Dr. Sam Pitroda is an internationally respected development thinker, telecom inventor and entrepreneur who has spent 44 years in Information and Communications Technology and related human and national developments.

Credited with having laid the foundation for and ushered India’s technology and telecommunications revolution in the 1980s, Dr. Pitroda has been a leading campaigner to help bridge the global digital divide.

During his tenure as Advisor to Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in the 1980s Dr. Pitroda headed six technology missions related to telecommunications, water, literacy, immunization Dairy and oil seeds. He was also the founder and first chairman of India’s Telecom Commission.

Dr. Pitroda was Chairman of India’s National Knowledge Commission (2005-2009), an advisory body to the Prime Minister of India, set up to provide a blueprint of reform of the knowledge related institutions and infrastructure in the country. The Commission has offered a series of recommendations on various aspects of the knowledge paradigm to help India meet the challenges of the 21st century.

He is currently Advisor to the Prime Minister of India on Public Information Infrastructure and Innovations.

He holds close to 100 worldwide patents and has published and lectured widely in the US, Europe, Latin America and Asia.

Mehul Desai has spent over 17 years in the areas of intellectual property, product development, business development, strategy and international operations, focusing on ICT and related applications across developed as well as emerging markets. Mr. Desai has done pioneering work in the field of secure personalized transactions, with focus on finance, retail, healthcare, and government services for mobile phone users worldwide.

As Vice Chairman, Mr. Desai supports the management team from the Board, focusing on strategic initiatives related to enhancing the Company’s intellectual property, product, business development, and new areas of growth. As co-founder of C-SAM, Mr. Desai has held several positions in the Company, serving as its Chief Executive Officer up to June 2011.

Prior to joining C-SAM, Mr. Desai headed up operations for MTI Software Services, managing the company’s software services groups in the US and India, and has held various Engineering/R&D positions working primarily in the areas of telecommunication, distributed systems and power electronics.

Mr. Desai is the co-inventor of issued patents and pending applications across several markets including the US and EU. Mr. Desai has been involved with several industry forums since 2001, focused on developing standards for secure mobile transactions. Mr. Desai often speaks at industry conferences on topics related to mobile commerce and mobile payments.

Mr. Desai has co-authored a book – March of Mobile Money – that chronicles the advent of the digital wallet and the potential socio-economic impact of billions of cell phone users securely transacting electronically – for services related to finance, health, education and governance.

Mr. Desai is involved in non-profit initiatives, including the Global Foodbanking Network’s project in India. Mr. Desai’s other areas of interest include knowledge methodologies and knowledge-cities, new education models, use of ICT in delivery of public services, and food security.

Mr. Desai holds a B.S. in Telecommunication Engineering and a M.S. in Engineering Management.

Mr. Marx has spent more than 25 years in the communications, semiconductor and services Industry. His field of expertise covers specifically Mobile Transactions, the Semiconductors Industry (Identification and Smart Cards), NFC and RFID eco-systems, mobile- and fixed network communications, Identity Management, Trusted Service Management, the creation of new eco-systems as well as the field of human-centric knowledge management and leadership development. Mr. Marx developed, through his numerous international assignments in different industries, a truly global network covering all geographic areas from APAC, EMEA, the USA and Latin America.

Previously Mr. Marx served as the Executive Vice President of Identive Group Inc. and as CEO Transponders and Semiconductors Group. He also served as Executive Director of the Board of Identive Group as well as on the board of Directors of some of Identive Group’s portfolio companies. In addition, he served as CEO of the ACiG Technology business. Mr. Marx joined Identive Group in October 2007 as CEO of SCM Microsystems, Inc., Identive’s predecessor, and served in this role until March 2010, when he took the role of Chief Operating Officer of Identive Group.

During his time as SCM Microsystems CEO he acquired Hirsch Electronics and Bluehill ID, a group of companies in the Identity Management and RFID space transforming the entire group into Identive Group.

From 2003 to October 2007 Mr. Marx held a variety of management positions with NXP Semiconductors and Philips Semiconductors, amongst other’s as General Manager of the Near Field Communication (NFC) business, which focuses on the use of existing contactless smart card standards, and as General Manager of the Contactless & Embedded Security business, where he was responsible for the smart card business (mobile communications, banking, e-government), NFC (Near Field Communication) and reader IC businesses of the company.

