Empowering Conversations

Ruth has been building software start-ups for more than 30 years. She co-founded and was president of SpeechCycle, market leader in cloud-based contact center optimization solutions for the telco market, acquired by Synchronoss Technologies. Previously she was COO at BuzzCompany.com, provider of enterprise collaboration and messaging software, acquired by Multex.com, and was a founder of Software Corp. of America, provider of enterprise reporting and analysis software.

Zor has over 20 years of experience in the software industry. He was the co-founder and CEO of SpeechCycle, a market leader in cloud-based contact center optimization solutions for the telco market. SpeechCycle was acquired by Synchronoss Technologies (SNCR). Before that, Zor founded and ran BuzzCompany.com, a provider of enterprise collaboration and messaging software, which was acquired by Multex.com (MLTX).

Sasha is a software engineer and entrepreneur with over 15 years of experience inventing and transitioning breakthrough technology into applications and products. Before founding Kasisto, Sasha was a member of the IBM TJ Watson research team responsible for real time translation technology and conversational architecture for cars and mobile devices.

Stephen has over 25 years of experience within the financial services industry and drives our go to market direction, virtual assistant product team and marketing functions. Most recently, Stephen was Chief Innovation Officer at Merlon where he leveraged his extensive industry experience to drive the company’s marketing and product activities. Stephen previously ran product strategy and marketing for Mantas, a leading financial crimes and compliance solutions company which was acquired by Oracle, and he was also in charge of product, field and corporate marketing for Digital Reasoning, a leader in AI enabled solutions. Stephen also held leading technology and product positions at Deutsche Bank, JPMC and CDC Capital where he helped automate front office trading and back office compliance functions.

Stefan brings more than 15 years of entrepreneurial experience in designing, selling and deploying disruptive technology in banking and capital markets. After an investment banking program at JPMorgan, Stefan became one of the core founding members of Capital IQ, a financial research platform that transformed the workflow of capital markets analysts, and a crucial contributor to the company’s rapid growth and success in the marketplace. Subsequently, Stefan held a number of senior self-starter account executive and client strategy positions at early stage enterprise AI startups, including Digital Reasoning, a cognitive computing company, deploying mission-critical risk and compliance enterprise platforms at global financial institutions.

Rich is a 25-year veteran of Microsoft. At Microsoft, he started by helping Financial Services companies migrate their systems to Windows. Later, he moved to Microsoft’s engineering teams to work on Visual Studio, HPC Server, Bing and Azure IoT. He managed and led engineering teams responsible for architectural specifications, feature design, implementation and testing in myriad environments to create complex systems that meet the demands of enterprise customers spanning industries, languages, and geographies.

Marcus brings 20 years of experience helping information technology companies manage and grow their businesses in APAC. Prior to joining Kasisto, he was Managing Director, Southeast Asia for StayinFront, Inc., a maker of CRM software, and before that, General Manager, Asia Pacific for Venali, Inc., which provides cloud-based communications and collaboration solutions across APAC. His career also includes business development roles at Hewlett-Packard and Brother International, among other companies.

Meyer has over 25 years of experience in the software industry. Spending 20 years in product and service delivery to enterprise customers, he’s held senior level positions in Product Management, Business Operations, and Program Management. Prior to joining Kasisto, Meyer was Senior Program Manager at Verint Systems, where he delivered cloud-based call center solutions for the telco market.

George started his career at Accenture and has many years of experience in developing digital transformation strategies and managing implementations of complex technology solutions for some of the top banks in the world including Bank of America, UBS, Sun Trust and others. Prior to joining Kasisto, he was at Emirates NBD where he was responsible for the development of the business case for Liv – UAE’s first mobile only digital bank. At Liv, George defined solution requirements, evaluated and selected strategic technology and fintech partners, shaped the product roadmap, and managed overall program delivery.

Chris has over 25 years of experience working in the financial services industry and has been the CFO and Controller for several financial trading and technology firms. He served as Chief Financial Officer of Adirondack Trading Partners, which was a start-up venture formed to capitalize on electronic trading technology. He also was CFO for Van Der Moolen Specialists USA, a specialist firm on the NYSE. Recently, he headed the finance team for Dash Financial Technologies, a leading provider of technology and trading execution solutions for institutional investors. Chris received his bachelor’s degree from Hamilton College and his M.B.A. from Cornell University. He is both a Chartered Financial Analyst and a Certified Public Accountant.

Zor has over 20 years of experience in the software industry. He was the co-founder and CEO of SpeechCycle, a market leader in cloud-based contact center optimization solutions for the telco market. SpeechCycle was acquired by Synchronoss Technologies (SNCR). Before that, Zor founded and ran BuzzCompany.com, a provider of enterprise collaboration and messaging software, which was acquired by Multex.com (MLTX).

