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With this issue, KDnuggets inaugurates a new section of interviews with leaders of the field. I am pleased that the first one is with Usama Fayyad -- a researcher, an enterpreneur, an industry leader, and a friend.

I first met Usama in 1989, when I tried to hire him for a summer job at my project on Knowledge Discovery in Databases at GTE Labs. Fortunately for the field, he declined and went to JPL where he made his first major discoveries. Usama has remained a friend and a colleague since then.

In this interview, Usama answers questions ranging from his work at Digimine, to his opinion of Bill Gates (whom he met at Microsoft), and to predictions on which companies will succeed and fail. Usama's brief bio follows the interview.

Gregory Piatetsky-Shapiro, Editor, KDnuggets.

Usama Fayyad: I've always had a great love for mathematics, especially probability theory and reasoning under uncertainty.  Later, I became intrigued by computers and the notion of digital data and digital worlds. Data mining, pattern recognition, and learning algorithms are areas in computer science where mathematics can use data to answer unanswerable questions and solve seemingly impossible problems.

Data mining is the ultimate detective science; evidence is plentiful but hidden in mountains of data. It's an exciting field. I don't know how anyone could resist it.

2) What is your typical daily schedule?

Every day is different and exciting, and it really depends if I'm travelling or not.  If I am in the office, I get in very early and use the time to catch up on e-mail. I process a good 500 or more e-mails each morning. I am on almost every group alias in the company. It is a nice way to tap into the pulse of digiMine passively and getting a feel for what is going on in sales, in R&D, in marketing, in finance, and in operations. I know when something is going wrong and I am never surprised.  My days in the office are usually packed with meetings except for certain slots that my assistant, Cathy, reserves as time to think and catch up. I constantly meet with various digiMine groups and managers, as well as visiting customers and vendors. Throughout the day I field numerous phone calls from customers, partners, employees and investors. Our investors are extremely active and engaged in digiMine's business, especially when it comes to sales and marketing.

At digiMine we serve meals for lunch and dinner, and this gives me a chance to catch-up with employees in the cafeteria, grab some food and work through lunch or dinner. I am very big on continual and hierarchy-free communications. So three days a week involve direct interaction with various employees; our weekly all-hands meetings attended by over 100 people. We have a weekly "Drinks and Stories" session on Friday evenings where we exchange fun stories and I answer candid and tough questions. And we have a weekly lunch session with a group of 7-9 employees intended to foster more personal interaction and maintain a flat organization. We believe in open management and pretty much share all numbers and facts about the business with all employees. We think this builds trust and a sense of control and ownership for the employees.

I travel a great deal.  On travel days, the pace is even more hectic. I love red-eye flights to the east coast, or super-early flights to the west coast. It makes efficient use of time. I hit the ground running as my travel days are packed with back-to-back meetings. Most are with new and prospective customers. I love meeting customers. Some meetings are with VC's, banks, investors, or analysts where I cover the strategic aspects of the business.  I enjoy the fast pace and the challenge of switching mind-set from meeting to meeting.

Every day is full of new and different challenges. Surprises and change are inherent to managing an emerging business. Major product issues arise, competitive threats emerge, or customers present unforseen issues. It's a rollercoaster and it's not for the faint of heart. But the thrill of solving the problem, winning the account, or outmaneuvering your competition makes it all worthwhile. Then you feel on top of the world. I used to think nothing could be more exciting than down-hill skiing a tough slope, but I think my life at digiMine is much more exciting.

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