Executive Officers

Miguel Payan, 51
Chief Executive Officer and Director

Mr. Payan has more than 25 years of mobility, strategy, technology and executive experience. Mr. Payan previously was a Ford (NYSE: F) Smart Mobility Senior Executive. Ford Smart Mobility is a Palo Alto, California-based company that was formed to design, build, grow and invest in emerging mobility services. At Ford Smart Mobility, Mr. Payan acquired commercial solutions, micro-transit, micro-mobility, and cloud-based software businesses, and created new ones, such as the non-emergency medical transportation business. This organic and inorganic business development grew the mobility portfolio exponentially. Specifically, he was responsible for the acquisition of Spin, a provider of dock-less mobility systems intended to offer station-less electric scooter sharing option. Mr. Payan was also integral in the Ford Mobility investment that enabled ClimaCell (now Tomorro.io) secure $45M in its series B funding. Tomorrow.io is a developer of a hyper-local weather forecasting platform. While at Ford, he also led the acquisition of Autonomic, an open mobility cloud-based platform designed to provide the platform with the necessary building blocks for smart mobility applications and services. The company’s Transportation Mobility Cloud connects the diverse components of today’s urban mobility systems including connected vehicles, mass transit, pedestrians, city infrastructure and service providers with the goal of orchestrating a safer, more efficient and sustainable transportation network by routing self-driving cars, managing large-scale fleets and helping residents plan transit journeys. Mr. Payan also led the Transloc acquisition. Transloc develops transit technologies designed to deliver flexible and micro transit traveling experiences. He also has broad Board of Director experience. He has served on the Board of Advisors for EdgeConneX, a provider of highly proximate, high-powered, purpose-built data centers, prior to the their $3B acquisition by the global private equity firm, EQT. Along with serving as a board member, he has also engaged full time with EdgeConneX to develop its strategy for the far-edge micro-data center play to support autonomous vehicle deployment, as well as to develop its EV charging infrastructure market entry strategy. He also serves on the Board of Advisors for SHIFT5, a cybersecurity and data analytics company that focuses on preventing and resolving bad-actor intrusions in military and commercial vehicles. He also advised on several other companies that were acquired by large conglomerates. He advised on SmartThings, which was acquired by Samsung; Intelligrated which was acquired by Honeywell and Resideo which Honeywell divested from. While at Samsung, he created the ARTIK^™ IoT platform business, which delivers device-to-cloud security for companies to build, develop and manage secure, interoperable, and intelligent IoT products and services for everything from smart homes to high-tech factories. Mr. Payan is a highly insightful strategic and analytical senior executive with international, multi-industry experience, specializing in strategy and strategic planning, digital transformation, program and project management, user engagement, idea commercialization, RPA & continuous improvement, trends analysis, and risk assessment. Beyond the vast experience as detailed above, Mr. Payan’s work experience also includes time at Capital One (NYSE: COF), Honeywell International (NASD: HON), Samsung and McKinsey & Company. He has a proven track record of creating new mission-oriented businesses and successfully taking them to market. Along with serving as a senior-level adviser, providing clients the insights needed to capture opportunities. Finally, he is a dedicated and driven leader who fosters bottom-line impact through innovation and digital customer engagement. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering from The University Illinois and a Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Michigan.

