Wiliot names Thaddeus Segura to lead new Data Division

Wiliot, the Internet of Things (IoT) pioneer, announced the appointment of Thaddeus Segura to the position of vice president of data products and algorithms, overseeing the company’s newly created Data Division.

Segura joins Wiliot after a decade at Walmart, where he was most recently responsible for evaluating emerging technologies and leading a team tasked with supply chain modernization. At Wiliot, Segura will lead the company’s newest division, creating products and services that help companies derive unprecedented business intelligence and value from Wiliot’s ambient IoT platform.

“The advent of ambient IoT — connecting trillions of everyday things in the supply chain — is about to set off a massive influx of data that will give companies unprecedented visibility into all their operations,” said Wiliot CEO Tal Tamir. “Wiliot is committed to helping them turn visibility into intelligence. With his in-depth experience applying data to supply chains, Thaddeus is uniquely positioned to help companies apply Wiliot’s enabling ambient IoT technology to their greatest business challenges, from improving sustainability to boosting profitability.”

Segura started his career at Walmart in project management, eventually overseeing 500 people on large-scale initiatives with seven-figure P&L responsibilities. Upon joining Walmart’s product management team, Segura began focusing on automation and robotics, leading him to earn his master’s degree in Data Science, with an emphasis on machine learning, from the University of California, Berkeley. During that time, Segura created award-winning machine learning models, including one algorithm currently in use by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to detect outbreaks.

“Wiliot’s technology is completely different and more immediately applicable than anything I’ve seen before,” Segura said. “I knew the potential of tracking technologies like RFID, but Wiliot’s cost-effective, self-powering ambient IoT platform offers unconstrained scale for companies that move billions of products, packaging, and more per year. I wanted to be a part of that.”

Ambient IoT marks a breakthrough evolution of ambient computing. By integrating stamp-sized, self-powering Wiliot IoT Pixels — low-cost compute capacity, sensor technology, and wireless connectivity — into virtually everything in a supply chain, companies can create a virtual scan of processes and places, allowing unprecedented visibility into everything from food chains to pharmaceutical supplies to clothing manufacturing. Wiliot’s new Data Division will develop applications and analytic tools to turn this data-rich visibility into usable intelligence.

“Wiliot plans to democratize ambient IoT so anyone can use it and reap its benefits,” Segura said. “When you think of all the use cases beyond inventory tracking, the potential is virtually unlimited. I’m excited to oversee Wiliot’s new Data Division in developing those use cases for real-world application.”

The Wiliot Data Division, expected to grow to 50 experts by the end of the year, will include three primary business units: an analyst team, working with major accounts to deliver white-glove service in deriving business intelligence from their ambient IoT deployments; a data products team, developing reusable applications tailored to various markets so companies can easily begin applying insight to their business operations; and a core research team, making ambient IoT intelligence generally available and supporting the analyst and data products teams.

“Our mission is to venture beyond Wiliot’s ambient IoT technology and show companies what it can do for them,” Segura concluded. “The sheer amount of useful data created through ambient IoT can be massive, but with the right tools and analysis, it can trigger and empower better actions at the ground level, fundamentally changing the way businesses operate. Visibility for visibility’s sake can only take us so far. Intelligence and smarter action across the enterprise is the key.”

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