Artificial Intelligence in Food Manufacturing: Making the Most of Your Data

Cory Rhoads, Vice President of Sales, SparkCognition

Cory Rhoads is a results-oriented sales executive and experienced business consultant, skilled in advising companies to help them achieve strategic initiatives with proven software capabilities. He has been partnering with organizations for over 23 years and is driven by the success of aligning industry-leading solutions to meet each company’s unique needs.

As SparkCognition’s Vice President of Sales, Cory leads the Manufacturing industry sales team, helping many of the world’s top consumer brands successfully deploy and scale artificial intelligence solutions to achieve new levels of operational excellence, quality and efficiency, resulting in greater productivity and predictability across the enterprise.

Prior to joining SparkCognition, Cory served as Strategic Sales Director for Medallia, VP of Sales for SAP, Sr. Account Executive for CallidusCloud, as well as management and business consulting positions with Oracle and Accenture. Cory holds a BBA in Accounting, with a minor in Information Technology, from Stetson University.

Curt Richtermeyer, Executive Vice President of Global Sales, SparkCognition

Curt Richtermeyer is an accomplished executive, public speaker, and advisor to companies looking to find innovative software solutions for the most complex business problems. Throughout his 30+ year career in the software industry, he has developed a passion for helping companies unlock growth, optimize performance, and realize return on their software investments.

As SparkCognition’s Executive Vice President of Global Sales, he leads sales teams that help the world’s most recognizable companies leverage cutting-edge artificial intelligence solutions. Prior to joining SparkCognition, Curt served as SVP and General Manager for Aurea, led North America Sales for CallidusCloud, and held senior management positions with Oracle, Trilogy, BDO, and Grant Thornton. Curt holds an MBA and a BA in Philosophy from the University of Texas at Austin.

Anjali Patel, Director Services, SparkCognition

Anjali Patel serves as a Director on SparkCognition’s Services team. In the 3 years Anjali has spent at SparkCognition, she has been focused on delivering value-added artificial intelligence products and solutions to customers across multiple industries including power generation, aerospace, and manufacturing. In addition to delivery, Anjali also oversees the Training and Enablement and Data Science functions within the Services team.

Prior to joining SparkCognition, Anjali worked at Accenture as a strategy and technology consultant in the Resources group. She has experience in strategizing and delivering complex, large-scale technology and organizational solutions, balancing creativity and sharp business acumen with a structured and rigorous approach.

Anjali earned an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College and holds a bachelor’s degree in Industrial and Operations Engineering from the University of Michigan.

Mike Panos, Product Manager, New Markets, SparkCognition

Mike Panos serves as Product Manager, New Markets where he is responsible for assessing, defining, incubating, and delivering early adoption solution engagements built with SparkCognition products. Previously, he was a Program Manager with SparkCognition Labs where he led R&D-focused customer engagements as part of the company’s Applied Research team.

Prior to SparkCognition, Mike served in the US Navy for ten years as an MH-60S Seahawk helicopter pilot and helped stand up the Navy’s MQ-8 Fire Scout drone helicopter program. He completed two aircraft carrier deployments to the Western Pacific and Middle East, and one deployment to a combat zone with a special operations unit.

Mike earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the US Naval Academy.