FAREPORTAL - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Amit Deodhar is a global business and finance leader with extensive experience in helping build high growth businesses in E-commerce, Travel and Technology industries.
Most recently, Amit was serving as CFO of Amobee Inc., a Singtel portfolio company, one of the leading advertising technology providers to Global Brands, Agencies and Broadcasters.
Prior to Amobee, Amit was with Amazon as CFO of the International Retail Expansion and Emerging Businesses and AWS Infrastructure Supply chain. The retail expansion team launched and scaled the B2C, B2B and cross-border retail businesses in multiple countries in Europe, APAC, Latin America and Middle East and Africa region. While at AWS, he led the finance team for global supply chain driving cost efficiency, financial plans for key initiatives and projects and Capex funding.
Before Amazon, Amit had a decade plus run with Expedia during their early global growth phase starting in their Canada subsidiary and later taking on progressive roles leading North America and Global finance teams for Brand Expedia, Global technology, and Financial Operations areas.
Earlier in his career, he held various finance roles and gained diverse industry knowledge working in corporate travel, hotels and FMCG in India, Far East Asia and Africa.
He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (CPA) and holds similar memberships in accounting associations in Canada (CPA), UK (CGMA, ACMA) and India (ACA).
Job Titles:
- Chief Information Officer
Andrew has been leading Technology, Operations, and Data functions within the Financial Services industry for over 20 years. Most recently, as the Head of Technology for Lazard's $1.4 billion M&A and Restructuring Advisory business, Andrew was responsible for all aspects of technology including strategy, product management, engineering development, and support.
Before his service with Lazard, Andrew served as the Head of Reference Data Strategy at Citigroup. Prior to Citigroup, he served as the Global Program Manager at Credit Suisse for the Securities Reference Data transformation initiative.
Andrew has a master's degree in business administration from NYU Stern School of Business and a master's degree in engineering from Cambridge University, England. Born in England, he moved to New York in 2004 and now lives with his wife Lori and two children in Summit, New Jersey.
Job Titles:
- CEO of Fare Buzz
- CEO, Farebuzz
Walter is CEO of Fare Buzz with over 20 years of flights industry experience and deep knowledge of managing end to end flights, consolidator operations, pricing, business development, sales and marketing functions. His immense knowledge in the flights vertical serves as a valuable resource and will collaborate with our global operations teams.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Partner
- Secretary
Brian M. Hand is a partner in the law firm of Nordlicht & Hand and has represented Fareportal as corporate counsel since its inception. Mr. Hand has over 20 years experience representing public and private companies, both domestic and international, in a variety of industries, including pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, healthcare, travel, publishing and consumer services. His areas of practice include mergers and acquisitions, public and private securities offerings, secured finance, corporate governance, technology licensing, research and development collaborations, executive employment issues and other corporate and commercial matters. Mr. Hand is a member of the State Bar of New York and the Business, International and Science and Technology Law sections of the American Bar Association. Mr. Hand has a J.D. from the Fordham University School of Law, where he was a member of the Urban Law Review, and a B.A. in Political Science from Queens College of the City University of New York.
An experienced airline finance and commercial leader, Glenn Cusano is Fareportal's President & CFO. Glenn is responsible for overall operations and financial management of Fareportal and it's brands.
Prior to joining Fareportal, Glenn was JetBlue's Senior Vice President, Finance and Treasury responsible for treasury and fuel, risk management, financial planning and analysis, and structural programs. During his many years with Jet Blue, Cusano held several finance roles before being promoted to Vice President, Compliance and Audit in the Legal team in 2007. He returned to the Finance team in 2009 as Vice President, Audit and Process Effectiveness before taking on leadership responsibilities for the airline's financial planning as Vice President, Financial Planning and Analysis. Prior to his promotion to Senior Vice President in March 2017, he served as Vice President, Operational Planning and Analysis as part of JetBlue's Commercial and Planning team. In this role, Cusano was instrumental in driving improvement in operational planning and recovery as well as in on-time performance.
Glenn is a graduate of Quinnipiac College and is a certified public accountant (CPA).
