Venanzio Cipollitti | CEO of the Inteligensa Group

Venanzio graduated in Electronic Engineering from Simón Bolívar University (Miranda State, Venezuela).  He completed 5 years of postgraduate study in Telecommunications, Finance, Project Management and Marketing. He also earned two diplomas in classical music and regularly attends specialized courses at Harvard University.

He worked 7 years in sales for AT&T, followed by 4 years at Olivetti. He founded “Informática y Telecomunicaciones Integradas – INTELIGEN S.A.” in Caracas in 1987. In 1989 the company began distributing bank cards throughout Latin America, under an agreement with Kirk Plastic of California (purchased by Oberthur, 1997).  In 1995 he founded Inteligensa México and in 1997 Inteligensa Andina in Colombia.

In 2000 he founded Intelcav Cartões in Brazil and in 2006 Inteligensa Do Brasil. 2008 was the turn of Uruguay with the founding of Intelitec and in 2009 that of Costa Rica with Inteligensa Centroamérica. In 2010 he installed a prepaid phone card manufacturing plant in Caracas. In parallel with the above, he also founded bank card Personalization Bureaux in Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela and Colombia, becoming the largest card personalization company in Latin America.

Apart from his business interests, Mr. Cipollitti also has an artistic side. He has graduated from two professional music programs, as a Concert Accordionist and Pianist in Venezuela and as a Concert Accordionist in the USA.

Patrick O’Callaghan | Corporate Director of Technology

Graduated in Applied Mathematics from Queen’s University Belfast, Diploma in Computer Science University of Cambridge, PhD in Computer Engineering Heriot-Watt University Edinburgh.

Was Full Professor in Computer Engineering Department at Universidad Simón Bolívar until retirement. Landmarks include establishing Internet in Venezuela, creating Computer Lab at USB, founding and leading Telematics Services Office at USB, plus supervising students who subsequently obtained doctorates at Stanford, Princeton, Oxford, CMU, Berkeley etc.

Active in consulting work for government and industry, incuding National Electoral Council, Ministry of Planning, UN Development Program, Interamerican Development Bank etc. Co-founded Venenzuela’s first commercial ISP (later sold to national phone company).

Awards include university prize for best teacher, IEE prize (UK) for best publication.

Senior Member of IEEE. Speaks fluent Spanish. Professional interests include networks, data security, operating systems, free and open source software. Hobbies include music, reading, cooking (and eating).

Luis Rios | Corporate Director of Graphic Design

Graduated as Graphic Designer from the Caracas Institute of Design. Has worked as a designer in McCann Erikson on accounts for international customers such as Citibank, Papermate and Nissan.

After joining Inteligensa 15 years ago, worked as a Senior Designer in the company’s Graphic Design Group, known as Inteliseños, which he now heads as Corporate Manager for Cards and Graphic Production. He also shares responsability (with Claret Ortiz) for Manufacturing and Services.

Extensive knowledge of digital pre-press systems, printing technology and bank card production processes. Has taken training courses in Kirk Plastic and Oberthur among others. Very familiar with standards of the major brands (VISA, MasterCard and Amex) both in Latin American and European markets, and has developed projects in countries such as Russia and Holland.

Ricardo Palermo | Corporate Authentication Products Manager

 Ricardo Palermo is a qualified systems analyst with specialized training in Project Management, Software Quality Control, Strategic Management and Information Technology.

He is a Microsoft Qualified Professional and has over 14 years experience in managing IT departments in the IT, pharmaceutical and manufacturing industries, together with 8 years experience in developing RFID solutions and 5 years in Authentication solutions.

Ettore Gaiani | CEO Intelicard

CEO and shareholder of Intelicard, a company of Inteligensa Group.  Italian, BSEI and Master Degree at Polytechnic of Milan.

Prior to Intelicard has been CEO and founder of Latitude Technology, a company engaged in development, manufacturing and sale of GPS  based solutions and market leader in hybrid location technologies that fuse signals from GPS, WiFi and sensors  for  precise outdoor-indoor navigation where GPS signal is inaccurate  or missing.

For several years he has been Vice President at Samsung –the top two worldwide semiconductor manufacturers- where he created the System LSI division in Europe. He developed from scratch new semiconductor product areas as Multimedia Application Processor and Smart Cards.

He brings in Intelicard more than 25 years extensive experience in semiconductors in various roles as marketing, sales and general management and his great passion for smart cards.  Before Samsung he worked for Philips Semiconductor.