Leadership

LinkedIn: Hilda Cherekdjian

Hilda Cherekdjian has served as the Executive Director of the Society of Decision Professionals (SDP) since its founding in 2011. She works closely with the SDP Board to formulate annual strategic plans and oversees the day-to-day operations of the organization, fostering its growth and expansion. Hilda leads efforts to cultivate relationships with stakeholders and sponsors, supporting the organization's mission.

In her role, Hilda also serves as co-chair of the SDP Annual Conference Production Committee and collaborates closely with SDP chapters worldwide. She directs the educational programs, interest groups, and membership strategies to drive the society’s growth and impact.

Prior to joining SDP, Hilda served as Financial Controller at Global Infotech, a consulting firm specializing in Salesforce Development, and Enterprise IT Integration and held various positions at Roche and Hedge Tracker.

Based in Los Gatos, California, Hilda speaks five languages.

LinkedIn: David Matheson

Co-founder of SmartOrg, a Silicon Valley company, has extensive experience helping global firms improve results in portfolio management, innovation, and strategy. He co-authored "The Smart Organization" and is the President and a Fellow in the Society of Decision Professionals. With a Stanford Ph.D., he educates in Strategic Portfolio Management and advises startups, having previously been a Principal at Strategic Decisions Group.

LinkedIn: Mike Benefiel

BSc. Geophysical Engineering, Colorado School of Mines

Extensive global energy industry technical and leadership experience prior to joining Chevron’s DA/DQ practice in 2006. I have been very fortunate to learn from and work with Chevron’s DA/DQ founding fathers (SDP Pioneer Award recipients Brian Putt, Larry Neal & Frank Koch) as well as many other outstanding decision professionals in many parts of the world, both internal and external to Chevron. Since October 2020 I have led Chevron’s DA/DQ community. During this time, I’ve been instrumental in helping improve Chevron’s DA/DQ practice by institutionalizing the iterative, value-focused, cost-disciplined approach to DA/DQ that I co-developed, Minimum Functional Objectives (MFO).

LinkedIn: Trygve Botn

Trygve has experience as a Decision Professional from Chevron and as a consultant. He is a Fellow at SDP, director for the Society of Petroleum Engineers Management Technical Section, and is the Founder and CEO of ThinQ Decisions, an Oslo-based decision consultancy firm. Trygve has held several roles as a Decision Professional Leader, Mentor, Advisor, and Analyst in Norway, the USA, and Kazakhstan. Throughout his career, Trygve has been instrumental in applying and maturing the principles of DQ to investment decisions for oil & gas and mining developments, technology R&D, renewable energies, IT, business development and commercial investments, and corporate strategies. He has led several organizational DQ efforts and worked to enhance methodologies and practices in framing, economics and evaluations, Value of Information, and portfolio evaluations.

As a co-founder and board member of the Norwegian Society of Decision Making, he works wit other SDP and EDPN members to grow the Decision Science and DQ presence in Europe. Trygve was the chair of a committee that organized a successful DQ conference in Europe in 2022.

LinkedIn: Amy Day

As Clarity4Action.org’s Executive Director and Co-Founder, Amy Day coaches and teaches whole-person decision making to young people, and the adults who care about them, through one-on-one coaching, online and in-person group courses, and workshops. Amy holds a certification as a Decision Educator, Counselor, and Advisor through Stanford University Continuing Studies and has 20+ years experience in decision education. Amy successfully co-created a youth decision education program that paired corporate sponsorship and successful courses within businesses; it brought experienced youth decision educators alongside decision professionals to teach youth. As a community builder, Amy brings a breadth of professional experience in K-12 and adult education, nonprofit management, and fundraising through many experiences. It includes collaborations with schools, parents, and youth as a workshop instructor and parent teacher for Edmonds Heights K-12, teaching YMCA at-risk youth, educating local community groups and Youth in Philanthropy, and providing PR, Marketing and Fundraising for the Decision Education Foundation and the American Red Cross. Her vision is that by using clear, repeatable science-based frameworks and teaching, we all can support individuals, families, and groups in moving from the overwhelm of life's continuous choices to the calm found in personal understanding, decision quality, and effective action.

LinkedIn: Lan Ding

GSK, Portfolio Finance Lead

As a Lead Practitioner at the Society of Decision Professionals (SDP), Lan Ding brings extensive expertise in strategic decision analysis and portfolio optimization to the pharmaceutical industry. Her collaborative approach and facilitation skills have significantly influenced strategic drug development directions. Lan has spearheaded initiatives and developed innovative frameworks to enhance decision governance processes. These efforts enabled her to implement and champion Decision Quality (DQ) principles across a broad range of contexts, empowering organizations to make more informed and effective decisions.

