Meet Our Distinguished Guests
Below are the keynote speakers, judges, and panelists confirmed for DataFest 2026. These distinguished guests will share industry insights, and guide discussions on Careers in Data Science.
This page will be updated as additional guests are confirmed.
Fireside Chat | Kaveh Safavi
Senior Executive Advisor, Investor, and Educator
Kaveh Safavi is a healthcare strategist with extensive experience in digital health, growth strategy, and international expansion. He is a Partner at Guidon Partners, a firm that advises and co-invests in healthcare services companies, and a Health Senior Advisor at Accenture. He is also an Adjunct Lecturer in Health Enterprise Management at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
Dr. Safavi recently retired as a Senior Managing Director at Accenture for Global Health, where he helped providers, health insurers, and public health systems across the Americas, Europe, and Asia Pacific harness technology and human ingenuity. Prior to Accenture, he held leadership roles at Cisco, Thomson Reuters, UnitedHealthcare, and Alexian Brothers Health System.
Highlights of his career include:
- Establishing one of the Midwest’s first electronic-health-record-enabled primary care practices
- Being named by The IT Services Report among the top 5 healthcare IT executives in 2020 and 2025
Dr. Safavi has published widely and is frequently quoted on healthcare issues in major outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, the BBC, The New York Times, Consumer Reports, U.S. News & World Report, Harvard Business Review, and The Economist.
He earned his M.D. from Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine and his J.D. from DePaul University College of Law. He is board-certified in internal medicine and pediatrics and completed his residency at the University of Michigan Medical Center. He also serves on the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences Board of Visitors at Northwestern University and is a member of the Easterseals National Board of Directors.
Dr. Safavi is a lifelong Chicagoan.
Panelist | Nishant Nayar
Lead Solutions Analyst and Technical Program Manager, JPMorganChase
Nishant Nayar has spent over two decades at the intersection of data, technology, and business, working across investment banking, commercial banking, and asset management. He specializes in translating complex data into practical insights for decision-makers, with expertise spanning data science, analytics, explainable AI, and generative AI.
He holds a Master’s degree in Analytics from the University of Chicago and an MBA in Finance from Punjabi University, a combination that enables him to bridge technical and business perspectives effectively.
Panelist | Zachary Fox
Senior Analyst at Analysis Group
Zach Fox is a Senior Analyst at Analysis Group in Chicago, where he applies economic theory and data science methods to solve complex business disputes. Zach has worked on cases spanning finance, technology, tax, commercial disputes, and valuation, using tools like Python, R, Stata, SAS, and Excel to turn messy data into clear stories. A proud Northwestern alum, Zach majored in Economics and Communication Studies with minors in Business Institutions and Data Science. He’s excited to be back for DataFest and is especially looking forward to seeing creative thinking, strong teamwork, and clean data!