Executive Team
Tom Kalinske
CEO
Tom Kalinske joined cFares in March of 2008as CEO. Tom is excited to be part of an organization that solves a big consumer problem, namely finding the lowest cost airfare every time, and helping consumers with an important part of their lives.

Previously, Tom was CEO of Leapfrog which he helped grow from a small niche company in 1997 to the largest supplier of educational products and software for children in the world. Tom has also been CEO of Knowledge Universe, a diverse company composed of 35 different educational companies involved in helping people of all ages improve their lives. Prior to that, Tom was CEO of Sega Video Games, Matchbox Inc. and Mattel Inc. He has lots of experience building consumer brands and looks forward to helping cFares become the place consumer know to go for the lowest cost travel possible. Tom has six children, has an MBA from the University of Arizona, and a BS from the University of Wisconsin.

Vajid Jafri
Founder/Chairman
Jafri founded cFares to build Travel 3.0 for the internet, that would be the successor technology to the Online Travel Agencies (OLTAs), like Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz etc.; and travel meta search engines like SideStep, Kayak and Mobissimo. The technology creates value for the consumers by bringing wholesale fares that previously have been mostly offline, and a patented technology that allows the consumer to name their price for an airline ticket, having full knowledge of the product before they buy. The technology also delivers value to the airlines by not only eliminating their distribution cost, but to make distribution as a potential revenue generator for the airlines. The technology also helps airlines bring in incremental revenue, and improve their yield on each flight. He is the visionary for the company and brings travel industry expertise to the management team.

Prior to launching cFares, Jafri founded Excambria, Inc., in 1999. Excambria developed a patent pending software solution that allowed users of legacy-based travel distribution systems (Sabre, Galileo, Amadeus etc.) to automatically access content from the web and other internet connected databases, while they work in their native legacy-based environment. The system was used primarily by corporations for their corporate travel purchasing.

He founded Docunet in May 1990 to develop the first SuperATM, a patented ATM machine that books and delivers airline tickets, event tickets, cash and stored value/smart cards. He brought in EDS and Olivetti as investors and partners, and also brought in TicketMaster, Chemical Bank, Bell Atlantic and Visa as Partners. He introduced the first online self service booking engine for booking air, car and hotel reservations, for which he was granted a patent.

Prior to Docunet Jafri co-founded TeleTix in 1986. The Company developed the first self-service airline ticketing machines to be deployed at corporate locations and airports.

Jafri holds an MS in Engineering from Stanford University and a BS in Engineering from Pakistan Engineering University.

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Naren Nath
President
Naren Nath is the President and Chief Operating Officer of cFares, responsible for the overall execution of the company. Prior to cFares, Naren was Executive Vice President of Worldwide Sales and Marketing for Persistent Systems where he oversaw revenue growth from $8 million to over $35 million in three years. Before Persistent, Naren was an angel investor and entrepreneur in Austin, where he built and funded a boutique Custom and Specialty Tours company called GeoPassage. Prior to being an angel investor, Naren was a Senior Vice President at Trilogy Software in Austin, Texas, where he conceived, built and operated Trilogy’s Indirect Division. Subsequently at Trilogy, Naren also directed the company's strategic investments initiative in both start-ups and joint ventures with Fortune 100 companies.

Before Trilogy, Naren ran Product Management and Marketing for Interactive Television (Broadband) at Microsoft, overseeing product marketing initiatives from market research to product launch. He later oversaw the company's efforts to establish Microsoft's technology platform as standard with premier US and international media companies and web sites. In this role, he spear-headed the effort to get content industry support for the launch of Microsoft’s pivotal IE 3.0 release.

Before Microsoft, Naren was a Project Leader in the Hardware Independent Software Division at Unisys, coordinating software teams in the US and India and designing software products for the user-interface authoring tools market.

An alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur, India, where he completed a Bachelors degree with Honors in Computer Science, Naren holds a Masters degree in Computer Science from the University of California at Santa Barbara and an MBA from Stanford University.

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Albert Tsang
Vice President of Engineering

Albert Tsang is the Vice President of Engineering at cFares. Albert is responsible for product strategy and delivery of cFare's unique travel search and membership Internet site. Prior to cFares, Albert was Director of Engineering at Nextance, Inc. where he oversaw product development of Nextance's leading enterprise contract management products for Fortune 500 customers including IBM, Google, Genentech, Sun Microsystems, Halliburton and General Motors. While at Nextance, Albert and his team of engineers instrumentally delivered proposal management to enterprise software, a first in the industry. Prior to Nextance, Albert served in various management roles growing teams in product management and development, professional services, and business development over the past seven years at prominent VC funded startups including Silicon Energy, PowerMarket, and Tacit Software.

Albert originated his entrepreneurial experience developing and bringing new products to market in enterprise software having established his own development and consulting firm. Albert's firm successfully engaged with clients such as Juniper Networks, Philips Semiconductors, Bio-Rad Laboratories, and Chiron Vision.

Prior to running his firm, Albert was a consultant with Ernst and Young Management Consulting, engaging early on his career with well known high tech companies here in Silicon Valley such as AMD, Hewlett Packard, Netscape Communications and Boeing.

Albert holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from the University of California at Berkeley.