Team Members

Marty Ciszon

Professional: I am a digital marketing strategist at Discover Card, a credit card issuer based in Riverwoods, Illinois. My background spans experience in online migration marketing programs (paperless statements, online billing), contactless payments (Discover Zip, mobile wallet partnerships), and mobile application feature development project management (iPhone, iPad and Android applications for Discover Mobile). I love digital, and am constantly plugged in to my devices (to the displeasure of my wife).

Personal: When my iPhone or iPad is not in my hands, typically a golf club is. I'm a miserable golfer, but love it. I tend to be active in my free time, traveling on a monthly basis, and running as much as I can. I have completed 3 Chicago Marathons to date, and once time frees up after the MBA program concludes, I plan to get back into it. Recently married in October last year, and made the mixed emotion decision to move to the "burbs". Go Cubs (someday). Go Bulls (Derrick, please come back). Go Bears. Go Hawks. Go Illini.

Drew Raab

Professional: I am a Software Application Architect with a medical device and software manufacturer that provides blood management solutions to hospitals and donation facilities. I have been in software development for the last 16 years. The last 9 years I have been employed with my current employer and have learned more about regulation and documentation than I'd care to admit. My experience is with client-server applications with heavy database use.

Personal: I am a father and husband and until recently I was also my very own personal car mechanic... Recently my job position changed allowing me to telecommute and avoid driving yet one more car into the ground with my 100 mile round trip commute to work. I'm 5'11'; trim build; like long walks on the beach... Wait! Where was I going with this? I'll stop there.

Weisi Shi

Professional: I come from China. I am an international student, major in E-Commerce Technology. My bachelor degree was software engineering. In my undergraduate stage, I was involved in some website projects and built a website, pin-lv.com (something like tumblr.com), in my senior year. But I am most interested in algorithms and data mining. I participated in the ACM-ICPC China's regional competition, and won the silver award. I also had a over half year internship in ganji.com, a company like Craigslist in China, as a Internet Business Product Manager assistant.

Personal: I love Internet most. Typically, I spend more than half day on the Internet everyday. But, I also love sports. I play basketball three times and run four times per week. I have never been to United Center before. I hope I will have the opportunity to see Derrick. :-)

Ahmad Rabah

Professional: I am a Project Site Manager for Atos IT Solutions (Siemens Previously) for two years now. At Atos we focus on large multinational companies with more than 1000 + employees and offer a wide variety of services from computer migrations to software development. I also worked as a programming free lancer and participated in developing applications for various businesses.

Personal: When I am not traveling, which I love, as I always like to discover new places and see how other cultures function, I cycle and play sports such as basketball and soccer. I also like taking long walks by Lake Michigan. I am a Bears and Bulls fan, cannot help it!

Matt Pacholek

Professional: I am a Senior E-commmerce Developer for American Hotel Register Co. a privately held company that provides hotel supplies across the world. At American Hotel I work with a team to maintain and develop new e-commerce features for our customers and I also help lead a team that maintains our enterprise level product search run on Endeca. For more info about me professionally you can check out my LinkenIn page.

Personal: I am a huge soccer fan, I love to play and to watch (especially my son). I also like to bike, run and play most any sport. But my favorite thing to do is play with my three year old son whenever I get the chance!