Sam Jain
Founder and CEO
Sam S. Jain is the Founder and CEO 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... read more
Werner Georg Kunz-Cho
Co-CEO
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.
Brian Hand
Member, Board of Directors and 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.
Ralph Manaker
Member, Board of Directors
Manaker began his career as a Partner in the New York Law firm of Birmbaum, Manaker and Acquilio, P.C. and as an Assistant Professor, Syracuse College of Law. In the mid eighties Mr. Manaker entered the Travel industry as the Co- Founder and President of BTI Americas and then as Co-President of WorldTravel BTI (now called BCD Travel). He has worked with BCD N.V., a Dutch family-owned company founded by John A. Fentener van Vlissingen in 1975, which is the parent company of BCD Travel. BCD has more than 12,000 employees, working in 90 countries (in North and South America, Asia and in Europe) and has generated U.S.$ 12 billion in global sales in 2007.Mr. Manaker acted as President of Acquisitions for BCD Travel till the summer of 2007; when he became an outside consultant for BCD. Currently Mr. Manaker runs a private equity fund, REM Investments LLC, focusing on the travel industry, manufacturing and financial services sectors. Mr. Manaker holds a Doctorate of Law; Syracuse College of Law, New York, USA and a Masters Mechanical Engineering; Syracuse University, New York, USA.
Steven Cooperberg
Member, Board of Directors
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.
Mike Stacy
Member, Board of Directors
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.
Scott Alvis
Member, Board of Directors
Scott Alvis is Founder and Executive Editor at NEXT Travel Stream, the travel industry’s first live streaming news and data service. NEXT produces video news and data streams each week related to airlines, online travel agencies, hospitality, travel technology, and many other travel topics. Prior to NEXT, Scott served as the Chief Marketing Officer for Amadeus North America, leading product marketing, marketing communication, market research, public relations and business planning for Amadeus‘ distribution, airline IT and new business efforts in the U.S. and Canada. A travel industry veteran, Scott previously held several positions at Sabre Holdings, including the president and general manager of SynXis, a technology provider to the hospitality industry. As Sabre’s senior vice president of enterprise marketing, he led its corporate strategic planning, pricing, market research, usability lab and innovation disciplines. Scott holds an MBA with honors from Cornell University’s Johnson Graduate School of Management and BA in economics from Duke University.
Scott Gutz
Member, Board of Directors
Scott Gutz is the Chief Executive Officer for Monster. In this role, Scott oversees the company’s ongoing commitment to transform the recruitment industry and bring humanity back to the job market. Scott leads a global team of more than 2,000 employees across 20 countries.
Scott joined the company in July 2018 to help grow the business of Monster and improve outcomes for both employers and candidates. Previously, he was CEO for Amadeus North America, Inc., the leading provider of technology solutions to the travel and tourism industry. Similar to Monster, which strives to connect people and jobs, Amadeus is a two-sided marketplace that aims to connect travelers and travel providers. He’s brought significant expertise and experience with technology, ecommerce and digital transformation to his role at Monster.
Prior to joining Amadeus, Scott was a vice president at Oracle Corporation, where he guided corporate financial planning, SEC reporting, and mergers and acquisitions’ due diligence and integration. He also worked as a senior manager for Arthur Andersen LLP in the audit and consulting divisions.
Scott completed his MBA at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Sloan Fellows Program in Innovation and Global Leadership. He also holds a Bachelor of Science from Babson College.
Originally from Massachusetts, Scott lives in Wellesley with his wife and three sons. He enjoys spending time outside the office with his family; cheering on his sons at their sporting events and all of the Boston sports teams; running, hiking and biking; catching up on fan-favorites like Game of Thrones; collecting action figures with his youngest son; and vacationing in Cape Cod.
Board of Advisors
Paul Foley
Member, Board of Advisors
Paul Foley joined the Fareportal Board of Advisors in March, 2014. Paul brings over 40 years of experience in the travel industry, with a career that started at American Airlines which has since included successful global challenges in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Management roles within the airline industry have included serving as the Vice president of Operations at Atlas Air, the President and CEO at MAIR Holdings, the President and CEO at Mesaba Airlines, and Chairman and CEO at Big Sky Airlines.
Paul is currently the Executive Vice President and COO at Mesa Air Group, and has served on the boards of Zomax Corporation, The Courage Center and The Regional Airline Association.
Foley has an MBA from Southern Methodist University, a Bachelor’s degree from Cornell University, and has studied at The London Business School.
Jan Mardh
Member, Board of Advisors
Jan Mardh is an international executive in the strategy, M&A and corporate finance areas. He has more than 30 years’ experience from a wide range of industries including, but not limited to, airlines, travel and hospitality. Jan was a partner in and founder of the US operations of an advisory firm in these disciplines, Indevo, that subsequently merged with a major US participant, Bain & Co. Jan continues to provide these services to corporations in both the US and Europe. He has been advising Fareportal on strategic partnerships and associated issues since 2006. He holds a MSc in business and finance from the Stockholm School of Economics.
Rob Torres
Member, Board of Advisors
Rob Torres brings over 20 years of strategic experience with a strong background in new business development, including a deep understanding of the global digital marketplace and advertising community. Since 2006, Rob has been the Managing Director of Travel at Google – executing revenue strategies, account planning and business processes for global travel accounts. Responsible for over $600 million in global marketing revenue, he helped define the next generation of media platforms and products needed for the travel industry.
Prior to joining Google, Rob was the Vice President of Strategic Accounts at leading online travel agency Expedia. From 1996 to 2006, he led the sales effort in establishing and negotiating long-term corporate hotel agreements, and held global responsibility for 30 strategic accounts that generated gross bookings in excess of $2 billion.
From 1992 to 1999, Rob served as the Director of Real Estate Development for Yum! Brands (previously PepsiCo) where he was responsible for generating over $28 million in new franchise by managing up to 15 key account portfolios and over 30 franchises at any given time.
In addition to his work experience, Rob has been an Executive Committee board member at HSMAI – a global organization of sales and marketing professionals representing all segments of the hospitality industry – since 2005. He is also a keynote speaker and member of industry boards ATME and USTA, and has developed industry-specific thought leadership conferences like ThinkTravel and Digital Discovery Day.
Rob holds a Bachelor of Science in Public Policy from the University of Southern California, and earned his MBA from the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University.