Voice of the Consumer | Social Brand Insights - Passenger
ABOUT PASSENGER
Passenger communities enable the world’s leading brands to connect, create and communicate with key stakeholders online, on mobile and on social networks. Passenger's technology, combined with expert community management and member engagement services, allows your brand to leverage your community to inform research, product development, and marketing decisions at social speed. In addition, all of the data collected from across the social brand intelligence platform is warehoused in a single database with robust analytic capabilities, providing a holistic view of your social brand community and actionable, member-driven insights.
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PASSENGER PEOPLE
Board of Directors
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Bahram Nour-Omid, Ph.D
CEO/Board Member
Dr. Nour-Omid was the founding Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of StudioXchange, Inc., a provider of
production site, labor and equipment procurement services for the entertainment industry. StudioXchange was acquired by IFILM in 2000.
From 1997 to 1999, he was Executive Vice President and a Director of Essentus, Inc., a provider of supply chain software for the apparel industry. From March 1991 through 1997, he was the founding Chief Technology Officer and a Director of Scopus Technology, Inc., a provider of front-office
applications software. Scopus went public in 1995 and was sold to Siebel Systems, Inc., in 1998. From 1981 to 1990 Dr. Nour-Omid was a consulting scientist at the Lockheed Palo Alto Research Laboratory.
Dr. Nour-Omid is currently a director of Roamware, Inc. a leading provider of software solutions designed to power the global wireless market, Integrated Decision Systems, an industry leader in portfolio management solutions, Isensix, a provider of wireless monitoring systems, and Kryptiq, a leading provider of workflow connectivity and contract
management solutions for the healthcare industry.
Dr. Nour-Omid earned a B.S. from the University of London's Imperial College, and an M.S. in Structural Engineering, M.A. in Mathematics and Ph.D. in Computer Simulation from the University of California, Berkeley
Bahram Nour-Omid, Ph.D
CEO / Board Member
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Art Bilger
Member, Board of Directors
Aside from his active role as Chairman of the Board for Passenger's Board of Directors, Art is also the Managing Partner of Shelter Capital Partners; a private investment fund focused on innovative technology companies.
Previously, Art was the non-executive Vice Chairman of Akamai Technologies, a provider of global, high performance services for the delivery of Internet content, streaming media, and applications. Prior to its sale to News Corporation in 1997, Art was the President, Chief Operating Officer and a Director of New World Communications Group, a television production and broadcast company. During his career, Art has also served as a founding partner of Apollo Advisors and EVP for Drexel Burnham Lambert.
Art Bilger
Board Member
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Larry Bettino
Member, Board of Directors
Larry A. Bettino has 18 years of private equity and venture capital experience and more than 24 years industry expertise in the technology and communication industries. He has been a private equity investor since 1989, and has been responsible for investing a total of almost $850 million in private and public companies at all stages of development. Mr. Bettino has invested in both control and non-control situations, and in early-stage, expansion, growth, and buyout transactions in several industries, predominantly in the technology and communications sectors. He joined StarVest Partners in September 2006 to be a partner in StarVest Partners II. He was most recently a partner and Managing Director of Warburg Pincus (2001–2006), where he had worldwide responsibility for the Communications and Technology sector. He was a member of the Executive Management Group, comprised of the heads of all of the Firm's major industry groups and geographic regions. He had management responsibility over the CommTech portfolio, and oversaw the investment of approximately $750 million. Mr. Bettino managed the group's personnel, leading a major reorganization of the group, and was responsible for the formation of Warburg's CIO Advisory Council. He also led investments and was on the Board of Directors for several companies in the portfolio, including most recently LSSi Data Corp., the leading provider of international directory database services; MACH, SA (based in Luxemburg), the global leader of mobile telephony data services; and Telcordia Technologies, the world's largest provider of operational support software to communications carriers and one of the largest technology leveraged buyouts of the past several years.
Before joining Warburg Pincus, Mr. Bettino was a Founding Partner at Baker Capital (1996–2001). The Baker Communications Fund, LP is a $406 million private equity fund formed in 1996 to invest primarily in communications-related businesses. The fund has been fully invested and is in the process of being distributed. Mr. Bettino was involved in all aspects of the firm’s formation, including strategic development, fundraising, and operations. He was also responsible for hiring several of the junior investment staff for the firm. Mr. Bettino left shortly after the formation of Baker Communications Fund II to join Warburg. Mr. Bettino started his investment career at Dillon Read Private Equity (1989–1996), where he became a partner in 1992 and focused on early and expansion-stage investments in communications and technology. From 1982 to 1987, Mr. Bettino worked for IBM, initially as a computer chip logic design engineer, and then moved into business line and account management. He received his BS (1982) in electrical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and an MBA from Harvard Business School (1989). Mr. Bettino is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Citizen’s Budget Commission, a nonprofit civic organization committed to influencing constructive change in the finances and services of the New York State and New York City governments. He is a member of the Board of Advisors of CSMG Adventi, the global management consulting firm. He lives in Bronxville, New York, with his wife and three children.