Patricia has 15 years of experience as a venture capitalist investing in transformative companies and entrepreneurs. In 2014, Patricia, along with Annie Lamont and Andrew Adams, launched Oak HC/FT, a venture capital fund investing in early to growth stage tech-enabled companies shaping the future of healthcare information and financial services. Prior to founding Oak HC/FT, she served as a venture partner at Oak Investment Partners. Patricia previously held positions at Hewlett Packard and Merrill Lynch, and has over 11 years of senior management experience at Cendant (formerly CUC International). At various times she was responsible for the marketing, operations, or general management of a variety of direct marketing credit card affinity programs. Patricia received her bachelor’s and master’s degree in business from Stanford University.

Bill leads SRI’s 250 researchers in four laboratories creating new technology in virtual personal assistance, computer vision, machine learning, information security, and speech. In addition to leading-edge research, the group has a strong focus on commercializing technology, licensing technology to corporations and creating spin-off companies such as Siri, Tempo, Kasisto, Trap.it, and Desti. Prior to joining SRI, Bill headed the System Technology Group at National Semiconductor, focused on system-level design and implementation of the silicon-based systems of the future.

Jeff has over 30 years of experience developing new businesses and products across the capital markets as well as advising entrepreneurs, corporations and government. He was a Managing Director and one of the founders of the Financial Products Group at Lehman Brothers and then moved to CIBC World Markets where he became Deputy Chairman of its U.S. investment bank. He then became Chief Operating Officer of Adirondack Trading Partners (the corporate founder of the International Securities Exchange). He is a board member of the New York Angels, the chairman of the Nassau County Local Economic Assistance Corporation and, at the University of Pennsylvania, he is a member of the Board of Overseers of the University Libraries, the Advisory Board of the Huntsman Program in International Studies and Business and the Advisory Board of the Wharton Sports Business Initiative.

As a partner at Propel Venture Partners, Jay invests in early-stage companies that are leveraging technology to transform financial services. He has led investments in Coinbase, Neon, DocuSign, and Personal Capital, among others. Before BBVA spun off the fund and became a limited partner, Jay led BBVA Ventures and the global bank’s acquisition of Simple.

Prior to Propel, Jay held several positions at Visa in digital transformation, emerging projects, and ecommerce. As head of the Visa Corporate Ventures and Strategic Alliances group he led investments in information security, mobile, and payments technology companies—several of which were acquired by major corporations. He first came to Visa through his work with Andersen Consulting.

Jay’s career spans traditional banking to tech startups: He was a commercial loan officer at Old Kent Financial Corporation—back before it became part of Fifth Third—and helped launch TicketTruck, a social commerce platform.

Habib Kairouz is a Managing Partner of Rho Capital Partners, Inc. (www.rho.com), a private equity firm with $1.5billion under management and offices in New York, PaloAlto and Montreal.Rho’s business units span various classes of private equity investments, including venture capital, growth equity and buyouts in technology and healthcare companies (Rho Ventures, Rho Canada and Rho Acceleration), and fund investments in all classes of venture capital and private equity funds (Rho FundInvestors).

Habib is a General Partner in Rho Ventures, the direct venture capital arm of Rho,focusing on multi-stage investments in information technology, new media,telecommunications, alternative energy and healthcare companies.Habibis also aGeneral Partner in Rho Acceleration, which focuses on buyouts in the software anddigital media sectors.He is also a member of the Investment Committees of Rho FundInvestors, a private equity fund of funds as well as Rho Canada, an early stageventurecapital fund focused on Canadian companies.

Habib’s current and select past investments include CommerceOne (NASDAQ:IPO), Dashlane, Everydayhealth (NYSE:EVDY), Intralinks (NYSE:IL), iVillage (sold toNBC), Kasisto, OMGPOP (Sold to Zynga), Passport, Philo, ReachLocal (NASDAQ:RLOC), Rocketrip, Seated, Snagajob, Tacoda Networks (sold toTime Warner), Tripod (sold to Lycos), and Yantra (sold to AT&T).

Habib received a B.S. in Engineering and a B.A. in Economics from Cornell Universityand an M.B.A. in Finance from Columbia University.

