Kumud Kalia

Kumud Kalia has held technology executive positions internationally within energy, telecom and financial services. He currently leads the award-winning technology team at Direct Energy as CIO & EVP Customer Operations. Kumud has a long history of working with technology startups, either as customer, investor or advisor, and has acted as an independent advisor to private equity and venture funds. An acknowledged business technology leader, he was named in 2008 by Computerworld as 'best in class' among its 100 Premier IT Leaders.

Kumud received his BSc in Electronic Engineering from the University of Bangor in Wales. A chartered engineer, he is Fellow of both the Institution of Engineering & Technology and the British Computer Society.

Lorne Hinz

Lorne has over 35 years of experience in telecommunications, and technology development leadership. Prior to working with Damaka, Lorne had taken on leardership roles at BNR/Nortel in various organizations such as DMS Data Marketing, Sprint Development and Data/ISDN Loop Transmission Systems. Lorne held a position as a VP Global Carrier R&D with responsibility for all Switching R&D for long distance customers such as AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint. His 10 years as an R&D VP included leadership of the following divisions: "UMTS / GSM Voice Core", "Wireless Packet Core", and "Systemic Carrier Grade R&D".

Lorne's other leadership roles included several years as Chairman of TxTEC, Texas Telecommunications Engineering Consortium, and he is currently a co-chair of the UTD (University of Texas at Dallas) Telecom Industrial Advisory Board.

Lorne has 8 Canadian and US patents. He earned his Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Saskatchewan and his Executive Leadership Development Certificate from Boston University.

Dr. Prakash Ranka

Dr. Prakash Ranka is the Chief Medical Advisor for Damaka, Inc and a strong proponent of the use and development of technology to enhance patient care services.

Prior to joining Damaka, Dr. Ranka was a practicing physician in the field of Obstetrics and Gynecology for over 28 years in New Mexico. Along with his physician responsibilities, Dr. Ranka has served as the Chief of Surgery, Chief of the Medical Staff, Member of the Board of Trustees and Member of the Executive Committee for Lea Regional Medical Center at various points in his career. He was also appointed by the Governor of New Mexico to serve on the Medical Licensing Board for the state from 2003 - 2007 and acted as the Vice-Chairman of the Board.

His professional career path has led him into private practice where he grew and developed his individual practice and transformed it into a multi-million dollar group practice, which was eventually sold to Triad Hospital. Additionally, he plays an active role in real estate development and financing and has been involved in various technology startup companies.

He has served on the community Board of Trustees for Wells Fargo Bank, Board of Directors for the Palmer Drug Abuse Center, and Board of Trustees for University of the Southwest in Hobbs, New Mexico.

Dr. Ranka is a Fellow of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Diplomat for the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and has an MD from G.S. Medical College in Mumbai, India.

Nanoo Patel

Nanoo Patel has over two decades of experience in Real Estate Development and Property Management and is a registered real estate broker with the State of Texas. He is the President of Sarna Development Corporation and has managed over $16 Million worth of commercial and residential properties. He has undertaken construction of multi-million dollar worth of single family homes.

Nanoo Patel's entrepreneurial career started during early 1980s when he formed Desna Corporation that researched, developed, manufactured and distributed air freshener products to the retail trade in USA and Canada. After growing the company to $4.5 million in revenue, Nanoo sold Desna in mid-80s to pursue his other interests in the field of Real Estates.

He began his professional career as a Research Engineer at the U.S. Borax Corporation heading up a pilot program that resulted in a multi-million dollar cost reduction for the corporation.

Nanoo has two process patents to his credit. He has Masters Degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Southern California where he was a DuPont Scholar. He has Bachelors of Science Degree in Chemistry from the University of Bombay, India.