Mr. Marx also has several years’ experience in the data and voice-networking sector, where he held various sales, marketing, product management, business line management and general management positions with companies including Global One Telecommunications and Ericsson Telecommunications.
During his assignments in different corporations Mr. Marx spend a significant amount of time overseas (Asia Pacific) as well as in Sweden and other countries.

Mr. Marx holds a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering from the Technical Academy in Vienna, a postgraduate degree in Business Administration from the University of Commerce in Vienna and a Master of Advanced Studies in Knowledge Management from Danube University Krems in Austria.

As Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Slusarz is responsible for all aspects of C-SAM’s finances globally including treasury, controllership, planning and analysis, and financial reporting.

Mr. Slusarz brings a unique combination of skills to C-SAM including a deep understanding of the payments business (credit card issuing and credit and debit networks), familiarity with patent protected products and experience in a start up business.

He spent 23 years at Discover Financial Services serving on Discover’s Management Committee for 10 years. He was Discover’s CFO while Discover was part of Morgan Stanley and Corporate Controller after Discover’s spinoff.

Mr. Slusarz played a key leadership role in Discover’s highly successful 2007 spinoff from Morgan Stanley where he led the largest work stream and was a member of the Spinoff Steering Committee. He and his team also built the necessary infrastructure for a public company.

During his tenure at Discover, Mr. Slusarz worked in both start up and turnaround situations and played a key leadership role in numerous strategic transactions both domestically and internationally.

Prior to Discover, he also worked in the pharmaceutical (G. D. Searle) and heavy manufacturing (Pullman) industries, where he spent 4 years and 7 years, respectively.

Mr. Slusarz holds an MBA from DePaul University and a Bachelor of Science in Finance from Northern Illinois University. He was named the 2005 Distinguished Alumni by the Finance Department at Northern Illinois University.

Mr. Slusarz currently serves as an Instructor at the Lake Forest Graduate School of Management and as a Board member of CE Printed Products.

As Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Wink is responsible for all activities related to the daily operations of the company globally. This includes project delivery, systems integration, and the operations of our regional organizations.

Mr. Wink has spent over 25 years in custom software development, networking & hardware manufacturing, sales and distribution fields. Mr. Wink has served in roles as CTO and CEO for a variety of high-technology start-ups and has managed, developed and delivered large scale solutions for companies such as Apple, Motorola, Ameritech, Cellular One, State Farm, Allstate, and many others.

Nehal Maniar has spent over 15 years in the areas of software development, product design / architecting, quality assurance, and solution engineering. As Chief Technology Officer, Mr. Maniar, is responsible for all product development, product customization / delivery, and support activities related to C-SAM products and technology. Mr. Maniar has been with C-SAM for the past 8 years and earlier was Vice President for Core Products.

Prior to joining C-SAM, Mr. Maniar was heading up a product development group in India for PopNet Internet AG, a German IT company. Prior to this, he worked in the U.S. as an application development engineer in the field of Manufacturing Information Systems and SCADA.

Mr. Maniar has worked for many years in North America in the area of software development, and has a B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering.

Mr. Morgan has over 30 years of experience in various technical, management and corporate leadership roles, with an early background in the computer industry with companies such as Computer Sciences Corporation, Hughes, NCR, and Hewlett Packard. He is a magna cum laude graduate from both MIT with a Bachelors in Computer Science and EE, and from Stanford University with a Masters in Computer Science and Bio-Engineering, where he was also elected a National Science Foundation Fellow.

He founded a series of successful hi-tech companies beginning with DynaMicro, developer of the national best selling game Dungeons of Daggorath, which was sold to Radio Shack. He then helped launch Hirsch Electronics, a design and manufacturing provider of networked security systems and professional services. After merging a hardware design company he had started into Hirsch, he served as Hirsch’s VP Engineering. He later founded Performance Strategies, Inc., an international consulting firm serving small to mid-sized businesses in the areas of strategic planning, corporate communications, IP strategy, product definition and M&A.