Robert Haywood, 60
Chief Financial Officer and President

Mr. Haywood has more than 35 years of executive, strategy, and consumer experience. Mr. Haywood is well-regarded in the C-suite space having successfully scaled several businesses and led 5 private equity exits via maximizing brand value, consumer centricity, performance management, and data science utilizing advanced analytics to drive profitable growth through innovations in consumer and customer engagement. He has been a strategic team leader with an outstanding record for building strong teams, organizational development, and stakeholder alliances with P&L responsibility ranging from $25M to $3.5B and organizations as large as 800 professionals. Formerly, he led a team as Chief Revenue Officer that acquired CoverGirl and Max Factor for $3.2B. He also led an acquisition team that executed 7 acquisition initiatives including the acquisition of Camay, Zest, Walgreens.com, and Avon with economic values ranging from $14M to $2.5B. He also advised on the launching of a SPAC Legacy Acquisition Corp. (NYSE: LGC) and its $300M IPO. He also led operations of a Private Equity portfolio company as President growing revenue from $30M to +$100M and 40% EBITDA. There he led investment and acquisition of three follow-on acquisitions for ZT Wealth / ZT Corporate which successfully exited to a strategic buyer. While President, he developed dual-go-to-market strategy accelerating customer acquisition +40%. He achieved that through utilizing Advanced Data Analytics to identify and target high need customers and increasing average returns from 1.5x to 4.5x. He also increased the average client contribution from 7 fold. He also recruited a national sales and marketing organization utilizing a strategic combination of internal contract sales organization, and broker organizations. Prior to serving as a President, he was a Vice President of Global Consumer Engagement, Sales and Marketing, Global Marketing at Mattel (NASD: MAT). There, he led global consumer engagement for Mattel Brands, Fisher Price, HIT Entertainment, and American Girl across all consumer spending totaling $1B. He directed development of all consumer activity and touch points in retail and online promotions, TV, digital marketing, social media, content creation and entertainment, live events, and eCommerce. While an executive at Mattel, he rose from VP of International Marketing where he led the development of regional commercial programming, eCommerce and online strategy, digital marketing, insights, TV media, and marketing assets. Then he became VP of Global Marketing where he managed global marketing infrastructure, assets, eCommerce merchandising strategy, SEO merchandising strategy, and social media content localization. Mr. Haywood was Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of EBD Soft, Inc., North America. As CEO, he led the global expansion of the European based web application company. He also launched its US operations by developing a strategic direction to ensure successful global expansion. Specifically, he repositioned the product platform and established consultancy resulting in significant customer acquisitions and +40% of total US revenue. He was also EVP, Global Sales and Business Development for NTR Global. There, he led enterprise sales, global partnerships and strategic alliances for a provider of Cloud based remote support solutions with operations in 61 countries (B2C, B2B, Enterprise). It was acquired by ASG Software. He also expanded global operations, establishing new global accounts and strategic partnerships resulting in an 18% increase in revenue. He was also EVP, Sales-Business Development for Amphire Solutions/ iTradeNetwork, Inc. As EVP, he led marketing, sales, and business development activities for a supply chain solution provider. It was acquired by Accel-KKR. As EVP, he increased monthly transactions 20% to $1B and increased customer acquisition 35% via implementation of new go-to-market strategy and introduction of valued added services. He also developed the Industry’s 1st Foodservice database and negotiated sale to NPD. Mr. Haywood was the former Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Big Foot Giant Tire Company. As CEO he led operations of retail sales and repairs of giant tires for large equipment servicing the construction and mining industries. He also negotiated an exit to a strategic buyer achieving targeted investor return. He also led acquisition of new customers including Fortune 500 industry leaders including Kiewit Corporation and Michelin Tires increasing revenue +260%. Mr. Haywood was also the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) ClearPath Technology. At ClearPath, he led development of the business model, product functionality, and marketing plan of the SaaS provider of Cloud Based Big Data Analytics and Business Intelligence for the FMCG/CPG industry. The system provided advanced analytics for marketing mix optimization, ROI contribution, insights, and resource allocation and planning. He also negotiated exit to a strategic partner. He was a Vice President and Managing Director at AC NIELSEN (NYSE: NLSN) where he led all sales, marketing, and consulting services efforts in ACNielsen’s Western Area. There he spearheaded product development / customization and the identification of strategies to market ACNielsen syndicated products and software applications to retailers and manufacturers in marketing, sales, trade marketing, and marketing research functions to address client business issues. He also was a Vice President for Marketing & Sales at Upper Deck. There he was responsible for all marketing, sales, and merchandising efforts, while also repositioning the brand and category while increasing sales and profits by over 150% and distribution into 700 new outlets. Mr. Haywood has broad management experience from his time as a Brand Manager at Quaker Oats and Kraft Foods, where he led all customer, consumer, trade marketing efforts. Mr. Haywood also played in the National Football League for the Philadelphia Eagles and USFL for the Philadelphia Stars. He also serves on the Board of Advisors for Corsa System, a Silicon Valley, CA based leading provider of SSL/TLS encrypted data inspection services for high capacity networks delivered as a private cloud service. Mr. Haywood received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Princeton University and Masters in Business Administration from the University of Chicago, Booth Graduate School of Business.

