MEET OUR TEAM.
Paul H. Feller
Chairman & CEO
Mr. Feller has been involved with C Level executive management of advertising, live entertainment, media and engineering companies for over 18 years. Mr. Feller has extensive knowledge and experience in both the private and public sectors. Mr. Feller has been an independent consultant to various public companies and has been a director on the board of directors of multiple international public companies as an independent board member, audit committee member and chairman.
Prior to ICARO, Mr. Feller was the acting Chairman and CEO of SKYY Digital Media Group where he spearheaded a corporate restructure including settlement of multiple litigations, engaged two of the largest global telecommunication company’s as global media and revenue partners, restructured the board of directors and corporate oversight and governance committees and recapitalized the company. Prior to that, Mr. Feller was Chairman and CEO of Stratus Media Group, Inc., a Global Live Entertainment Company in which he raised private and institutional funding for and constructed a global roll up strategy of valued live entertainment properties and events, Chairman and CEO of ProElite, Inc. a major contender within the mixed martial arts / ultimate fighting sector televised on CBS, Showtime and HD NET, was the President & CEO of Pro Sports & Entertainment, in which he served as COO and CEO of API/PSI, an international live entertainment business which operated sports events in Asia, Europe and North America overseeing global growth through mergers and acquisitions in new markets in China, Europe and the U.S. He negotiated agency rights and agreements with the World Cup Soccer, Formula One, PGA, ATP, NCAA, Wimbledon, America’s Cup syndicate, Association Volleyball Professionals Tour AVP, Disney’s NCAA Freedom Bowl, Andretti Indy Racing Team, International Marathon, and founded the ATP Shanghai Open tennis tournament. As head of PSI’s Asia division, Mr. Feller developed agreements with STAR Television and China’s CCTV and operated the first international professional series of professional soccer tournaments in China to include, Manchester United, AC Milan and Juventus. He has been a member of the Los Angeles Sports Council, Orange County Sports Association, Asia International Business and Entertainment Association, U.S. Professional Cycling Association and the U.K. Professional Cycling Association and was part of the SFX Entertainment team, which did a $256M IPO in late 1998 and sold to Clear Channel Communications for $4.4B in 2000. Mr. Feller spearheaded as interim CEO the restructure and turn around of what became a substantial part of Yahoo Stores in the technology sector. Mr. Feller held the position as a Senior Engineer with McDonnell Douglas in Advance Military Design division holding the highest level of civilian security Top Secret Clearance and was published for engineering standards for Military Standards. Mr. Feller was an alternate for the US Cycling Olympic National Team and raced as a professional cyclist for The British Professional Cycling Federation and USA Professional Cycling Association for multiple US and European cycling teams. Mr. Feller was knighted in 2011 by the Swedish monarchy. He attended Purdue University for Mechanical Engineering with an Aerospace emphasis. Mr. Feller attended Pepperdine University for his MBA in process. Mr. Feller is also the Acting Chairman of the Americas, for Cronus Equity.
David Catzel
Director
Mr. Catzel is an accomplished business and technology executive who has closed hundreds of millions of dollars in strategic alliance, media content, licensing, marketing and technology deals with companies as diverse as IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Disney, Sony, Fox, Paramount, Survey Monkey, DocuSign, L3 Mobile-Vision and Lucasfilm. To his many credits, Mr. Catzel was responsible for development of Microsoft’s global body-cam cloud management strategy and tens of millions of dollars of Microsoft Public Sector cloud revenues related to police, municipal and government sectors. In addition, for Intel Capital, Mr. Catzel built a multi-hundred-million-dollar digital sports driven business strategy and $42M equity investment in an international portfolio of 14 ventures.
Mr. Catzel’ s executive positions include Microsoft, Intel Capital, Lucasfilm, ESPN, Barnes & Noble (interim Chief Innovation Officer) and North Communications (Chief Marketing Officer). He is currently focused on the burgeoning 5G mobile network area and its impact on digital sports, eSports and Smart Cities.
John A Schneider, Jr.