Mr. Morgan rejoined Hirsch’s Board in 2007 to help explore exit strategies, and helped facilitate and negotiate a merger with SCM, a NASDAQ traded public company (now Identive, Nasdaq:INVE), where he subsequently served on Identive’s Board of Directors and Audit and Comp committees. He also consulted to and served on the advisory board of an Identive portfolio company in the mobile commerce space and assisted Identive’s CEO in negotiation of a second merger with Bluehill ID, an identity management and RFID company, while continuing to operate his consulting company. He has served on the BODs or Advisory Boards of several other US and international public and private companies, been an expert witness in intellectual property cases, and is the holder of 7 U.S. Patents.

As General Manager for the Americas, Emilian Elefteratos is responsible for all day-to-day activities for North America, South America, and Central America. This includes business development, account and project management.

Mr. Elefteratos is a sales award-winning and proven leader with over 25 years of globally diverse sales management, business development, customer service, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and team development experience across multiple vertical markets and technologies. Recognized as an innovative entrepreneur and seasoned executive, Mr. Elefteratos is also a mentor for Mass-Challenge, a Boston based non-profit organization chartered by MIT to provide executive coaching and to promote innovation and creativity.

Mr. Elefteratos’ tenure includes senior management posts with British Telecom-14 years, with Cisco Systems-6 years and 9 years in payments industry. He is a Leading Expert in Financial & Business Services with Gerson Lehrman with 390 successful engagements.

Mr. Elefteratos holds a B.S. in Finance and Marketing, and M.S. in Cybernetics and completed BT’s Advanced Management Program sponsored by the Wharton/INSEAD alliance.

As General Manager for Japan, Hideyuki Tsushima is responsible for all day-to-day activities in Japan, including business development, account and project management. Prior to joining C-SAM, Mr. Tsushima was Assistant General Manager in the Corporate Planning Department at UC Card Company Limited in Tokyo, heading UC Card’s corporate planning, strategic and technology initiatives.

Mr. Tsushima has spent over 20 years in banking industry and has actively headed up various initiatives for the Mizuho Group in Japan and associated with MasterCard and Visa International worldwide.

Mr. Tsushima has a diploma in Business Administration from the US.

As General Manager for Asia Pacific region, Shubhrendu Khoche is responsible for all day-to-day activities in Asia Pacific region, including business development, account and project management. Before joining C-SAM, Mr. Khoche served as a sales director with Venyon, a joint venture Asia of Nokia and Giesecke & Devrient (later merged back into G&D). In this role he drove business and operations for trusted services in Asia Pacific and created partnerships in the mobile payments & ticketing space with service providers and application developers.

From 2003 to 2007, Mr. Khoche worked on business development, product marketing & product management of identification products including Near Field Communication (NFC) at Philips Semiconductors (now NXP, founded by Philips) across Europe and Asia. He was instrumental in market creation and evangelizing mobile contactless services in Asia during this early market.

Earlier, he worked in product management roles at Ericsson hp Telecom (Ehpt) in Asia and Europe, creating and delivering products and services to fixed line and mobile carriers to launch & charge for new voice & data services.

Mr. Khoche holds an MBA from INSEAD and did a Masters in International Business at the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT). He is a trained Electronics & Communications engineer from Delhi College of Engineering, University of Delhi.

Dr. Karnik has spent over 35 years in Research and Development in Computer Based Systems, including the design and development of real time systems, embedded systems, digital signal processing, parallel processing and mobile based solutions. Dr. Karnik has been with C-SAM since 2001 and earlier was Vice President for New Products and R&D and Vice President for Core Products.

Prior to joining C-SAM, Dr. Karnik was the Director at the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, which pioneered India’s initiatives in Parallel Super Computing.

As Vice President for Strategy & New Business, Dr. Karnik is responsible for formulation of strategies and assessment of new business opportunities based on contemporary and projected technologies.

Dr. Karnik holds a B.Tech. and M.Tech. in Electronics and Communication Engineering, and has a Ph.D. in Advanced Computing.

As Vice President for Finance, Yash Chhaya, is responsible for day-to-day accounting and financial management of the Company.

Mr. Chhaya has over 15 years of experience in finance related to high-technology / software companies in the US. Mr. Chhaya holds a Bachelor’s in Economics and Masters in Finance and Marketing from RooseveltUniversity, Chicago.