|
|
Paul Finster has more than twenty years of
international software product development experience. He is an accomplished
technology executive with extensive knowledge of interactive TV (ITV),
Internet technologies, e-commerce, electronic publishing, and software
application development.
Most recently Mr. Finster has been a part of the world class Ericsson video division where he has been leading the sales, strategy and development planning for Ericsson's OTT offerings.
finished ITV related consulting projects with Yahoo! and Hillcrest Communications.
Both these projects were related to intellectual property reviews and
deployment strategy of proposed technology deployments.
Mr. Finster has just
finished ITV related consulting projects with Yahoo! and Hillcrest Communications.
Both these projects were related to intellectual property reviews and
deployment strategy of proposed technology deployments.
As Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of GIST Communications, Paul Finster
spearheaded the release of five international ITV products including the
world's first interactive TV magazine and the first multi-language EPG on top
of the DVB-MHP specification. The interactive TV magazine was deployed on
over 8 million set-top receivers including the nation's second largest satellite
operator EchoStar and Charter Communication's nationwide digital cable
service.
Most recently, Mr. Finster was leading the development effort for a next
generation EPG/DVR on top of Motorola's latest set-top receiver. The EPG and
DVR product will be sold retail for Shaw Communication's StarChoice satellite
system. Mr. Finster also led the development of the world's largest network
of TV Listings Web sites which included registering 5 million new users in
just over two years. The network of Web sites used technology based on
Gist.com which was named the Internet's "Best Online TV Listings
Guide" by Entertainment Weekly, the winner of a prestigious Webby award
for Best Internet TV Site, and one of the Web's top 50 sites by both ZDNet
and Yahoo! Internet Life.
Mr. Finster oversaw product engineering and partnership developments with
Motorola, OpenTV, Sun, Vulcan Ventures, MSN, Yahoo!, HP, LookSmart, ABC.com,
Hollywood.com, CNN, Palm, IMDB and others.
Mr. Finster is named as the lead inventor on nine patents pending related to
the enhancement of EPGs, DVRs and VOD guides. Prior to his work in ITV
products, Mr. Finster worked in the emerging Internet commerce sector as
Director of Product Management at InterWorld Corporation. Mr. Finster was
responsible for the overall product roadmap, the definition of key Internet
technologies and architectures, and requirements for InterWorld's suite of
leading Internet commerce software products and technology platforms. In
1997, Network Magazine awarded his product, Commerce Exchange, its product of
the year and in 1999 InterWorld completed its NASDAQ IPO.
Mr. Finster has also held development management positions at Thomson
Professional Publishing, where he developed a product competitive to
Lexis-Nexis, and was a technical architect at Times Mirror, where he
developed a proprietary product competitive with Open Market's Folio. Mr.
Finster was the lead developer on OVID Technology's bibliographic full text
search and retrieval engine. This engine fueled the growth of OVID and
set the stage for their NASDAQ IPO in 1994. Mr. Finster started his
career working as a software engineer for MyData Automation AB in Stockholm, Sweden.
Mr. Finster earned his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University
in 1990 and his M.S. in Information Systems from New York University's
Stern School of Business in 1998.
|
|
|
|
Dave Ekhaus has spent the last 20 years as a professional software developer. He started his career as a software engineer for Eastman Kodak in Rochester, New York, working on several high profile projects including PhotoCDT, and Kodak Color Management Systems. An interest in working in a more entrepreneurial environment led Mr. Ekhaus to leave Kodak and join several smaller companies, where he quickly became fascinated with databases and the possibility of generating dynamic personalized publications for consumers. During this period, Mr. Ekhaus served as Chief Software Architect for Gist Communications, an early innovator in online TV listings.
Following Gist, Mr. Ekhaus joined Slingmedia, helping add innovative functionality to the ground-breaking Sling software, including an Electronic Program Guide as well as innovative real-time character analysis of textual content within video streams.
Mr. Ekhaus left Slingmedia in early 2008 and later joined Channel Islands, bringing to bear his unique skill set to build our range of solftware solutions. Adding value to the end-user customer experience is what drives Dave's passion for developing truly unique solutions to difficult problems.
Mr. Ekhaus earned his B.A. in Computer Science from State University at Buffalo
in 1988 and completed significant graduate work at SUNY.
|
|
