| We’re a multidisciplinary team that includes mathematicians, researchers, psychologists, programmers, writers, MBAs, designers, analysts and executives. Oh, and Simon too. What brought us together? The desire to create a whiz-bang tool that gives advice that should help people not only to decide between their options, but also to make smarter decisions. Faster decisions. Less stressful decisions. |
|
Ricardo Solar Ricardo Solar decided to abandon his cozy corporate job at Mattel Inc. and follow his heart to found Ayax Systems, creator of LetSimonDecide.com–a values-weighted decision-making web site. The idea for LetSimonDecide.com came from Solar’s personal experience of constantly creating spreadsheets and long lists of pros and cons with weighted factors to make key decisions about his family, home/personal life and career. With all the changes going on in the economy today, Solar decided the world needed a formalized approach to help people get advice and think through all the factors relevant to making difficult decisions. Solar assembled a team of experts in web development, applied mathematics, psychology and creative writing and developed a sophisticated tool based on scientific methods. In the end, LetSimonDecide.com was born. When he’s not working 24/7 to change the way the world makes decisions, Solar can be found snowboarding, staring lovingly at his BlackBerry, and spending time with his wife, two daughters, and dog Dorito.
Founder & CEO |
|
Ramiro Sanchez The first time Ramiro Sanchez had a computer in his hands, he was amazed. This was during the days when the only prompt of the operating system was "c:/". He quickly learned Basic and when he finished his first program he was so thrilled that tears blurred his vision. Following this passion, many years later he decided to join one of the first ".com" companies in San Francisco, where he had a lot of fun developing some of the first web-based applications. Unfortunately, the Internet bubble burst and pushed him away from that city. The economic turn changed his role and he found himself helping technology companies expand their businesses; it was fun but the passion was gone. One day at a friend’s party he ran into Ricardo Solar, who had an interesting Internet idea for a tool that would give people advice to help them decide. As the conversation continued the passion returned. He decided he should follow his heart, once again, and a few months later he became the second Simonite in the world.
Co-Founder & GM Latin America |
|
Samuel Holtzman, PhD For about 30 years, Sam has been hard at work in the oh-so-serious world of corporate decision consulting and in silico simulation. He has developed sophisticated decision-making systems and models for pharmaceutical and other R&D- and capital-intensive companies. He has addressed a wide range of decisions, including those regarding nuclear reactors, movie-studio strategy, pharmaceutical drug development, and personal medical life-and-death choices. In his spare time, Sam has been happily teaching at Stanford University as a consulting associate professor in Management Science and Engineering (MS&E). His life was well-defined until he met an unusual fellow, Ricardo Solar, and his team. Despite lacking expertise in the decision making field--and maybe because of that lack--they had a great idea: through the Internet make simple-yet-powerful decision-making tools and advice available to the general public. Sam was fascinated with the idea and decided to join the team to lead the democratization of his beloved field, which, before LetSimonDecide.com, was only available to big companies. Now, Sam is in charge of guiding Simon's increasing decision prowess. For the academically curious, Sam has a Stanford doctorate in decision analysis and undergraduate and graduate degrees in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT. In plain English, whenever someone wants an in-depth explanation of Simon's decision capabilities, we let Sam take the heat.
Chief Architect |
|
Claire Rissman-Sherr Claire Rissman-Sherr is a twenty-something writer and graduate student who is trying to decide what the future holds for her. She graduated from Northwestern University with a degree in Communication Studies and English. She decided to join the Let Simon Decide team to help write and edit site content, as well as to serve as a general guinea pig. In addition to brainstorming factors checklists and advice for Simonites, Rissman-Sherr is currently pursuing her Masters in Writing from Bennington College and teaching creative writing to a group of low-income fourth graders--and trying to decide what the heck she should do with her life! She enjoys yoga, spending time with friends, and watching more TV than she would like to admit.
