iGrabber Team
Khurrum Shakir
Founder
Khurrum Shakir is a creative, strategic minded entrepreneur with experience in business development, marketing, finance, operations and general management. His 15+ years of professional experience has included ecommerce, business development, finance, portfolio management, growing a company and negotiating its buyout for a profit. His vision for iGrabber is based on his combined experience in Internet-based commerce, strategic partnership creation & management and product development. He has managed projects and strategic partnerships for GrabMedia, AOL and has held finance and operational roles with Trilegiant and GE Corporate Financial Services. He is a graduate of the University of New Haven.
Abdul-Malik Ahmad
Chief UI Developer / Designer
A. Malik Ahmad has over 12 years of development of web and multimedia applications and expertise in interactive media and UI development. He has a solid understanding of development for websites
both large and small. He has developed websites for government, corporate and non-profit organizations - making use of advance knowledge of programming, user interface design and experience with content managment systems (CMS) such as Wordpress, Joomla, Plone, DotNetNuke and others. In addition to being able to write and edit code (CSS, Javascript, jQuer, Flash), Ahmad has a strong background in design and has extensive knowledge of Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, Final Cut Pro, Cinema 4D and other design, mulitmedia and 3D authoring tools. He has also also composed, edited and produced music for the internationally recognized music artists. He is a graduate of Georgetown University.
Deepak Pillai
Chief Software Architect-Developer
Deepak U Pillai carries a wide range of experience in working with small to large sized teams in varying roles and was always passionate about design of Windows, Web and Service oriented applications/products from High to Low level. In his 11 years of IT career he worked with many complex projects in mentoring teams for architecture design, development, maintenance, deployments, production assistance of high volume web and e-com applications using Microsoft Technologies. He is a Computer Science Engineering graduate from Bharathidasan University, India.
When not in front of his computer, Deepak likes to hike a trail or meditate and do some yoga.
Ronald Fraser
Chief Engineer
Ronald Fraser is experienced in systems engineering and systems administration. He has a BS in Information Technology and a Masters in Information Systems coupled with 15 years professional experience in both large and small corporate environments. As a former member of the Univision Communications management team, Ronald played an instrumental role in the sale of Univision Music focusing on collaborating with IT teams from both companies and leading the Univision Music IT division through the sale.
Phil Howard, MBA
Director of Operations and Sales
Phil Howard has over 17 years of experience working in the financial services
industry. He’s held positions with American Skandia in Sales, Operations and
Key Accounts when the company was thriving with product innovation and
leading the industry in variable annuity sales. Phil also spent 12 years with AXA
Equitable’s wholesale division working in an operational capacity to help the
company increase sales at record levels and helped improve service standards,
which led to a better customer experience. Phil received both his undergraduate
and graduate degrees from Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, CT.
Mentoring Board of Advisors:
Brian Heller
Mr. Heller has 15 years of experience in Digital Media (both b2b and b2c). He successfully helped sell his last company (GlobalSpec, a private equity owned b2b website) for $135mm. As SVP Corporate Development & Business Development for GlobalSpec, he was responsible for all their M&A and strategic commercial deals. Prior to that, he worked for AOL for 12 years, including as VP Business Development and as Assistant General Counsel.
As VP Business Development at AOL, he managed a team of 13 people that supported all transactions for all of AOL's web content properties, closing over 400 deals per year for over 75 different websites & brands. As Assistant General Counsel at AOL, he managed team of 6 attorneys and 4 paralegals responsible for negotiating and drafting all advertising, eCommerce and search related transactions, worth approximately $1 billion in annual revenue. Prior to AOL, he worked for two well respected law firms (Shearman & Sterling in NYC, and Akin Gump in DC).
He has an MBA from the University of Michigan and a JD from Boston University. Mr. Heller currently owns his own digital media consulting firm, BH Media LLC.
Jim Howard
Jim Howard is multi-talented and a results oriented human resources professional with an extensive background in a variety of organizational disciplines in both the private and public sector. Jim is a seasoned executive with a wealth of experiences in several Fortune 500 companies. He has held key management roles where he has earned a reputation for being a tough and fair minded professional. His achievements include successful implementations of several major human resources programs and systems. Jim has the ability to make sound business decisions and gain management trust and cooperation on strategic talent management initiatives.
Jim began his career as a technical recruiter for Sales and Field Service with Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). He became the lead recruiter and directed the activities of a 10 member national recruiting team. Jim left DEC for Xerox Corporation where he spent 9 productive years in leadership roles within the Staffing/Human Resources function. After a short stint with Citibank in New York as Vice President of Personnel for Card Services, he returned to the high tech industry with Apple Computer in Silicon Valley. He was recruited away from Apple by Oracle Corporation to head the human resources function for the Americas, Sales Division. After 4 years, Jim was contacted by an executive search firm representing Bank of America, Charlotte, North Carolina and Jim became a Senior Vice President, Human Resources for the Information Technology Group where he led a diverse human resources function. After 5 years, Jim left corporate America to become an independent human resources consultant. Jim has spent the past 10 years consulting and recruiting for private companies and the public sectors.
Jim attended Northeastern University and received his bachelorette degree in Business Administration. Among his many accomplishments he is most proud of achieving the Man of the Year Award from the City of San Francisco. Jim has also taught at Cal State University, Sacramento School of Continuing Education. He is certified in several career development assessment tools, out placement, and diversity awareness and negotiation skills. Jim currently resides in Northern California and travels as needed to serve the national/international market place.
Shafiq Khan
Mr. Khan is responsible for leading Marriott’s eCommerce initiatives. These include Marriott.com, which ranks among the top ten retail sites in the world with gross sales of over $7 B in 2011; Marriott’s participation and relationships with all online channels including Expedia, Priceline Travelocity, Orbitz; all global distribution systems (GDS) including Sabre, Galileo/Worldspan, Amadeus; and the emerging online travel intermediaries which include search engines such as Google and Yahoo and meta-search engines such as Kayak.
Previously, Shafiq was at US Airways, where he pioneered a series of groundbreaking initiatives which fundamentally restructured airline distribution. These include the development and launch of the airline industry’s first online booking product, Priority TravelWorks; electronic ticketing; and various distribution channel re-engineering projects for the corporate marketplace.
Shafiq’s prior background includes assignments at United Airlines in marketing; management consulting with Booz Allen & Hamilton International; marketing and sales assignments with Pakistan International Airlines, in Pakistan and in France. His academic background includes an MBA from the Harvard Business School and an economics degree from the Punjab University in Lahore, Pakistan. Shafiq is currently on the boards of the American Foundation for the Blind, Roomkey.com, the Montgomery County Muslim Council and Foundation. His prior board assignments include the Airline Reporting Corporation and the Harvard Business School Club of Washington D.C.