INETCO’s Advisors

Salvatore Visca, Chief Technology Officer of Elastic Path

Sal Visca is a Principal Consultant for “Software CTO Inc”, a consultancy providing technology strategy and architecture advisory services.  Currently, he serves as Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Elastic Path Software after several years as CTO for SAP’s Technology Development division and CTO at Business Objects prior to the acquisition by SAP.  Previously,  Mr. Visca was the CTO and Co-President of Infowave Software as well as being with IBM for 12 years where he was Software Development Executive for e-business solutions.  

Mr. Visca has a proven track record for developing product and technology roadmaps, understanding emerging markets and technologies, conceiving, designing, testing and bringing to market new customer-oriented products and solutions. Mr. Visca has over twenty-three years of intensive software development experience with specific emphasis on creating long-term product and technology strategies. 

Dr. Faouzi Kossentini, President & CEO of eBrisk Video Inc.

Since 2009, Dr. Kossentini has served as the President and CEO of eBrisk Video Inc., a Canadian company that specializes in the area of H.265-based video communications.  Prior to eBrisk, Dr. Kossentini was the Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of UB Video, the world-wide leader in H.264 video encoding technology.  UB Video was acquired by Cisco in February 2006, and Dr. Kossentini became the Director of Technology, Encoder Products, for the Digital Media Networks, Service Provider Video Technology Group of Cisco from 2006 to 2008.

From 1996 to 2003, Dr. Kossentini was an assistant professor and an associate professor at the department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of British Columbia, doing research in the areas of signal processing, communications and multimedia. From 1994 to 1995, Dr. Kossentini had been a Research Scientist at Nichols Research Corporation, which develops technology solutions for NASA and the US Department of Defense.  

Dr. Kossentini is a senior member of the IEEE and has co-authored more than 200 journal papers, conference papers, book chapters and popular technical whitepapers. He has also led numerous international ISO and ITU-T activities involving the standardization of JBIG-2, JPEG-2000, H.263 and H.264. He holds B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees from the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta.

Dr. Charles “Buck” Krasic, Google Inc. (YouTube)

Dr. Charles ‘Buck’ Krasic received his Ph.D in computer science from the OGI School of Science & Engineering at OHSU.  He also completed his Masters in Math (1996) and Bachelors Degree in Math (1992) from the University of Waterloo. 

Dr. Krasic works on large scale processing of video at YouTube.  Prior to YouTube, he was a professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of British Columbia (2003-2010).  His research interests include multimedia, operating systems, networking, and distributed systems.  As part of his research, he developed "QStream", an advanced quality-adaptive video streaming system.  His earlier experience in industry includes positions with digitalmercury.com, Tektronix/VideoTele.com, SHL SystemHouse, Nortel, MPR Teltech, and Cognos.

Dr. Michael Blackstock, CTO of Sense Tecnic Systems Inc.

Dr. Michael Blackstock, PhD, is a veteran technology leader specializing in enterprise middleware for wireless and pervasive computing.  He is currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Media and Graphics Interdisciplinary Centre (MAGIC) at the University of British Columbia and CTO of Sense Tecnic Systems Inc. developing web-based platforms for sensing and sustainability.

Previously, he was a co-founder and CTO of Colligo Networks, Inc., a leading provider of peer-to-peer wireless productivity software designed for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth (tm) enabled notebooks, Tablet PCs, and handhelds. Before founding Colligo, Michael was the Vice President of Research and Development for Infowave Software, Inc., a global provider of software that connects enterprise applications to wireless devices. In 1994, he was hailed as one of the top '40 under 40' young entrepreneurs in British Columbia.

Michael holds a Bachelors of Applied Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of British Columbia, a Masters Degree in Computer Science from Simon Fraser University and a PhD in Computer Science from UBC.

Touraj Parang

Touraj Parang is a Silicon Valley based technology entrepreneur with a decade of experience in building high tech ventures and launching products globally. Most recently, he was the Founder and COO of JAXTR, a consumer Internet and mobile service where he was the driving force behind the rapid viral growth of the service to over 10 million registered users worldwide. As a former corporate attorney and venture capitalist, Touraj has had Board-level involvement with over 50 technology and life science companies since 1999. He is an angel investor and advisor to several start-ups in US and Canada in the areas of fundraising, team building, product strategy and viral marketing. Touraj holds a J.D. from Yale Law School and degrees in Philosophy and Economics from Stanford University.

Scott F. Brown, President and CEO of Franklin O’Hara Holdings Ltd.

Scott is President and Chief Executive Officer of Franklin O'Hara Holdings Ltd., a wealth management firm in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Franklin O'Hara Holdings Ltd. is focused on providing investor advisory services and management solutions to industry sectors including information technology, municipal, provincial and federal governments, financial industry and real estate.

In addition to being an accomplished angel investor, Scott is a technology industry veteran with more than 25 years, sales, marketing and management experience.

Prior to starting Franklin O'Hara Holdings Ltd., Scott was the Director of Global Accounts with Nortel Networks. He worked with CB Richard Ellis, one of the world's largest Commercial Real Estate firms, providing investment sales and leasing advisory. Scott has also worked with PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, acting as an independent contractor focusing on sales, relationship management and business development. Scott was an investor in, and acted as Vice President Sales, for Wildfire Canada Inc., a voice recognition technology firm that was sold to an international telecom utility.

Scott has various interests including architecture and project management. He designed and built an award-winning residential project in 2003-04. Scott is an art collector and enjoys both travel and golf.