TALENTED. EXPERIENCED. INNOVATIVE.
The Kemesa team consists of highly qualified managers, most of whom have worked together and successfully taken the Company from concept to market test to scale-up for U.S. expansion. They provide core expertise in transaction processing, secure data management, internet-based business development, online financial services, customer service and consumer marketing.
Consistent with our funding strategy, and to control staffing costs until the next round of funds is secured, management is being supplemented by contracted consulting and advisory board capacities. Profiles of key personnel follow:
Steven Bachenheimer
Steven Bachenheimer is Kemesa’s founder and Chief Executive Officer. He has extensive experience in the building of both new and established businesses across a variety of categories to profitable growth. An action-oriented innovator, Steve founded and presently leads the development and marketplace implementation of Shop Shield® – the first product to successfully protect consumers from identity theft by preventing the problem before it can occur.
His senior management expertise is varied and rich. As President and Chief Operating Officer of National Foods, Steve strategically repositioned and expanded the company’s Hebrew National product line, resulting in a doubling of sales and profits - and leading to the company’s sale to Conagra. Steve has re-structured and significantly expanded such diverse businesses as Rose Marie Reid Inc. (women’s swimwear) and Remington USA (small appliances). He also was a major contributor to the growth and profitability of Procter & Gamble’s Health & Beauty Aids and Foodservice & Lodging products businesses. As a consultant and principal at New England Consulting Group and The Weston Group Steve made major contributions to Colgate, General Foods, Polaroid Corporation, Diamond Crystal, Kraft Foods, and many other companies. His most recent endeavor prior to Kemesa was management involvement in the development of a consumer software product offering a superior approach to Internet search.
An avid wine collector, skier and supporter of the New World Symphony for young classical musicians, Steve Bachenheimer received a BA from Michigan State University and an MBA from Columbia University.
Keith Dowding
Keith Dowding is Kemesa’s Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Keith has an especially wide range of experience including cable television, multimedia, medical and electronics. His strengths in setting vision, determining strategic direction, risk management, and effective handling of operational and financial responsibilities make him ideally suited to Kemesa’s senior management team. Keith has been instrumental in the development of the company’s successfully market-tested product and business plans. He is also actively involved in fundraising.
In 2004 Keith relocated from his native Great Britain to the U.S. and founded Itenik, a company focused on providing advisory services to the small and mid-market business sectors. Prior to this, he worked with private equity portfolio companies, building shareholder value to achieve successful exits. He has enjoyed over 20 years of senior executive international experience in both business-to-business and business-to-consumer environments, including 7 years with Unilever. Mr. Dowding has consistently grown businesses in a variety of circumstances, ranging from early stage to established growth businesses.
An avid skier and hiker, Keith holds a Bachelor of Commerce Honors degree from Leeds University and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants.
William Niedermeyer
Bill is Kemesa’s Chief Technology and Chief Security Officer. He brings 19 years of experience in software development and secure systems design including strategic, tactical and operational management of security-based programs. His military services and applied physics backgrounds together with the belief that IT infrastructure should be approached much like a dynamic living organism with defenses similar to those found in nature have contributed to unique and creative contributions in the design and successful implementation of Kemesa’s superior (patent pending) secure data base system.
Bill has extensive experience in strategic, developmental, and operational management in security programs. His active involvement in the HTCIA (High Technology Criminal Investigation Association) and forensic support in class action lawsuits, as well as several secure data recovery programs contribute significantly to his staying current on security trends and what lies on the horizon in the constantly evolving “wall and ladder” world of secure systems development. Prior to joining Kemesa in early 2008 Mr. Niedermeyer was involved in the development and implementation of solutions to security-based issues ranging from Technical Surveillance and Countermeasures to Sensitive Compartmental Information Facilities. This included projects for the State of Utah and numerous medical, financial and other business challenges of both established and early stage companies. Bill has managed and owned several IT companies. These include CEO of Global Integrated Technologies, President of Legacy Technical Group, Inc. and President of NLC Laboratories.
Mr. Niedermeyer is the Author of Cell Logic Topology, a member of the American Physical Society and a proponent of nanotechnology. Bill is an avid shooting sports competitor who has competed nationally and coached at the University level. He is also a licensed Amateur Radio operator and is trained to apply that skill to emergencies for Federal and State, RACES and ARES communications programs.
Christopher Sontag
Chris Sontag is the Director of Payment Systems for Kemesa, a critical responsibility focused on the design and implementation of the company’s unique payment issuing and processing systems. He is considered an industry expert in the field of electronic funds transfer, transaction processing and electronic banking products. Chris has contributed significantly to the architecture and successful Pilot and Beta test deployments of Kemesa’s patent-pending transaction processing systems.