Director
Mr. John “Jack” Schneider spent more than 34 years as a Managing Director at Allen & Co. LLC, the premier investment house in the media and entertainment sector. He brings an unparalleled level of experience and relationships in finance, technology and media industries. Following, Mr. Scheider was a managing partner at Dominick & Dominick. Mr. Schneider brings a wealth of M&A experience from Allen & Co. and his long-term relationships with other leaders in technology, media and entertainment, open doors to significant new opportunities for VOS. He has been a Member of the Advisory Boards of Loton, Corp. since October 4, 2013; the Mandalay Digital Group, Inc. since April 19, 2011; IntelliCell BioSciences, Inc. since October 2011 and NeuMedia, Inc. since April 19, 2011. He also served as a Director at Stratus, LIveXLive Live Streaming Concerts and SKYY Digital. Mr. Schneider also pioneered The Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference, widely considered one of the most influential gatherings of international business leaders, annually. Mr. Schneider serves on the Board of the National Mentoring Partnership for 15 years, and as Chairman of the Buoniconti Fund to Cure Paralysis for 25 years.
Luis Claudio Goldner
Chief Operating Officer
Juan Carlos Barrera
Chief Commercial Officer
Mr. Barrera is a corporate executive with experience in managing global businesses, and with a focus on banking, investments and corporate acquisitions. He serves as Chief Commercial Officer of Icaro Media Group responsible for global partnerships and global strategy.
Mr. Barrera served as President and CEO of Global Selects Wealth Management where he pioneered the introduction of investment technology platforms for the development of in-country asset allocation models and investment products designed for financial institutions around the world. For over twenty years Mr. Barrera served as Director of Institutional Investments for Dryden Wealth Management and for Prudential International Investments.
During his career Mr. Barrera has forged relationships with financial institutions, industry leaders in finance, media, telecommunications and governments across the world. He holds a degree in Economics and a Bachelor of Arts in business administration.
Julio Hernandez-Miyares
CTO
Mr. Hernandez-Miyares is an experienced Hands-on Technology Product Development Leader with more than 20 years in the Digital Space.
Most recently Mr. Hernandez-Miyares was CTO-Digital, Head of Technology for Televisa leading the Televisa Digital engineering team in a transformative effort to “Digitize” the Product Development process and replace a legacy technology while also completing a series of high profile product launches and the Digital version of the World Cup 2018.
Previously Mr. Hernandez-Miyares was Vice President of Architecture & Engineering and a founder executive at the newly formed Sports Media Group (SMG) of Gannet’s USA Today. SMG was a transformative organization formed to consolidate, digitize and monetize the vast Sports content from throughout the Gannett network and to help Gannett transition from its Print subscription roots to the new world of Digital Media.
Mr. Hernandez-Miyares was a C level executive 10 years at AOL culminating as VP of Technology and CTO for the Entertainment, Games and Latino business units at AOL, where he built and led a global Product Engineering team with units in India, China, New York City and Virginia for AOL Music, Moviefone, Game@aol.com and others that would commonly supersede 1 Billion page views per month and were in the Top 5 in their respective categories. Prior to his role as CTO he also led the AOL Search Technology organization which was one of the most lucrative business units within AOL.
Mr. Hernandez-Miyares has built & led large globally dispersed teams and is a hands on expert in the evolving technology stacks including but not limited to the technology necessary to architect and build Video processing, management and syndication applications in the booming Video space.
Mr. Hernandez-Miyares attended Hunter College for Computer Science and Mathematics. He also attended Queens College for a bachelor degree in Accounting and Minor in Economics.
Alex Zivkovic
Chief Information Officer
As one of the founders of EVNTL, Alex has been instrumental in setting the research and development direction for all of the AI projects that have made EVNTL products successful. Previously he was the CTO of Breaking Data, a publicly traded company on the Toronto Venture Stock Exchange. In his 20 year technology career he has launched number of technology companies that have utilized cutting edge technology and has led teams of advanced data science and AI researchers in the fields of semantic search, location search, natural language processing that created viable commercial products.
Alex has earned his MASc from University of Toronto for work done on genetic algorithms used for process control and automation.
