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Who's Who: Checking in with Hamed Shahbazi

Not quite 30 years old, Hamed Shahbazi has used his powers as chairman and CEO to take Info Touch Technologies Corp. light-years into the future.

April 18, 2004

Fortune 50 companies are downright eager to do business with Hamed Shahbazi, chairman and CEO of Info Touch Technologies Corp.

In his seven short years at the helm of the kiosk security and management software solutions provider, Info Touch-a Burnaby, B.C., public company-has struck gold with some of the nation's corporate Goliaths.

The company's latest coup came this month when Exxon Mobil Corp. tapped Info Touch to deploy and manage 41 touchscreen kiosk terminals in Tiger Market C-stores in Memphis, Tenn. Fortune magazine recently listed Exxon Mobil as the most profitable company on its `500' list and second in revenues with $213.2 billion. (Wal-Mart was tops.)

Last fall, Fortune's No. 7 largest company, ConocoPhillips ($99.5 billion in revenues), partnered with Info Touch to develop the world's first Internet-enabled lottery kiosk for testing at California Circle K stores.

Last but not least, Hewlett-Packard (No. 11 on the list with $73.1 billion in revenues) owns a 14-percent stake in Info Touch and works jointly with it on various projects, including the Exxon Mobil contract. HP provides the computer hardware.

Under Shahbazi's leadership, Info Touch has been recognized as one of the top 50 Canadian technology growth companies with the Deloitte & Touche Fast 50 Award based on calculated five-year revenue growth percentage (1997-2001).

In addition, Info Touch has been honored with the PROFIT 100 Award by PROFIT Magazine and ranked No. 49 on the magazine's 100 List based on its percentage of sales growth of 1,367 percent over the past five years (1997-2002).

Info Touch's primary focus is in the petroleum industry/retail convenience store sector. Its kiosks offer a wide variety of financial transactions to customers who have no (or minimal) banking services available to them. Customers pay a fee for such e-services as bill payment (using cash and credit cards), wireless (Wi-Fi) access, money transfer and money order purchasing. The service provides an important revenue stream to retailers.

"There are 160,000 convenience stores in the United States representing $280 billion in revenues," Shahbazi said. "This is the most important growth area for our company."

Shahbazi's vision sets tone for company's success

Info Touch colleagues credit Shahbazi for forming the vision that has made the company so successful.

Chris Ericksen describes his boss as a "wily thinker" who guides his 45-person staff to greater heights and spreads the credit around equally when the company secures a new piece of business.

"Hamed believes in surrounding yourself with people who'll add fuel to your own fire," said Ericksen, Info Touch's senior vice president of monetization.

"I'd call him the father of `value given-value received' in our industry," added Joseph Nakhla, Info Touch's executive vice president of distribution.

The compliments also come from a Hewlett-Packard colleague.

"Hamed has an innate drive to succeed," said Steven Bellinghausen, marketing manager of the Retail Solutions Group for HP. "No doesn't mean `no,' it just means `not yet.' He has a vision and he drives his team toward it."

This type of kudos might make many business executives cluck with smug satisfaction. Yet Shahbazi, who is five months shy of his 30th birthday, seems humble.

Shahbazi, the 29-year-old wunderkind of Info Touch Technol-ogies, speaks at Kioskcom.

He said he gets immense pleasure working with a talented executive team and forming business deals with corporate giants. But he gets equal enjoyment out of helping the low-income customer with modest means but who still needs electronic services.

`We are trying to empower our customers'

Shahbazi said many customers who use Info Touch's kiosks previously had to take the bus to pay their bills and conduct other financial transactions. "We are trying to empower our customers with convenience and accessibility to e-services. Helping them is what I live for."

To understand that sense of commitment, one needs to rewind to Shahbazi's college days, when he worked hard for UNICEF and focused on helping children around the world attain educational opportunities. In 1996/7, he was nominated for volunteer of the year by the UNICEF organization in British Columbia.

By the time he had graduated in 1997 with a civil engineering degree from the University of British Columbia, he had already put in two years at the Info Touch organization. That same year, still in his early 20s, he co-founded Info Touch Technologies Corp. by helping to acquire the predecessor company and building a solid track record of customer service and profitability through product innovation.

Bellinghausen said HP is very pleased with the appreciation of its stock holdings in Info Touch.

On March 25, Info Touch (TSX Venture: IFT) announced results for the second quarter ended January 31, 2004. Revenue increased 75 percent to $1,605,526 with a net profit of $12,937 compared to revenue of $916,579, and a profit of $9,173 one year ago. Revenue for the 6-month period increased 96 percent to $3,146,617 with a net profit of $77,878, compared to revenue of $1,601,401 and a loss of $53,312 one year ago.)

Shahbazi said the company's goal for the next five years is "to become a well-known leader in convenient access to personal finances."

"We've stopped being a vendor and started being an operator, and proven we have sustainability," he said.

[Editor's note: Info Touch Technologies became Tio Networks in April 2006.]