Richard boire's experience in database marketing and predictive analytics dates back to 1983, when he received an mba from concordia university in finance and statistics. his initial experience at organizations such as reader's digest and american express allowed him to become a pioneer in the application of predictive modeling technology for all direct marketing programs. this extended to the introduction of models, which targeted the acquisition of new customers based on return on investment. with this experience, richard formed his own consulting company back in 1994. now called the boire filler group, it has grown to become a canadian leader in offering analytical and database services to companies seeking solutions to their existing predictive analytics or database marketing challenges. richard is a recognized authority on predictive analytics and is among the top five experts in this field in canada. this expertise has evolved into international speaking assignments and workshop seminars in the u. s., england, eastern europe, and southeast asia. he has also chaired numerous conferences on this topic within canada and is the current predictive analytics world conference chair within canada. richard also writes numerous articles for industry publications and has worked closely with the canadian marketing association in a number of areas including education and the database and marketing intelligence committee.