J. Percival Palesel
Head of Business Development, LATAM
Economist with specialization in marketing, CEO of Arena Tecnologia Gamificacao, CEO of Cellcast Interactive Brazil;CEO of Rede Mulher de Televisão. Creator of interactive shows and games on Brazilian television for over 25 years and pioneer in e-commerce in Brazil.
Emily Barnett
Comptroller
Mrs. Barnett is responsible for overseeing all aspects of financial reporting, financial analysis, and financial stability of the ICARO organization. A seasoned financial executive with extensive comptrollership experience in Capital Markets products and Fee-based business, Mrs. Barnett has more than 20 years of accounting knowledge and experience, most recently serving as the Executive Director for Morgan Stanley’s Wealth Management Investment Solutions Group. Previously, she served as Vice President for both the Wealth Management Private Banking and the Wealth Management Fixed Income Control Groups at Morgan Stanley, respectively. Prior to her tenure at Morgan Stanley, Mrs. Barnett served as a Finance Group Manager at WestLB and Associate at Merrill Lynch Inc.
Heather Binnie
Executive Vice President, Head of Global Partnerships
Ron Lopez
VP of Product
Mr. Lopez is a seasoned digital executive who builds high performing teams and establishes efficient processes. He as a proven record of delivering quality scalable solutions while minimizing time to market.
Mr. Lopez has had extensive experience in internet product development. First as a senior technology manager at the startup company Moviefone. He stayed with AOL after AOL acquired Moviefone where he oversaw major technical initiatives in the video and entertainment space. Ron also served at Rodale, where he led development of all internet, video and mobile products.
Mr. Lopez earned his MBA at NYU’s Stern School of Business.
Ronaldo Kos
VP of Corporate Partnerships
Mr. Kos is responsible for the expansion of VOS’ international media initiatives in Latin America. Overseeing the company’s overall operations initially in Brazil followed by expansion plans in 13 primary markets in LATAM, overseeing business development, sales and marketing, and strategic partnerships.
Mr. Kos has an extensive background as a business development, operations, sales and marketing executive, both for startups and established companies and brands. For more than 20 years he has worked across such diverse sectors as security, credit card services and solutions, the telecom space, financial technologies, security documents and lottery operations in leading multinational companies.
Mr. Kos’ past positions include Country Business Development Manager Brazil for SKYY Digital Media Group, National Sales Manager, for Datacard Group, and Sales and Business Director Development for Intralot.
Christopher Stankiewicz
EVP for Operations
Mr. Stankiewicz is a veteran digital media manager, platform evangelist and strategic accounts director with over 15 years’ experience in the digital media space.
Chris manages strategic content partnerships and editorial collaborations with global media companies, while working closely with development and product teams to innovate consumer-facing apps, media management platforms, and syndication and curation technologies.
A former Combat Correspondent in the United States Marine Corps, Mr. Stankiewicz attended UMASS Amherst for Anthopology and the Defense Information School (DINFOS) for Broadcast Journalism.
Zia Khan
Executive Vice President of Engineering
As the Executive Vice President of Engineering, Mr. Khan brings a wealth of experience building highly-scalable and carrier-grade products for consumers and mobile operators across the globe. Mr. Khan co-founded and joined several early stage startups playing an instrumental role in building their technology stack which led to successful acquisition of them all.
Prior to joining ICARO, Mr. Khan co-founded EVNTL where he served as the VP of Engineering and resultantly led the team in building their flagship product Critical Event Notification System (CENS). CENS is a highly scalable, AI driven, B2B platform which processes millions of pieces of information across social media in real-time and delivers critical, relevant, and actionable information to organizations.
Previously, Mr. Khan served as a Co-Founder and Director of Engineering at Unomobi where he led and supported various business activities including sales, marketing, pricing, contract negotiations and technology strategy. Mr. Khan built and deployed a mobile carrier-grade product called ‘EmailToSMS’ which was used by several operators worldwide. Mr. Khan also helped Unombi acquire, enhance and file several patents in the field of mobile location-based advertising.