Larry Bettino
Board Member
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Dan Beldy
Member, Board of Directors
Dan Beldy is a managing director of Steamboat Ventures. Dan has spent the last 20 years in technology and finance as an investor, entrepreneur and operator.
Prior to Steamboat, Dan was a co-founder and managing director of Plainview Capital, an innovative family of fundamental value investment funds that leverage a proprietary software platform, Plainview Analytics™. Before Plainview, Dan was an associate and partner at Hummer Winblad Venture Partners.
Focusing on early stage software investments, Dan was involved with several successful, growing companies as an investor / advisor / board member including Employease, acquired by ADP (NASDAQ: ADP), Technorati, Starmine, Method Home and Maxion Technologies.
Early in his career Dan was an officer and an F/A-18 Hornet jet instructor pilot for the U.S. Navy, completing over 275 aircraft carrier landings in tours of duty with the Atlantic Fleet.
Dan received a BS in computer science as a distinguished graduate of the US Naval Academy in 1986, and received an MBA in finance from The Wharton School in 1998.
Dan Beldy
Board Member
Executives
EXECUTIVES
Bahram Nour-Omid, Ph.D
CEO
Dr. Nour-Omid was the founding Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of StudioXchange, Inc., a provider of
production site, labor and equipment procurement services for the entertainment industry. StudioXchange was acquired by IFILM in 2000.
From 1997 to 1999, he was Executive Vice President and a Director of Essentus, Inc., a provider of supply chain software for the apparel industry. From March 1991 through 1997, he was the founding Chief Technology Officer and a Director of Scopus Technology, Inc., a provider of front-office
applications software. Scopus went public in 1995 and was sold to Siebel Systems, Inc., in 1998. From 1981 to 1990 Dr. Nour-Omid was a consulting scientist at the Lockheed Palo Alto Research Laboratory.
Dr. Nour-Omid is currently a director of Roamware, Inc. a leading provider of software solutions designed to power the global wireless market, Integrated Decision Systems, an industry leader in portfolio management solutions, Isensix, a provider of wireless monitoring systems, and Kryptiq, a leading provider of workflow connectivity and contract
management solutions for the healthcare industry.
Dr. Nour-Omid earned a B.S. from the University of London's Imperial College, and an M.S. in Structural Engineering, M.A. in Mathematics and Ph.D. in Computer Simulation from the University of California, Berkeley
Bahram Nour-Omid, Ph.D
CEO
EXECUTIVES
Jas Dhillon
Chief Product Officer
Jas Dhillon is responsible for defining and executing technology innovation strategy by extending Passenger’s current private community system to support public, private and hybrid online communities on the iOS (iPhone, iPad), Android, Windows and Facebook platforms. Jas was also operationally responsible for restructuring, scaling and managing the product management, engineering and network operations functions to enable the existing social business platform to support very large scale online communities.
Jas Dhillon
Chief Product Officer
EXECUTIVES
Gaurav Bhalla, Ph.D.
Chief Innovation Officer
Dr. Gaurav Bhalla is a strategy, innovation, and marketing professional with global experience and has worked on three continents, with companies in over 20 countries. He has advised some of the largest brands in the world, including GlaxoSmithKline, Bristol-Myers Squib, Coca Cola, P&G and Capital One. In addition, he has been a consultant, executive, entrepreneur, and academic/executive educator.
Gaurav is the author of “Collaboration and Co-Creation: New Platforms for Marketing and Innovation,” which presents a concrete framework to help companies systematically and effectively design and implement collaborative innovation programs that can be applied in both business-to-business and business-to-consumer contexts. It also describes how today’s technologies enable companies to create dynamic dialogues and develop deeper relationships that reinforce brand loyalty and drive growth.
Gaurav Bhalla, Ph.D.
Chief Innovation Officer
EXECUTIVES
Bhatt Vadlamani
SVP Engineering & Chief Technology Officer
Over two decades of experience in leading architecture teams in Oracle, eBay, Symantec, Citibank, and Blue Shield to build scalable high performance web applications and social intelligence platforms for global enterprises. He founded and served as CTO of HotExams.com. He holds Ph.D. in Strategic Management of Technology and M.S. in Operations Research from New York University. Additionally, he did his B. S. in Computer Science from Indian Institute of Technology at Delhi and has an M.B.A. from Indian Institute of Management at Ahmedabad. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Greater Los Angeles chapter of IT Service Management Forum.