Board of Directors

Leighton Carroll, 51
Director Nominee

Mr. Carroll has more than 25 years of technology experience including leading the development of wireless networks, engineering, and software companies. Mr. Carroll is the President of QuadGen Wireless Solutions, Inc., a national telecommunications services engineering firm. Under Mr. Carroll’s leadership, since joining in 2016, the business has seen significant growth through customer and service diversification, most recently obtaining back-to-back growth rates in excess of 30% annually. Prior to QuadGen Wireless, Mr. Carroll was the Chief Executive Officer of Squan Holdings where he transformed a NY metro wireless construction firm into a wireless and transport engineering and delivery company with 11 offices in 10 states. Mr. Carroll is also the former CEO of WMS where he grew the private equity backed business from $3 million in revenue to $100 million in 3 years through both organic and inorganic growth including international expansion. Before serving as the CEO of WMS, Mr. Carroll was a Merger and Integration executive for AT&T (NYSE: T). While there, he was part of the team that most recently completed the Cricket and Alltel acquisitions which included the launch of the New Cricket brand nationally. Other notable AT&T accomplishments included seeing AT&T win the JD Powers award as an executive leader during the customer service transformation, leading the country in attainment as a VP-GM and representing the company worldwide while running international operations for wireless technology. Mr. Carroll graduated from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech). He also has an executive education from Harvard Business School, the Wharton Business School and the MIT Sloan School of Business.

Michael Pietropola, 59
Director Nominee

Mr. Pietropola has more than 37 years of experience in the technology and telecommunications industry. Mr. Pietropola is the President of Pietropola Consulting LLC. Most recently, he stepped down as a four-year Board of Directors member of InSite Wireless Group following its $3.5 billion acquisition by American Tower (NYSE: AMT) in December 2020. Prior to joining the board of InSite, Mr. Pietropola was an executive at AT&T (NYSE:T). There, Mr. Pietropola was the Vice President of Construction and Engineering for the Southeast region. As a regional Vice President, he was responsible for an annual budget in excess of $3 billion dollars. That budget focused on the deployment of the wireless and wireline outside infrastructure. Mr. Pietropola held the title of Vice President of Network Service until Cingular became AT&T after Southwestern Bell acquired Bellsouth in 2007. He held senior positions overseeing the core network design and implementation in preparation for the first iPhone launch and subsequent exponential growth of the new generation smart phones. Mr. Pietropola played an integral role in the creation of Cingular Wireless—a joint venture between BellSouth and Southwestern Bell wireless companies. He helped build a world-class wireless network operations organization and oversaw the development of standards and policies to ensure consistent practices throughout the nationwide network. He was one of two board members representing Cingular in a joint venture between Cingular and T-Mobile, which combined network operations in California and New York City from 2001 until the deal was absolved in 2004. He also served as a special advisor for Pensare Acquisition Corporation, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) that completed the business combination of American Virtual Cloud Technologies (NASDAQ: AVCT). Mr. Pietropola graduated from Swanson School of Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh. He sits on the visiting executive committee for the Swanson School at the University of Pittsburgh.    In 2016, the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh honored him with its distinguished alumni award.

Garnet S. Heraman, 56
Director Nominee

Mr. Heraman has over 25 years of experience as a multistage investor at the intersection of innovation, diversity and technology. Currently, Mr. Heraman is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Aperture VC, a $100M fintech and diversity fund backed by Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) Truist (NYSE: TFC), PayPal (NASDAQ: PYPL) and FIS (NYSE: FIS). He is also Chairman of FUEL OZ.Capital, an opportunity zone sponsor building an e-sports innovation center in Atlanta, GA. Previously, he was a Co-Founder of Aegis Investment Partners, a private equity group specializing in growth capital for Corporate Venture Capital deals. He is an investor or board member of numerous ventures including: Iryss Financial, Gather Voices, Gizer.io, Empyreal Logistics, GivKwik, Candy Lab AR, Dynepic, playPORTAL, Makomi and Biba. He also is Chairman of the mission-driven ecommerce company, Karina Dresses. Mr. Heraman’s non-profit work includes the Brookings Institute (business roundtable advisor); the Columbia Venture Community; TiE New York, where he was a founding board member (1999-2001); The CORO Foundation, which named him to their prestigious Leadership New York Program (2000-1) and; Rhizome.org, the world’s first digital art space on the web (1996). He received a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Columbia University, Masters of Science in Econometrics from the London School of Economics and a Masters in Business Administration from the NYU Stern School of Business.