Job Titles:
- SVP, Product & Technology
Job Titles:
- VP, Branding & Communications
Job Titles:
- Chief Administrative Officer
Kimberly Samon is a results-driven global business leader with a strong combination of human resources expertise and business acumen. Kimberly is a four-time Chief People Officer for both public and private equity owned organizations. She has served in an advisory role with Fareportal for several years and now lends her deep experience in organizational design, employee engagement, talent and succession management as Chief People Officer, leading People & Culture for the company.
Kimberly has extensive experience working with leadership teams and boards on business transformation and has served as an advisor to multiple Compensation Committees. She earned a Juris Doctor at Stetson University College of Law, a Master of Business Administration at Mercer University School of Business & Economics and a Bachelor of Science at Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations. She is a Member of the State Bar of Georgia and has volunteered as an Instructor at the Columbia University CHRO Institute and as a Field Volunteer for The Joy J Society.
Kimberly has two adult children and lives in New York City with her husband. She is an avid traveler, chef, wine enthusiast, fitness buff and amateur novelist and screenwriter. She loves a good business or real estate rehab and making something spectacular out of the ordinary.
Li Reilly - Chief Legal Officer, EVP
Job Titles:
- Executive Vice President
- General Counsel
Li joined Fareportal in 2015 as Deputy General Counsel and quickly became a key member of the legal team. Li has expertise in the areas of contract law, commercial contracts, intellectual property, and compliance developed during her 20+ year legal career. Prior to joining Fareportal, Li worked in-house and at top law firms, primarily representing technology-focused companies. Li holds her JD from Fordham University Law School and a BA from Holy Cross.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
- CEO of ID90 Travel
Michael Stacy is CEO of ID90 Travel, whose web-based SaaS platform fully automates airline employee space-available travel for carriers across the globe. In addition to automating the shopping and booking process for space-available travel, ID90 Travel is the first company in the space to provide airline employees the ability to easily purchase discounted hotels, rental cars, and cruises online or via their industry-leading mobile application. During his tenure at ID90 Travel, Michael has raised venture capital financing and brought the company to first-time profitability.
Michael has been a leader in online technology since the late 90s, when he was hired in a marketing role in the very early stages of the development of Travelocity.com. He rose to become SVP of Marketing while helping the company go public and through its purchase by Sabre Holdings. He also served as president of Cheaptickets.com, where he led the company to first-time profitability and helped parent company Cendant complete the acquisition of Orbitz.com and the consolidation of cheaptickets.com into the Orbitz family of brands. Prior to that, he was SVP of marketing at Clear Channel Entertainment (now called Live Nation). Before joining ID90, Michael served as CEO of Groople.com, an online startup company devoted to group travel.
Michael serves on the board of the non-profit African Food and Peace Foundation, which is a trailblazing philanthropic community investing in groundbreaking education for women and girls in Uganda.
Job Titles:
- VP, Digital Marketing & Customer Retention
Job Titles:
- Member of Fareportal 's Advisory Board
Travel industry veteran Mike Premo serves as a member of Fareportal's Advisory Board. Mr. Premo spent over fourteen years with Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC), holding the office of President and CEO for almost ten years. Prior to ARC, Mike worked with TQ3 Travel Solutions/Navigant, where he was responsible for the selection and development of travel management network partners covering eleven countries in the South & Central American/Caribbean regions including sales and implementation of services to multi-national clients for the then-third largest global travel management network. Additional experience includes Vice President of Integrated Services at Navigant, President of Sato Travel, and Director of Reservations Operations at Northwest Airlines. Mike resides in Ashburn, Virginia with his wife, Deb, where they enjoy gardening, golf and grandkids.
Job Titles:
- VP, Procurement & Facilities
Job Titles:
- Global VP, Customer Excellence
Job Titles:
- Executive Chairman
- Founder
- Founder and Executive Chairman of Fareportal Inc
Sam S. Jain is the Founder & Executive Chairman of Fareportal. After beginning his career in travel, Jain quickly noticed the inefficiencies inherent in the offline processes of the wholesale travel industry. Recognizing the opportunity, he began work to automate and digitize travel ticket purchases. Jain's first company, Farebuzz was part of the early travel boom, entering as a business-to-business company In 2003, Jain used his own finances and bootstrapped the launch of Fareportal, a tech company focused on the travel space. Sam then purchased Travelong, a 50-year old travel company which provided Fareportal and other groups with enhanced ticket fulfillment and back-end processes and support, and expanded Fareportal's relationship with a long list of airlines. Jain then moved to acquire One Travel, which provided a platform for product and market diversification. The company's CheapOair brand targets the value-conscious market, while One Travel serves the more affluent, aspirational traveler. Jain also focused on developing relationships with airlines worldwide, growing to the company's current partnerships with over 600 domestic and international carriers.