Bhatt Vadlamani
SVP Engineering & CTO
EXECUTIVES
Jack Mickle
Chief Marketing Officer
Marketing and advertising executive Jack Mickle has worked on some of the world's best-known brands, including Lexus, Toyota, The Ritz Carlton, Starbucks, Procter & Gamble, Diageo, Samsung and Calloway Golf.
Before joining Passenger, Mickle was CEO of Los Angeles-based Team One, Lexus USA's agency of record. During his tenure he transformed the company by bringing media and technology into the early stages of the process. This resulted in measurable improvement in client campaigns as well as numerous awards including several at the prestigious Cannes International Advertising Festival.
Prior to Team One, Mickle was Managing Director of Saatchi & Saatchi Japan, an office he established and grew to a $50 million a year business. While there he led the most successful beverage launch in the most competitive beverage market in the world; driving Starbucks Discoveries to sales of more than 100 million cups in its first year. He also coordinated Toyota and Lexus' global marketing plans, leading Toyota's first ever worldwide advertising campaign, which spanned 25 countries and helped establish the Prius as the world's best selling hybrid.
Mickle received a B.A. in English literature from the University of Arizona.
Jack Mickle
Chief Marketing Officer
EXECUTIVES
Henry Min
SVP Prod. Management
Henry Min is a nationally recognized Product Visionary, Creative Director and Social Business expert, with over 13 years of hands-on product marketing, product management, and creative design experience for some of the world's best known companies. Henry started his career at Razorfish as employee number 18, reporting directly to Founder and CEO Jeff Dachis. At Razorfish Henry led successful engagements focused on digital strategy, digital marketing, online communities and rich internet applications for the worlds leading brands including Time Warner, the New York Public Library and GlaxoSmithKline. Henry subsequently joined Digitas as Associate VP and Creative Director and played a leadership role on the American Express interactive account for all strategic and conceptual projects for the consumer cards, OPEN for Small Business, and global advertising group. Henry comes to Passenger as SVP Product Management, where he leads a team of professionals focused on extending Passenger's Social Brand Intelligence platform into iOS, Android mobile as well as Facebook.
Henry Min
SVP Prod. Management
EXECUTIVES
Jodie Brinkerhoff
VP Client Services
Jodie has over 15 years of client relationship management, marketing and research experience. She joined Passenger in 2010 from Harris Interactive, a full service, global research company headquartered in New York City. While at Harris, Jodie managed client relationships both small and large and helped companies in their efforts to understand consumer attitudes, customer loyalty, brand & messaging preferences, corporate reputation issues and all decision points along the product development lifecycle. Her familiarity with quantitative research techniques as well as traditional and online qualitative techniques like community, online bulletin boards, chats and user diaries, helps drive Passenger’s development and thought leadership about how to ‘communitize’ traditional research methods.
From 2001-2006 Jodie worked for Mintel International and helped companies use the Global New Products Database, Mintel Market Research Reports, and the Comperemedia Database. Prior to joining Mintel, Jodie spent 6 years working at MBNA America (now Bank of America) in marketing, advertising, ecommerce, and multi-million dollar partner management roles.
Jodie earned a MBA in Marketing & eCommerce from University of San Francisco and a BA in Communications from Loyola University in Maryland.
Jodie Brinkerhoff
VP Client Services
EXECUTIVES
Glen Hogue
VP Strategy & Insights
Marketing and Strategic Planning executive Glen Hogue has helped transform leading automotive brands Nissan and Infiniti during the 12 years he headed up the Marketing Intelligence function at Nissan North America.
Hogue is experienced in all aspects of research, design, strategic application and integration. Before joining Passenger, he was the lead researcher for several new vehicle launches for Nissan and Infiniti brands to include strategic positioning, advertising development, product pricing, vehicle naming. He was also highly involved in the development of the Nissan and Infiniti Brand platforms which resulted in significant changes from logo re-design, dealership facilities re-design, and advertising communications.
In addition to his OEM experience, Glen was the lead researcher for Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A. at Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising, and was the Global Account Director for Toyota worldwide at TNS, the largest custom research company in the world.
Hogue received a B.S. in Business and Marketing from Arizona State University.
Glen Hogue
VP Strategy & Insights
EXECUTIVES
Sue Yoo
General Counsel
Sue Yoo currently serves as General Counsel for Passenger. She was formerly associated with the New York offices of Bryan Cave LLP and Sullivan & Cromwell, LLP, and the California offices of Baker Hostetler LLP.
Sue has served as outside general counsel to both public and private companies in matters relating to corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, real estate and corporate governance.
She joined Passenger in 2010 and utilizes her legal knowledge and expertise to represent Passenger in connection with various license agreements, commercial contracts, data privacy and security issues, litigation and employment matters.
Sue received her JD from Duke University School of Law and a BA from Dartmouth College.
Sue Yoo
General Counsel