Additionally, Mr. Khan has served as a senior technologist in several other startups (iseemedia, Sprylogics, BreakingData) where he helped build and grow the technology. They were all acquired by leaders in the industry.
Mr. Khan holds a Bachelors of Applied Science, Computer Engineering degree from Queen’s University (Kingston, Ontario, Canada).
Victor Vergara
VP for Content Operations, LATAM
Mr. Vergara is responsible for the expansion of VOS’ digital content and media management initiatives in Latin America. He has a broad background in digital content management, strategic planning, product, and business development across Latin American markets. He will oversee content operations support for VOS’ multi-language digital media distribution in verticals to include sports, breaking news, music, health, and entertainment to its growing list of publishers, telco partners and media groups. Primary languages will include English, Spanish and Portuguese.
Mr. Vergara’s past positions include Chief Content Officer for LATAM at Skyy Digital Media Group and Product Manager for Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean for ISI Emerging Markets Group., Inc.
Arie Perchak
Product Manager
Arie Perchak is responsible for overseeing product vision and development across multiple technology products at ICARO. Prior to joining ICARO, Arie led the Customer Success function at EVNTL, where he worked alongside Fortune 500 clients in the Corporate Security and Intelligence industry in solving complex and time-critical problems.
Owing to his customer-centric background, Arie designs innovative technology products with a customer-first approach, driven by providing the ultimate experience to the end-user. A rising star in Product Management, Arie works under the mentorship of several renowned industry professionals.
Arie holds a BA with a specialization in Finance from the University of Western Ontario.
Frankie Chan
Senior Software Engineer
As a Senior Software Engineer, Mr. Chan has designed and developed many products spanning different industries for consumers and mobile operators worldwide. Frankie has over 20 years of experience designing and developing highly-scalable middleware/backend systems, to empower many applications. These applications include but not limited to email, sports, local search and web portal for mobile operators.
Mr. Chan graduated from University of Toronto with a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Sciences.
Stefan Zivkovic
AI Developer
Matthew Baxter
Data Scientist
Matthew Baxter is a data scientist with years experience developing and applying machine learning models to real world problems at Evntl. Matthew holds a PhD and MSc in physics from York University and a HBSc in mathematics and physics from the University of Toronto.
Yaxin Li
AI Scientist
Yaxin has been working with advanced AI models for language processing and generation since joining EVNTL. Yaxin obtained her Masters Degree in Computer Science from University of Windsor for work done in semantic text interpretation and word representations as well as a Masters Degree from Central University for Finance and Economics in Beijing.
Vincent Ng
Senior iOS Developer
Vincent Ng is a senior iOS developer at ICARO Media Group. With a passion for coding, he has been developing useful iOS and Android smartphone applications for well over a decade since smartphones began working their way around the world. He graduated with a bachelor’s of applied science degree in materials science at the University of Toronto.
Jason Frangos
QA Manager
Mr. Frangos oversees quality assurance for all applications within the ICARO product suite while ensuring high standards of quality control are met. He is part of every level of the development lifecycle, ranging from planning to the final phase of deploying & maintaining a production-ready application.
Jason has 8 years of experience in managing projects and has been involved in planning, implementation, assessment, reporting and quality improvement on several live (in use) desktop & mobile applications. Previously he served as Quality Assurance manager for EVNTL. Prior to his tenure at EVNTL, Mr. Frangos held positions focused on QA / Data analysis for GiveMeSport and Breaking Data Corporation. Jason holds an advanced diploma in Business Administration, Management and Operations from George Brown College.
Junyu Jian
Data Scientist
JunYu Jian joined EVNTL in 2019 as a researcher and developer of Machine Learning and Deep Learning. His working experience focuses on NLP (natural language processing).
JunYu graduated from Concordia University with a master’s degree in engineering, where the research thesis topic is about remote awareness visualization and event detection.
Lucas Carvalho
Full Stack Developer
Driven and versatile systems analyst with over 14 years of dedicated service in management and network administration.
Danae Stephan
Content Operations Manager
Danae is responsible for coordinating ICARO’s content curation team and overseeing partnerships with Brazilian content creators.