Manu Rana is a Partner and a Co-Head of Financial Partners at Napier Park Global Capital (“Napier Park”). Napier Park separated from Citigroup’s alternative investment arm, Citi Capital Advisors (“CCA”), in February 2013. Prior to joining CCA in 2007, Mr. Rana was a Managing Director of Old Lane, where he led negotiated investments in financial services businesses. Mr. Rana joined Old Lane from Lazard Alternative Investments, where he was a Managing Director of the firm and a Principal of Lazard Technology Partners. At Lazard, Mr. Rana was responsible for equity and debt investments in financial- and related business, as well as information services investments. Mr. Rana started at Lazard in 1994, initially in its financial institutions investment banking group and, from 2000 on, he worked at Lazard Alternative Investments. Prior to Lazard, Mr. Rana was a member of A.T. Kearney’s financial institutions practice. Mr. Rana received a BA from Columbia University.

Steve Chambers, with 25+ years of high-tech CEO, sales and marketing experience, has lead both start-ups and large tech company operations.  Mr. Chambers currently serves as CMO of Sense, Inc., named by VentureBeat in 2019 as one of the world’s top 100 artificial intelligence companies.  Previously, Mr. Chambers served as CEO, Jibo, Inc., building the world’s first consumer social robot for the home and having closed approximately $87m in funding from various venture and strategic capital sources.

Prior to Jibo, Mr. Chambers served as President, Nuance Communications, the global leader in Voice Recognition and Artificial Intelligence solutions. In that capacity Mr. Chambers lead a $2.1b revenue operation and negotiated deals with Apple, Samsung, Google, Amazon, Mercedes, Ford, Toyota, Bank of America, Federal Express, Verizon as well as other leading global organizations. From 2003 to 2009, Mr. Chambers was President of the Speech Division; EVP of the Enterprise Division; EVP & co-founder of the Mobile & Consumer Services businesses, and CMO.

Cristobal is an active investor in early-stage companies, and a senior member of the Partnership for NYC’s FinTech incubator for software companies. His current investments include True Office, where he serves as executive chairman, Calastone, where he serves as chairman, Centripetal Networks, where he is a board member, and Digital Reasoning, where he is a board member.

Sandeep heads the Digital Bank and Payments for the Consumer Bank at DBS. He worked with PayPal from 2000 to 2008 in the U.S. and was part of the team that took the company public. His responsibilities included International Business Head and Regional Head for Asia. Prior to that, he worked with Citibank for 17 years in Singapore, New York, Japan and India with the Technology and Operations organization in the Trading, Consumer & Corporate Business.

Tom McCabe is the US Country Head for DBS bank, previously working in Asia for 18 years managing retail, corporate, and institutional businesses across Asia, U.S. and Europe.

Tom carries deep business experience in financial services and consumer goods, with specific expertise in market entry strategies for key Asian markets, including China and India. In addition to his executive roles, Tom’s board experience includes roles as the Chairman of the Board of AXS Pte Ltd, (an Electronic Service Delivery Network), he served as a Non-Executive Director of Travelex Holdings Ltd, (a Global Foreign Exchange Payments Company), and a Non-Executive Director of Merchant Solutions Pte Ltd, (an International electronic commerce and payments company). In 2006 he was invited to join the Global Advisory Board of the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business.

In April 2016, David joined CPT Global having worked as one of the leading CIO’s in the region. Most recently, he led the digital transformation strategy and execution for DBS Bank in Hong Kong and Mainland China. David also established Hong Kong’s first dedicated fintech startup accelerator in 2015 in partnership and with technology giants, Amazon, Microsoft and Samsung.

Ken has 20+ years’ experience in International Financial Services across retail and corporate banking. Working for some of the world’s leading financial services companies Ken has lived and worked in over 15 countries and held executive leadership roles in Product Management, Technology Delivery, Strategy and Business Development.

In 2016 Ken joined Mastercard as EVP, Head of Mastercard Labs. In this role Ken is responsible for leading Mastercard’s R&D initiatives globally where he will look to further MasterCard’s leadership in innovation, monetize its innovation capabilities and leverage them to win core business and to drive new product development activities.

Norman is Past President of SRI Ventures at SRI International. He was the originator and leader of SRI’s venture strategy and process, resulting in over 70 ventures worth over $20B, including companies such as Nuance, Intuitive Surgical, and Siri. Norman personally helped found over 30 ventures, and has been a board member or board advisor to many of these companies. He was co-founder and board member of Siri, which was spun out from SRI in January 2008, and acquired by Apple in April 2010.

Mr. Pujadas has significant global experience in business leadership, banking, finance, M&A, technology, risk and crisis management. He has served in a number of different roles as a finance and technology advisor to many of the world’s leading financial institutions, and has held executive positions at prominent firms such as PwC and Santander Investments. In addition to his executive roles, Mr. Pujadas’s board experience includes serving on the Boards for Wells Fargo & Company, Senior Advisor at Eurasia Group, and a member of the board of directors for UST Global, a privately held software and technology engineering firm active in 25 countries.