Sr. Editor |
|
Caryl Bloom, PhD Caryl Bloom, PhD, is the expert psychologist responsible for developing Simon’s personality tests. When she realized that being a medical technologist, waitress, and professional student wouldnt last forever and that she could get paid well for listening to people's problems and offering advice, she decided to stop doing free street therapy and got a license. Now she wants to be a profiler...or a hairdresser. While she is deciding, you should look at her accomplishments.Lead Psychologist Dr. Bloom received her PhD in Psychology in 1998 from the California Graduate Institute following a BA and MA in Counseling Psychology from Loyola Marymount University. She has been a faculty member in the graduate psychology program at Argosy University and Mount Saint Mary’s College. Dr. Bloom had been in private practice for seventeen years in Manhattan Beach before relocating to Miami for two years. While in Miami, where she was the Assistant Dean at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Personology and Psychopathology, she co-edited her first book, Personalized Clinical Assessment (April 2008), with Dr. Theodore Millon. She is currently developing new inventories (psychological assessment tools) for couples and seniors. She is also on the lecture circuit, presenting trainings and workshops on Millon theory, taxonomy, assessment, and intervention. |
|
Jose Manuel Benita Jose Manuel Benita, better known as Chema, is a 31-year-old student. Yes, he is still studying. He holds a degree in actuarial sciences from UNAM, Mexico and is about to finish his PhD in Mathematical/Computational Neuroscience from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. He is married and the father of a great boy, and he loves to spend time with his family. He decided to join the Let Simon Decide team as the "guru" for statistical analysis. He is helping to develop Simon's brain in order to help you get his advice and make your decisions. Chema frequently uses Let Simon Decide himself for decisions about what he should do once he finishes his PhD, where he should live, and many, many more. Because even though Chema is a brilliant math wizard, he's no match for Simon when it comes to smart decision making!
Lead Mathematician |
|
Sayra Herrera Brynn Sayra Herrera Brynn is a proud Colombian native. She is in charge of Simon’s Spanish version of the website. Sayra holds a degree in Communication Studies with a Public Relations emphasis, as well as an International Public Relations certificate from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Brynn is a member and volunteer of the Public Relations Society of America, Los Angeles chapter. She is passionate about working on causes related to multicultural and public affairs, community outreach, and advocacy. Her personal and professional cross-cultural experiences have made her aware of the challenges and opportunities that arise from living in a global society, making her a firm believer in the value of global citizenship. Above all, Brynn would like to see the world become a better place--just like Simon, which is why she decided to join the team. Brynn relies on Let Simon Decide to give her advice and help her tackle important decisions, from financial dilemmas to whether she should spend a day at the beach with her family (her favorite activity) or do something more challenging, like take a rigorous hike.
Editor – Spanish Version |
| LetSimonDecide.com has many people to thank for their continued support, without which Simon, the ultimate in cool geeks, would not exist. A huge "thank you" goes out to our investors, web development team, office manager, video production house, legal, creative writing and QA teams, and our friends and family. Mariana Solar Danoris Holdings Limited Mike Mead Elda & Jorge Serrat Carlos Seoane Blake Newman Luis Cuellar Margaret Florián Manuel Otalvaro Ricardo Infante Felipe Ceballos Rivera Javier Solar Genaro Salgado Irina Gaal Nathalie Kim Amy Morton Helga Johnson Matt Hemington Pablo Monroy Cheryl Hodgson Sayra Brynn Mayra Prado Samuel Holtzman Marcela Arevalo Tina Fuentes Sue Bohle Kim Uberti Allison Citino |
|
HOW WE DO BUSINESS
Transparency is important to Simon. To make Simon’s tools and advice available for free, we provide custom decision system (CDS) solutions to companies and other institutions that want to improve their business and operational decisions. For example, we work with companies to develop easy-to-use decision systems to help their employees asses and think through their alternatives when making financial decisions, thereby reducing the risk inherent in business decision making. We also work with university counselors to help them improve and expand their services to students choosing their academic major. We never share any of your personally identifiable information with other service providers unless you specifically give us permission to do so. For more information please contact us at |
You are using Internet Explorer version 6.0 or lower, due to security issues and lack of support to Web standards, Simon recommends that you upgrade to a modern browser
 |
|
|
|
Sign in
Register