A media professional with over 30 years of experience in the Brazilian publishing market, she has worked for major publishers such as Abril, Globo and Symbol, as well as leading national newspapers such as Folha de S.Paulo, where she served as a reporter, producer and editor.
In the last decade she has specialized in digital content, having worked as Executive Editor at Glamurama, one of the oldest established digital brands in Brazil, and Amaury Jr. She has also developed branded content projects for major brands such as Hypera, Natura, L’Oréal , OLX and Bradesco.
Danae has extensive experience managing teams both in newsrooms and in special coverage such as SPFW Journal, a newspaper produced during São Paulo Fashion Week shows, in which she has led teams of over 60 people. She has also led coverage of New Year’s Eve, Brazilian Carnival and special events covered by Glamurama.
Danae studied journalism at Faculdade Casper Líbero and is currently pursuing Portuguese-English Language studies at Faculdade Braz Cubas.
Verrô Campos
Senior Editor
Mrs. Veronica Campos (Verrô) is responsible for digital content curation and partner management for ICARO’s Tim News products. She began her career in fashion marketing, working for four years at Zoomp Confecções (at the time leader in the national jeans market), and participating in the creation group of SPFW, the first international Brazilian fashion week.
As a journalist, she has worked for some of the leading Brazilian media outlets, such as Jornal da Tarde, Glamurama and, more recently, Editora Globo Condé Nast, where she worked as Lifestyle and Reporting Editor at GQ Brasil, the national version of the global title. While at GQ Brasil she was the editor of the magazine’s print and digital versions, preparing content for the title’s social networks, creating the GQ Letras literature podcast and creating branded content projects with other global and national brands.She was also a fashion columnist on the digital platform of Grupo Iguatemi de Shopping Centers, the largest in the field in the country.
Verrô graduated from Escola Superior de Propaganda e Marketing (ESPM ) in São Paulo, where she studied fashion marketing. She later studied photography and journalism, with specialization courses in Paris, at Spèos, for photography, and at FIT, New York, for consumer motivation in fashion.
Yikern Looi
Software Developer, UI/UX Designer
Mr. Looi is a developer and designer with experience working in tech and product teams of different shapes and sizes. He enjoys turning ambitious ideas into applications that delight users and create meaningful business and social impact. In the course of his career, he has taken multiple B2B and B2C applications from inception to launch, always prioritizing simple, responsive designs built upon well-documented, scalable code architecture.
Mr. Looi grew up in Malaysia, and graduated from McMaster University with a Mathematical Sciences degree. He holds a Product Manager certificate from the Product School.
Fatima Rosa
Digital Media Specialist
Fatima is responsible for editing, curating and producing original content for ICARO products in Brazil.
She has consulted for scientific publications in the area of Social Sciences, performing data analysis and research as well as acting as a professor of humanities. She has also worked as a translator of texts into Portuguese and Spanish for various academic outlets. She has expert experience in the areas of Sociology, Anthropology and Media, with specialization in Social Theory, Cinematographic Analysis and Semiotics and Urban Sociology.
Fatima graduated in History, with both Masters and Doctorate degrees in Social Sciences from UNISINOS (Brazil). During her doctoral research, she developed research on the relationship between media and violence, carrying out a period of studies in the doctorate in Social Communication at the Autonomous Metropolitan University of Mexico (UAM-Xochimilco).
Mateus Caceraghi
Digital Media Specialist
Mateus has experience in the creation, strategy and planning of campaigns and content geared towards the digital, whether through social networks or from web platforms such as portals and Progressive Web Apps.
He holds a BA in Advertising and Marketing from Instituto Unisalesiano, in Lins, São Paulo, as well as graduating with a degree in Gastronomy from culinary school Senac de Águas de São Pedro
Lucas Vieira
Videographer
In addition to creating original video content for ICARO’s Brazilian products, Lucas has experience in the areas of event and cultural production, as well as managing marketing and social networks.
Lucas holds a BA in Social Communication, with specialization in Publicity and Propaganda, by the Adventist University Center of São Paulo.