Lan holds a degree of Management Science from Lancaster University (UK) and an Executive MBA from London Business School. Lan never stops learning, and always enjoys sharing knowledge and coaching others in building decision-making capabilities. Lan has served SDP Board London Chapter since 2023.

LinkedIn: Wayne Fisher

Wayne Fisher, PhD, founded Rockdale Innovation after spending 27 years as an R&D manager at Procter & Gamble. While at P&G, Wayne created a series of popular innovation workshops for all phases of new product development. He has trained thousands of managers, providing a common language and framework for innovation, fostering collaboration across P&G’s diverse business units. He served as a full-time innovation consultant and Creative Problem Solving facilitator at The GYM, an IDEO-inspired design studio that remains a key enabler of P&G’s innovation capability.

Wayne has been active in the Product Development and Management Association for over 25 years. He currently serves on PDMA's Board of Directors, responsible for Professional Development and Certification. He also chairs the Governance Committee and is a long-time member of their Outstanding Corporate Innovator award selection committee.

Wayne is a sought after trainer, speaker, and writer on the topic of innovation best practices, including two chapters for the upcoming PDMA handbook, "A Practical Guide to Facilitating a Design Thinking Workshop” and "Organizational Design for Innovation."

LinkedIn: Troy Helm

Troy Helm is a Principal Program Manager at Amazon Prime Video, focused on international expansion. Prior to joining Amazon in 2021, he was a senior consultant at Strategic Decisions Group, with experience in manufacturing and R&D portfolio strategy, private equity investment and new market entry in a variety of industries. Troy has also served in multiple executive roles in the translation and localization industry, having taken a company from startup to buyout. Troy has a BA in international relations and an MS in management science and engineering from Stanford University. He is fluent in Japanese.

LinkedIn:  Carol Kazmer Liffman

Carol Liffman’s career has focused on shaping innovative programs that deliver value and impact in the global energy sector. Her roles have been balanced between new ventures and start-ups, which required quickly building a team with the right ingredients of experience, expertise, and enthusiasm, with those focused on improving processes and operational excellence in existing businesses. She’s worked across disciplines ranging from geoscience to strategy, planning and finance to natural gas marketing to major capital projects. Most recently, she’s turned her attention to issues in social responsibility and sustainability. Across all, she found one common thread: the science, engineering, and money are easier to deal with than the so-called "soft stuff,” meaning anything to do with people and institutions. Therefore, she’s built a toolbox that includes creative problem-solving skills drawn from systems dynamics, design-thinking, decision quality, lean, and operations science, combined with understanding the cognitive and motivational biases that drive behavior. An avid life-long learner, Carol has numerous academic degrees and professional certifications and carries this to the workplace by offering professional development courses and participating in mentorship programs. She is active in the community through United Way programs and several arts organizations, including a term as President, Board of Directors at the Houston Center for Photography. An avid traveler for both business and pleasure, Carol has visited fifty countries and all fifty states.

LinkedIn: Peter Ray

Peter is a life sciences executive with extensive experience building internal capabilities to improve both the speed and quality of decisions. He is currently VP/Head of Portfolio Analytics at Novartis following over 15 years in senior positions at BMS, Celgene, and Alnylam. His team also provided business planning and strategic support to the Program Teams responsible for bringing Alnylam’s new therapeutics to market.

Prior to joining Alnylam, Peter worked at Celgene Corp. as Executive Director, Corporate Strategy, and at Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. as VP, R&D Strategic & Operational Portfolio Management, where he built an industry-leading capability in support of R&D budget planning, portfolio prioritization, and asset strategy. He crafted the vision for and led a 40+ staff function that tightly integrated development strategy with operational requirements, improving the speed and quality of portfolio decision making. He has also worked for Strategic Decisions Group on energy and life sciences projects and Mitsubishi Corporation.

Peter received his MBA from Stanford University and BA in Government/East Asian Studies from Harvard University. He is a Fellow of the Society of Decision Professionals.

LinkedIn: Jordan Stephens

Jordan joined Intel’s Center for Decision Leadership (CDL) in 2012 and has since dedicated his career to learning about and improving decision-making. Jordan has served as a facilitator and decision analyst on numerous decisions across Intel and as an instructor for hundreds of Intel employees. Jordan also mentors other CDL team members in helping executives and their staffs make complex decisions and build greater decision-making competency. He develops curriculum and software tools to help Intel employees learn and apply good decision-making principles and practices.

Having joined Intel in 2004, Jordan worked in several finance roles, primarily focused on strategy development and analysis. Jordan previously worked as a North Korea media analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency. He holds bachelor’s degrees in International Relations and Korean from Brigham Young University and an MBA from London Business School. A native of rural Nevada, Jordan now resides in Queen Creek, Arizona with his wife and two teenage children. His interests (beyond family and studying anything related to decision making) include exercise, team sports, strategy games, and astronomy.