Management Team
Michael Epstein (Director, Founder, CEO)
Michael is a pioneer in mobile narrative development and a frequently requested conference speaker. Michael conceived and directed a breakthrough mobile narrative pilot in Venice in conjuction with MIT Sensible Cities Lab, Dell and the Venice Office of Tourism. The project completed in 2005, involved a team of nearly 20 people and was subsequently licensed for use by the Venice Biennale. Michael's work in the mobile narrative field includes a 2002 project with the Freedom Trail Foundation, a 2003 project exploring Boston's Beacon Hill using PBS content, and over a dozen more professionally funded projects. Michael is fluent in four languages, was a reporter on NPR's Morning Edition and the author of two Macromedia books on classroom use of multimedia. Michael holds an M.S. in Comparative Media Studies from MIT.

Ira Hochman (Director, Founder, CTO)
Prior to working with Untravel Media, Mr. Hochman was the founder and CEO of inTouch, a workflow and integrated applications consulting firm with distinguished clientele from the Fortune 1000 and the Massachusetts 100. He has worked on various large-scale software projects, including Palm and GIS applications for organizations such as E-ink and State of Maine and he has held technical leadership roles at Boston Technology (now Comverse), IBM and Oracle. He is a regular speaker at MIT. Mr. Hochman is also a travel fanatic, having crossed the world around. He has two bachelor degrees from MIT (Physics and Computer Science).

Media and Research Team
Silvia Vergani (Market Research Specialist)
Silvia, an avid traveler, first started to investigate the tourism industry in Venice, Italy, where she worked for several years. Here she conducted research on mobile technologies for culture and tourism for the National Council of Research (CNR) and the Center for Studies on Technologies in Distributed Intelligence Systems (TeDIS) at Venice International University. She taught marketing and innovation as an adjunct professor at the Tourism Management course of University of Padova, Italy. She is currently pursuing a Master of Liberal Arts in Management from Harvard University. Silvia joined the Untravel team in 2005 to pilot test its first tour, realized in Venice with MIT, Dell and the Venice Art Biennale. Silvia supervises user studies for Untravel’s clients.

Caitlin Mailly (Graphic Design, UI) Caitlin Mailly is a Syracuse graduate with professional graphic, print, and web design experience. She has worked as a designer to a Connecticut artist, as well as an in-house design department at Ryan Partnership in Wilton, CT. In 2005, she traveled throughout Europe and studied abroad in London for a semester. She is responsible for user interfaces, and designs related to Untravel's web and mobile multimedia productions.

Board and Advisors
Al Noyes (Director)
Al Noyes, an Untravel board member and angel investor, is a seasoned entrepreneur with broad experience in sales and marketing and general management. Through IPOs and private investments he has led or helped lead successful efforts to raise over $100M, and helped return many times this amount to investors. Al is the President of Walch Publishing, a developer and marketer of supplemental educational materials to school districts and teachers.

Sandy Pentland (Advisor) Mr. Pentland is MIT's Toshiba Professor of Media Arts and Science and was formerly the Academic Head of the MIT Media Laboratory. For 15 years he has been developing mobile applications for the tourism industry and has spoken at many prominent conferences. Mr. Pentland was chosen by Newsweek as one of the 100 Americans most likely to shape the next century.

Bard Salmon (Advisor) A market oriented advisor to the company with forty years of general management, sales and marketing experience in information technology. Mr. Salmon advises the company on growth strategy, investment opportunities, and team management. He has performed as senior manager for RealityWave (acquired by AVEVA, 2005) and Brixton Systems (acquired by Network Systems, 2004). He led Laser Plot from a prior loss position to $1M annual profits. Mr. Salom was also General Manager for ComputerVision in mid-eighties. He has also been known to take ice hockey trips up to the northwest territories and live igloo style during his spring breaks.