In 2005, when CheapOair was launched as Fareportal's first consumer online portal, Jain built and conceived the first OTA to incorporate the hybrid approach. This customer-centric focus emphasizes what Sam calls "the human touch" by combining the ease of online purchase with the support of live agents. Jain still believes in that promise, and as a result, Fareportal now employs thousands of customer care agents in locations worldwide and the company's CheapOair and One Travel brands are the only online travel agencies that feature 800#'s on every webpage. Jain was one of the first to foresee airfare unbundling and as a result, CheapOair was the first OTA to integrate the ability to purchase seats, bags, and other ancillaries. CheapOair is recognized as a leading OTA and appears regularly on the annual Travel Weekly Power List. The Fareportal of today has grown to include domestic and international brands including CheapOair, One Travel, Duke's Court Travel, Royal Scenic, Travelong, and Club Miles.
In addition to maintaining his trademark emphasis on innovation, Sam S. Jain's focus is on investing in company employees across the globe to help them grow in their professions to achieve their and the company's common goals. Looking to the future, Fareportal will expand its international presence, and create growth initiatives in the areas of artificial intelligence, cloud, social and mobile.
As Sam's role has evolved over the last several years, he spends his time managing the board of directors and vision of the organization. He also works closely on giving back to the community with organizations such as NYU Langone Wynthrop University Hospital, Ali Forney Center, Covenant House, Meals and Wheels (Staten Island), Blacks in Travel and Tourism, Association of Indians in America (AIA), Tourism Cares, New York Cares and others.
Sam has completed the MBA Essentials program from the London School of Economics, and Organizational Design for Digital Transformation from the MIT Sloan School of Management.
Sam S. Jain is the Founder and Executive Chairman of Fareportal Inc. After beginning his career in travel, Jain quickly noticed the inefficiencies inherent in the offline processes of the wholesale travel industry. Recognizing the opportunity, he began work to automate and digitize travel ticket purchases. Jain's first company, Farebuzz was part of the early travel boom, entering as a business-to-business company In 2003, Jain used his own finances and bootstrapped the launch of Fareportal… read more
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Tax Partner With a Regional Certified Public Accounting
Steven Cooperberg is a tax partner with a regional Certified Public Accounting firm. Mr. Cooperberg has over 20 years experience in public accounting providing tax planning and tax advisory services to a diverse clientele including clients in the travel and travel related spectrum. His areas of practice includes domestic and international tax planning, multi-state tax advisory service, working with closely-held multi-generational businesses and their corresponding principles, as well as representing clients involving federal and state tax controversies. Mr. Cooperberg has extensive experience with start-up entities as well as with established, mature companies. Prior to his work in public accounting, Mr. Cooperberg was a large case field agent with the Internal Revenue Service. Mr. Cooperberg is a Certified Public Accountant in NYS and received a BS Degree in Accounting and a Master's Degree in Taxation from Pace University.
Job Titles:
- VP, Automation & Product Development
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Vice Chairman
- Vice Chairman / Member, Board of Directors
Werner G. Kunz-Cho is the Vice Chairman of Fareportal, the travel technology company powering seven global travel brands including CheapOair.com and OneTravel.com. Kunz-Cho is responsible for the managing the vision and continued growth of Fareportal and its brands. He has over 35 years of experience in the travel industry including serving as the CEO of OneTravel.com prior to its acquisition by Fareportal. Prior to joining Fareportal, he was also Head of Operations at Travac Charters, General Manager North America at Swissair's charter division Balair/CTA, Director North America at City Bird Airlines and Vice President of Business Development North America at Lufthansa Systems.
Werner brings over 35 years of experience in the travel industry. Prior to Fareportal, Werner was the CEO of OneTravel.com, a leading online travel agency, VP of Business Development at Lufthansa Systems, Director of Marketing and Sales North America at CityBird Airlines, General Manager North America at Swissair's charter division Balair/CTA and Director Operations at Travac Tours and Charters.