SAN DIEGO, March 8, 2017—SmartDrive Systems, a leader in driving performance solutions that reduce collisions and improve fuel efficiency, today announced the appointment of Ray Ghanbari as chief technology officer (CTO), furthering the company's strategic vision to leverage video and data intelligence to transform commercial transportation with solutions that improve the efficiency, safety, and readiness of every driver, vehicle, and fleet. The selection of Ghanbari to lead technology innovation underscores SmartDrive's position at the vanguard of edge analytics that drive operational insights and as a transportation intelligence pioneer.
"With remarkable breadth and depth of experience—as an entrepreneur, creative thinker and technology thought leader across complex platforms and applications—Ray Ghanbari is ideally suited to help SmartDrive drive the next era of major industry innovation, in which intelligent data-driven analytics will enhance virtually every aspect of transportation operations," stated Steve Mitgang, CEO of SmartDrive. "The pace of change in our market is only going to accelerate. Our technology vision is focused on pushing the boundaries of invention while also protecting the investments of our customers with solutions that are open, extensible, and architected to take advantage of new innovations."
Ghanbari brings more than 25 years of experience and a deep understanding of analytics and data-driven value creation across multiple industries to his new role. His distinctive expertise, coupled with SmartDrive's c, will enable the company to build upon its core solutions and extensible platform architecture to accelerate future advances.
"The future of transportation innovation is being driven by companies that know how to transform the explosion of data into actionable intelligence—whether it's within predictive algorithms that power transportation's IoT world or through smart metrics and KPIs that provide prescriptive actions to optimize business outcomes," commented Ghanbari. "This is an exciting time for the industry and the company, and I am thrilled to join the team."
"I have long held the position that data, in and of itself, is not the end game. Rather, the opportunity lies in solutions that create value from the explosion of fleet data and making those insights accessible to all fleets," noted Transportation Advisor Don Osterberg, an industry veteran with decades of experience in leading fleet safety programs. "The addition of Ray to the SmartDrive leadership team further enhances the company's unique position at the forefront of the movement to apply video analytics to driver behavior, and combine this with an approach to data science that is tuned to the specific needs of transportation."
Before joining SmartDrive, Ghanbari was vice president, product development for FICO, where he was responsible for the company's efforts in unstructured and semi-structured data analytics, analytics mediated data analysis and alert management, and analytic innovation initiatives for healthcare, government and higher education. Previous roles included executive vice president of strategy and products for Vital Images, CTO for the Ingenix division of UnitedHealth Group, and CTO for the Performance Marketing division of Yahoo! Ghanbari received his Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a master's degree in physics from Cambridge University in England, and a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and computer science from the University of Illinois-Urbana.
About SmartDrive Systems
SmartDrive Systems, the recipient of Frost & Sullivan's Customer Value Leadership Award for Video Safety Solutions, gives fleets and drivers unprecedented driving performance insight and analysis, helping save fuel, expenses and lives. Its video analysis, predictive analytics and personalized performance program help fleets improve driving skills, lower operating costs and deliver significant ROI. With an easy-to-use managed service, fleets and drivers can access and self-manage driving performance anytime, anywhere. The company, which is ranked as one of the fastest growing companies by Deloitte's Technology Fast 500™, has compiled the world's largest storehouse of more than 180 million analyzed risky-driving events. SmartDrive Systems is based in San Diego, and employs over 500 people worldwide.
For more information on SmartDrive Systems, please visit www.smartdrive.net.
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