Diana Droulers

Chairwoman of DRD Advisory Board

Diana Droulers is a lawyer and arbitrator from Caracas, Venezuela who has vast experience in the creation and management of arbitral institutions worldwide. In addition to her role as CEO of Dispute Resolution Data, she is currently serving as President of the Venezuelan Arbitration Association.  Diana has overseen more than 600 arbitration and mediation cases and holds leadership positions on a number of advisory boards and arbitral interest groups, including ICC International Court of Arbitration, International Federation of Commercial Arbitration Institutions (IFCAI),  the Advisory Board of the Institute for Transnational Arbitration, the Board of Directors of Arbitral Women’s Group, and The Spanish Arbitration Club. She was the Executive Director of the Arbitration Centre of the Caracas Chamber of Commerce, which she founded in 1998 and led until April 2015. Diana brings her cross-cultural insight to bear as DRD’s Latin America Advisor and helps ensure that DRD is recognizing and meeting the needs of arbitral institutions and data subscribers globally.  In addition to being the Latin America Advisor, Diana has served as DRD's CEO and currently is Chair of the DRD Advisory Board.

Diana's Experience:
Leadership • Arbitration • International Law

Debi Slate

CEO
Co-Founder

Prior to being involved in mediation and arbitration, Debi had successful careers with Time Magazine overseeing sales operations of 135 employees and in commercial real estate development in California. She was the founding Director of the South Carolina Council for Mediation and a National Vice President for Online Services with American Arbitration Association, where she oversaw a two-state mediation initiative for homeowners in Louisiana and Mississippi following Hurricane Katrina. She is trained as a mediator, and she is a former board member and editor of publications for Arbitral Women. She holds a B.A. from the University of South Carolina and an M.B.A. from the McColl School of Business, Queens University.

Debi's Experience:
Executive Leadership • Mediation • International Relations • Business Development

Natalie Baker

Sales / Customer Relations & Website Editor

Natalie is a "hands-on / do-whatever-it-takes" team member that helps DRD in the areas of sales, customer relations/administrative support and website editing. In her early career, she worked as a national television buyer and media planner. After relocating to Charleston, she helped start up multiple businesses, has been integrally involved in a broad range of civic activities and continues to serve on various community boards. Natalie has a B.S. in Advertising/Marketing from Syracuse University.

Natalie's Experience:
Customer Service • Administration • General Bookkeeping • Website Editing

Holden Moore

International Arbitration Liaison

Prior to joining DRD as an International Arbitration Liaison, Holden held various management positions where he was responsible for developing/implementing sales strategies while overseeing the management of daily operational needs. He has a multitude of mentoring/leadership experience through his environmental technology involvement in NOLS (National Outdoor Leadership School), as well as, through his certifications in CPR, Lifeguarding, Wilderness First Aid and Wilderness First Responding. Holden is a graduate of Appalachian State University with a B.S. in Appropriate Technology and is bi-lingual in Spanish.

Holden's Experience:
Sales • Project Management • Customer Relations • Adaptability Problem Solving

Adrian Winstanley

Advisor, Europe

Adrian Winstanley is an English solicitor with 20 years’ experience in international commercial arbitration and mediation. He has served as the Registrar and Director General of the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA), as well as a member of the Clifford Chance arbitration team. Adrian has extensive experience overseeing the administration of many hundreds of arbitrations, mediations, and adjudications from a wide range of industries and jurisdictions. He played a pivotal role in the establishment and operation of DIFC-LCIA (Dubai), LCIA-India (Delhi), and LCIA-MIAC (Mauritius); in the process acquiring valuable insight into commercial arbitration in the Gulf, Asia, and Africa. Adrian is a member of the LCIA Court; was a member of its Board for 15 years; and has sat on the Board of the International Dispute Resolution Centre (IDRC), one of the world’s leading arbitration hearing facilities, since its foundation in 1999. He was Secretary-Treasurer of the International Federation of Commercial Arbitration Institutions (IFCAI) from 2000 to 2009, and a Vice President of IFCAI from 2009 to 2013.

Adrian retired as LCIA Director General in June 2014, to pursue a career as ADR consultant, arbitrator, and mediator. He brings his rich experience to DRD as the team’s European Advisor and helps ensure that DRD is meeting the needs of arbitral institutions and data subscribers in Europe and beyond.

Adrian's Experience:
Leadership • Arbitration • International Law

Brian Canada, PhD

Data Analytics Consultant

Brian Canada, Ph.D., has been serving as a data analytics consultant to DRD since 2017. He is a tenured associate professor of computational science at the University of South Carolina Beaufort (USCB), where he teaches courses in programming, web development, database management, and high-performance computing. He is also the faculty advisor and founder of the USCB Chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).  He also serves as USCB's resident liaison to the Beaufort Digital Corridor, an extension of the Charleston Digital Corridor. For his efforts in the classroom as well as in service to the community, Dr. Canada was recognized as USCB's Professor of the Year for the 2016-17 academic year.

In addition to his expertise as a data analyst, Brian brings to DRD more than 15 years of experience as a freelance graphic designer, which underlies his strong passion for data visualization. 

Brian's Experience:
Data Analytics • High-Performance Digital Computation/Management • Graphic Design

Zach Shafer

Software Developer

Zach is a graduate-level Computational Science student at the University of South Carolina - Beaufort that works with DRD to assist with software development and data analytics consulting. Previously Zach worked as a contracted software developer and interned with a focus on data analytic work at a healthcare finance company.  Zach received an A.S. in Computer Programming in May 2018 from Orangeburg-Calhoun Technical College and a B.S. in Computational Science in May 2020 from the University of South Carolina - Beaufort.

Zach's Experience:
Software Development • Data Analytics 

John Mikkelson

Digital Strategy Consultant

John is a Digital Strategy Consultant who has worked with DRD on select initiatives since 2018. John's technical background includes Web Development, Data Engineering, and Cloud Engineering. A project of note was at Wells Fargo, where John deployed a banking transaction forecasting tool using Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning. John takes pride in understanding the business architecture of an organization and translating that into technology solutions. John is based out of Chicago, IL where he and his wife Hana live. He is a graduate of the University of St. Thomas where he earned a dual degree in Finance and Computer Science. When he’s not working, he enjoys trying out all of the great restaurants of Chicago, downhill skiing, and spending time near the lake.

John's Experience:
• Digital Strategy • Software Development • Data Engineering • AI / ML  

Bill Slate

Former Chairman & Co-Founder (1943-2022)

DRD perseveres to continue Bill's legacy of bringing transparency to international commercial arbitration through the use of data analytics 

Application Design & Development

Booz Allen Hamilton (previously SPARC) was the application developer for Dispute Resolution Data.  BAH is well-versed in the entire software development lifecycle, as well as in launching startups. The team is headquartered in Charleston, SC. 

Booz Allen Hamilton's Experience:
Software Development • Web Design • User Interface and Experience • Project Management • Quality Assurance

Violet

Data Dog

As a British Golden Retriever, Violet (aka Data Dog) is the mascot of the DRD application DEMO environment - a place where data contributors can practice entering data before moving to the live environment.

Violet's Experience:
Birding • Walking with sticks • Sleeping • Enjoying peanut butter