Our Team

Alex is a visionary leader with a diverse background in marketing. Driven by a passion for connecting brands with audiences, he founded a thriving marketing agency. Inspired to create broader impact, Alex conceived GenieAI—a platform designed to empower ordinary people worldwide by unlocking their potential and creating opportunities to build and make their dreams a reality. With a unique perspective on leadership, Alex embraces constant evolution, viewing change as essential to building a brighter future. His innovative thinking drives him to develop solutions that break barriers and inspire progress on a global scale.

Alex is a visionary and strategic executive leader and seasoned technology executive recognized for his expertise in technology strategy and innovation. With a distinguished career spanning Fortune 50 leadership, global consulting, transformative AI solutions, and doctoral education, he brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to the intersection of business and cutting-edge AI technology. Previously, Alex held key roles at Price Waterhouse (now PricewaterhouseCoopers) and McKinsey & Company, where he honed his ability to drive strategic initiatives and deliver impactful results. His deep expertise lies in bridging advanced AI research with actionable strategies that optimize business operations and empower smarter decision-making. A passionate advocate for innovation, Alex is dedicated to equipping people and organizations to thrive in an AI-driven world. His body of work, including founding multiple startups, reflects a commitment to fostering progress, unlocking potential, and building a future where technology serves as a catalyst for growth and transformation.

As a proven technical leader, I bring decades of experience in architecting and delivering cutting-edge SaaS platforms, AI/ML-driven applications, and scalable cloud-based solutions. My career spans the development of innovative products for industries such as financial services, IoT, healthcare, and gaming, with a strong emphasis on leveraging AI/ML technologies to solve complex challenges and drive business growth.
I have successfully led teams in creating AI/ML-powered applications, including OpenAI-based recruiting tools, AI document ingestion engines, and rules-based workflow systems for finance, logistics, and healthcare. My expertise extends to designing predictive analytics platforms, decision-support systems, and AI models integrated into scalable cloud environments (AWS, Azure). With several patents awarded and pending, I am deeply committed to transforming innovative ideas into impactful, market-ready solutions.
As CTO, I specialize in building and mentoring Agile teams to deliver high-quality, secure, and compliant software, including HIPAA, GDPR, and SOC2-compliant systems. My ability to scale engineering teams, streamline development processes, and lead product innovation has consistently driven exponential growth—such as increasing AUM tenfold to $2B for a trading platform and launching AI-powered SaaS products to new markets with 10x revenue growth.
I thrive in fast-paced startup environments where innovation, technology, and strategy intersect. My passion lies in applying AI/ML and emerging technologies to create transformative solutions that redefine industries and deliver long-term value.

Onkar is a data scientist with expertise in Python, TensorFlow, and PyTorch. His projects at Indiana University and AlgoAnalytics have advanced machine learning models for anomaly detection and facial recognition, enhancing data efficiency. Onkar has also published on image classification and sentiment analysis.

Robel Benyam is a versatile software developer with over seven years of experience in full-stack and frontend development. Proficient in JavaScript, Python, React, and Node.js, he has built scalable web applications, RESTful APIs, and interactive chatbots.

Christian Kassahun is a seasoned technologist and entrepreneur with over 10 years of experience in the tech industry. Starting as a full-stack developer, he advanced to project management and became a serial entrepreneur, successfully founding four tech startups.

William A. Bell Sr. is an American politician who served as the 33rd mayor of Birmingham, Alabama, from 2010 to 2017. He had previously held the office on an interim basis in 1999. Prior to that, he had served several terms on the Birmingham City Council. He is a member of the Democratic Party. Bell was the only mayor in the city's history that brought in over 2 billion dollars of business development for Birmingham and was instrumental in overseeing the renaissance of Birmingham with projects that brought international recognition including the World Games, the Senior Games, Railroad Park, Regions Baseball Field, worked with President Obama and UNESCO in naming Birmingham a World Heritage site and National Park that also recognized Birmingham's Civil Rights History. Bell also led in the development of the Birmingham Sports Crossplex and over $300 million dollars in capital improvements for the Birmingham City School System and the University of Alabama in Birmingham, in spite of coming into office with a $77 million dollar deficit left by the prior administration. He grew the city of Birmingham reserves to over $350 million dollars when he left office.

Hafiz Umer is a skilled machine learning engineer with five years of experience specializing in ML, NLP, and prompt engineering. Proficient in developing intelligent models, fine-tuning language models, and optimizing AI-driven applications, Hafiz Umer has worked on cutting-edge solutions that enhance automation, text generation, and human-computer interactions.

Sam Somashekar is a strategic product executive and leader specializing in AI-driven innovation, SaaS growth, and digital transformation. With over 20 years of experience in enterprise and start-up product management, GTM strategy, and market expansion, Sam helps companies accelerate product-market fit, drive revenue growth, and scale high-performing product teams. Sam has led multi-million-dollar product portfolios across high-tech, financial services / fintech, and healthcare, delivering customer-centric AI solutions, digital SaaS platforms, and market-leading enterprise software. He excels at aligning product strategy with business goals, managing P&Ls, and building teams that execute with speed and precision. Sam has held senior executive roles at startups and global firms such as Forrester, NICE Actimize, and CA Technologies, where he led high-impact product innovation and go-to-market execution. Sam holds a BA in Computer Science & Biology from New York University, is Pragmatic Marketing Certified, and has certifications in Machine Learning & AI Strategy from Duke University. He is a recognized industry thought leader and speaks at many global technology and SaaS events.