Chris brings to Kemesa over 20 years of banking industry experience in a broad range of areas that include retail, electronic and Internet banking, as well as item-processing operations. He served as President and CEO of Effective Shareholders Solutions, Inc and was CEO, Director and Chairman of the Board of Money Station, Inc. - an ATM/Point of Sale network that included 500 member financial institutions and operated at 500,000 locations. Prior to this, he was Vice President of Electronic Banking for Star Bank (now US Bank) where he was responsible for ATM, POS and Internet/remote banking.
Recipient of the Chairman’s Exemplary Award, Star Bank, Chris Sontag has been a presenter at the Electronic Money and Banking Forum. Mr. Sontag is a graduate of Xavier University where he received his BS in Business Administration and an MBA in Business Management.
Elaine Baxter
Elaine is the company’s Director of Customer Services and runs our Customer Service call center headquartered in Ft. Lauderdale Florida. Ms. Baxter served as Shop Shield liaison and primary contact during Shop Shield’s Pilot Testing phase when she worked with Dakota Performance Solutions (DPS)… an industry leader in the development of Customer Service programs. She was deeply involved in the development of all the communications, training materials and support tools for our call center.
Elaine opened our Florida Customer Service Center during Shop Shield’s 2008 Beta Testing phase. Her current staff of 4 full time Customer Service Representatives is supplemented by DPS’s overflow capabilities. Elaine has a double Masters in education and communication. She has considerable leadership and organizational experiences in several community service and charitable organizations, and has been actively involved in call center activities.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Charles A. Lieppe
Mr. Lieppe serves Kemesa in the capacity of Chairman of the Board of Directors. Chuck has an especially broad range of business leadership and experiences in the worlds of online systems, data base management, consumer products, corporate sports programs, and pharmaceuticals. He brings highly focused and pragmatic approaches and perspectives to the Kemesa Team, a valuable quality that makes him ideally suited to be Chairman. He also benefits from having been on the company’s Advisory Board from Kemesa’s inception.
Mr. Lieppe’s experience as President and Chief Executive Officer of DBT Online, an Internet-based information management company (traded on the New York Stock Exchange before its sale to ChoicePoint), brings highly relevant expertise to the secure data base aspects of Kemesa. Chuck also has an especially strong consumer perspective stemming from decades of management in a broad range of consumer product assignments including more than 20 years at Procter & Gamble where he was a Corporate Vice President and General Manager.
Mr. Lieppe also brings highly relevant experience from his involvement in several early stage companies including serving as Co-Chairman of the Board of Directors for Utix Group and his involvement on the Board of a next generation prescription medicine company. Most recently, Chuck served as Co-Chairman of the Board of Directors as well as a member of the Advisory Board for Corporate Sports. Mr. Lieppe has also been President and Chief Executive Officer of Nabisco International, and Chief Executive Officer of Berol Corporation, a manufacturer of writing instruments, school supplies and art products.
Mr. Lieppe received his BA and MBA from Columbia University.
Mario Behr (on behalf of Hans Behr)
Mario Behr is President and Creative Director of Green Dot - Kemesa’s Marketing and Advertising Agency. He has worked closely with Kemesa’s founder from the time Shop Shield® was first conceived. Mr. Behr and Green Dot are responsible for the development and implementation of the company’s website, all consumer interfaces and messaging, plus its media and marketing plans.
Mario has fifteen years of advertising and marketing expertise in a broad range of media and product categories. He has especially strong credentials in Internet marketing and user interface development. Of particular note is his expertise in the development of graphic user interface tools for internet-based transactional platforms. Mario has recently developed such tools for eHealthxchange, ACT Mortgage and for Kemesa.
Mr. Behr and his agency (Green Dot) have consistently contributed solid strategic thinking and superb creative work and are responsible for Shop Shield’s trademarked signature line “Protect your identity… don’t leave a traceSM”. He has applied these strengths for many clients in the many product categories including electronics, consumer packaged goods, banking, telecommunications, entertainment, fitness, and boating/fishing/marine sectors. Green Dot’s client list is impressive and includes Sony, Motorola, Lady of America Health Club, Ryder Systems, Maytag, Sea Vee Boats, Mercury Marine, Coconut Grove Bank and Playboy TV Latin America.
The fact that Mario presented the company to his family as an investment opportunity reflects his enthusiasm for and commitment to Kemesa and Shop Shield. Hans Behr is Kemesa’s largest investor and is represented by Mario on the Board of Directors.
Born in Germany, Mario is fluent in English, German and Spanish. He is an avid fisherman and boat captain.
OTHER BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEMBERS
Messrs Bachenheimer and Dowding (respectively the CEO and EVP/CVFO of the company also serve as members of The Board. In addition, Thomas Stockham, currently a member of the company’s Advisory Board, is expected to become a member of The Board (see below) upon his return from Europe in August 2009