KSS Retail in October 2005.
Lyle Walker | Vice President, Marketing
Lyle brings over 25 years of retail industry experience, most recently as Director of Marketing for Retalix, Ltd and Director of Product Management for TCI Solutions. Lyle’s merchandising experience spans 19 years at Kroger, Winn Dixie, American Stores, and Wal-Mart. While at Kroger, he worked in store management, buying, pricing, space management, and category management. At Kroger's general office, Lyle was the manager of Merchandising Technology and led the development of the company's first category management system. Lyle joined KSS Retail in June 2005 and is a graduate of Stephen F. Austin University with a BBA in Marketing.
Dr. Paul Helman | Chief Science Officer
Prior to joining KSS Retail in October, 2007, Paul was a founding partner and chief scientist of Standard Analytics, LLC. He is a professor emeritus of computer science at the University of New Mexico following a 25-year academic career on the faculty. He previously worked with Data Ventures, LLC as a consultant and visiting scientist where he worked on optimization, data mining solutions and software for Procter and Gamble, as well as retail clients such as Food Lion, Wal-Mart, Safeway, Meijer, and HEB. While with Data Ventures, Paul helped to design, optimize, and implement the proprietary TLOG data storage system, XDB, a capability that can quickly process terabytes of basket-level data. XDB is a key foundation of many of the optimization and data mining algorithms developed for KSS Retail.
Blake Ryan | Vice President, Development
Blake’s former position with Motorola Australia Software Centre involved over 12 years of designing and developing software architecture across a broad range of platforms and a variety of technologies. Blake joined KSS Retail in June 2000.
Andy Mahood | Vice President, Product Management
Andy leverages 22 years of retail and IT experience within the product management organization of KSS Retail. While at The Co-Operative Group, one of the UK’s largest grocery and convenience operators, he functioned in various merchandising and technology roles including: IT project management, pricing systems, buying and marketing within Retail as well as purchasing, business analyst and investment buying within Supply Chain. Andy joined KSS Retail in November 2002 and completed his studies in Marketing at Salford Technical College in Manchester, England.
Scott Stein | Vice President, Professional Services
Scott brings over 26 years of professional services and software engineering experience to KSS Retail, most recently as founder and president of EmpowerWare, Inc., a software firm specializing in Lawson and PDI custom development and support for retail and fuel automation initiatives. Prior to that, Scott held the post as chief information officer for the nation’s fourth largest convenience retailing chain, Dairy Mart Convenience Stores, Inc., from 1991 through 2000. Scott joined KSS Retail in June 2005 and is a graduate of Western New England College with a BS in business administration.
Bob Phinney | VP of Strategic Pricing
Bob has more than 30 years of retail experience, combining merchandising and operations (retail and wholesale) with software and technology development. A member of the Professional Pricing Society, Bob has conducted countless lectures and workshops with organizations looking for practical and visionary pricing strategies. His solid retail management background has enabled him to design and implement creative approaches to problem-solving, process improvement and creating productive teams. As the VP of Strategic Pricing at KSS Retail, his mission is to drive the vision of the pricing solution set, combining the art of pricing with the science of price and promotion optimization.
* now Retalix, Ltd.