Sam S. Jain
Founder & Executive Chairman
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... read more
Werner Georg Kunz-Cho
Vice Chairman
Member, Board of Directors
Member, Board of Directors
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.
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.
Amit Deodhar
Member, 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).
Advisory Board
Mike Premo
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.