About Us
Today we have a growing team of more than 25 people that spans Spain, Colombia and Mexico.
Management Team
David del Ser. Founder & Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
David del Ser founded Frogtek in 2008 while a student at Columbia Business School, based on a collaboration with Women’s World Banking. David learned his mobile tricks by designing applications in Vodafone’s R&D group in Madrid. Through his role in launching Frogtek, he was named an Echoing Green Fellow in 2009 and a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2011. A total nerd, he holds a dual degree in Telecom Engineering from UPM in Madrid and ENST in Paris and an MBA from Columbia, where he founded Microlumbia, a fund that provides investment and consulting services to microfinance institutions around the world. David now lives in Mexico City where he is very happy despite his morphing accent.
Mark Pedersen. Co-Founder, Colombia Country Manager & VP of Finance
Prior to joining Frogtek Mark was a management consultant for Monitor Group where he worked with leading Fortune 500 companies on a wide range of growth strategy projects in the pharmaceutical, retail, and consumer packaged goods sectors. Mark has also worked in several Latin America countries including Nicaragua where he helped to launch a micro-venture capital fund that invests in early-stage ventures. Mark has an MBA from Columbia Business School, an MA in international development from Columbia University, and a BA from Brown University.
Guillermo Caudevilla. Chief Technology Officer (CTO) & Frogtek Spain Administrator
Prior to joining Frogtek Guillermo worked for over six years in the Research & Development department at Vodafone Group where he was responsible for the design, implementation and deployment of prototypes, technology creation and standards contribution within the Web and mobile browser evolution areas. His expertise includes Web Runtimes, Service-Oriented Architecture, Web Services, Mobile Web Servers, Widgets… In the last years he’s been delving into the study and implementation of Agile Methodologies in a development team like Frogtek. Guillermo has a Masters Degree in Telecommunications Engineering and a Bachelor Degree in Business Science, both at Zaragoza University, Spain.
Marcos Eshkenazi. Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)
Marcos joins Frogtek in 2011 with a full toolbox. He has founded and launched more than 15 businesses such as Digital City, Avizpate.com and Chikabum.com, to name a few. In total Marcos has generated employment for more than 1,500 families throughout his life. He has an obsession with creating businesses that seek to change the status quo and transform people’s lives. Marcos has an MBA from the IPADE School of Business and a Bachelor Degree in Marketing with a specialty in Small Business Management from Monterrey’s Institute of Superior Studies, México State campus.
Yael Schwartzman. VP of Product
Yael is an experienced developer and designer of user-centered information systems who has focused on creating new technology solutions for urban and rural low-income users. Prior to joining Frogtek, Yael worked as a researcher at the University of Washington and UC, Berkeley. She is also the co-founder of DigitalICS, a software company that develops mobile and web-applications to help small agricultural producers achieve organic and fair trade certifications. Yael has an M.Sc. degree in Computer Science & Engineering from the University of Washington with a specialty in Human-Computer Interaction and a B.A. in Computer Science from the University of San Diego.
Board of Advisors
Nancy Barry is currently president of Enterprise Solutions to Poverty (ESP), an organization she founded in September 2006 which mobilizes leading corporations as well as entrepreneurs in emerging markets to build profitable and inclusive growth strategies that engage millions of low-income people. Prior to founding ESP Nancy was president of Women’s World Banking, an organization which became the largest microfinance network in the world under her leadership. Nancy has also held several leadership positions at the World Bank and was named by Forbes as one of the 100 Most Powerful Women in the World,and by US News & World Report as one of America’s 20 Best Leaders. Nancy has an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Peyman Faratin is the Principal Scientist at Strands, where he leads the Innovation unit, and prior to joining Strands Peyman was a research scientist at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence (CSAIL) laboratory. Peyman completed his doctorate at MIT in computer science and has made significant contributions in the area of artificial intelligence, particularly to automated negotiation in multi-agent systems.
Shail Patel was previously Director in Unilever R&D of an emerging Platform in Digital Consumers & Markets which focused on understanding consumer complexity as well as building a new generation of personalised mass-scale consumer services; examples are iShakti, an empowerment portal based on adaptive systems in rural India, and get-active!, an exercise behaviour motivation system. Shail is a Fellow of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (IMA); sits on a number of external Boards, including the Manchester University CTA Board, Birmingham University CERCIA Board (Centre of Excellence for Research in Computational Intelligence); is a Juror for the Stockholm Challenge, and is involved in a number of journals and conferences.
Programming Team
Pablo Abad. Prior to joining Frogtek Pablo worked at Inycom Group, a Spanish technology company, where he developed mobile applications for Vodafone Group. Pablo has an MBA in IT Management from San Jorge University in Spain and a BS in Computer Science from the University of Wales.
Pedro Fraca. Prior to joining Frogtek Pedro worked at Inycom Group in Spain where he developed mobile application for Windows Mobile for Vodafone. Pedro has also worked as an ERP developer for Ayanet TIC, a Spanish consulting company, and Mann Hummel Iberica. Pedro has a BS in Computer Science from the University of Wales.
Jose Cortes. Prior to joining Frogtek Jose worked for Vodafone’s Research & Development group in Spain as part of a fellowship where he designed and built Android mobile applications. Jose also worked for several years with ARI Businesses Solution as a Web developer and with eLABORO as a product consultant. Jose has a Master in Mobile and Web Applications and a Bachelor’s Degree in Telecommunications, both from Málaga University. Now a days Jose develops mobile and web technologies.
Alberto Gualis. Prior to joining Frogtek Alberto worked for Atcanet and Insynergy Consulting in Spain where he developed expertise in Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software and J2EE applications in the financial, telecommunications and public administration sectors. Alberto has a Masters Degree in Computer Science from Zaragoza University, Spain.
Javier Martínez. Prior to joining Frogtek Javier worked as an Analyst-Programmer and developed expertise in Web technologies such as PHP, Zend Framework and ASP. He also developed advergaming applications in Macromedia Flash/Actionscript. Javier has a Masters Degree in Computer Engineering from Zaragoza University, Spain.
Javier Linares. Javier has a Master Degree in Telecommunications Engineering from the University of Zaragoza. Prior to joining Frogtek Javier was a student at Chalmers, University of Technology (Göteborg, Sweden) as an Erasmus Student where he finished his Master Thesis in the Department of Signal and Systems. During the last two years at Frogtek, he has been working with Android and Google App Engine technologies but also as Quality Assurance(QA) and technical support in Mexico.
Julio García. Prior to joining Frogtek Julio worked for Hiddenstation as a system administrator and programmer where he helped create a multi-player online game called Shogunsfate.com and developed expertise in Web technologies such as AJAX and J2EE. Julio has a Masters Degree in Computer Engineering from Zaragoza University in Spain.
Design Team
Kristel Aranda. Prior to joining Frogtek Kristel worked for a wide range of companies designing interfaces and architectures for mobile phone applications, PDAs, Web sites and print campaigns. Kristel has taken Master classes in 3-D Animation and Video Composing at the Gnomon School of Visual Effects in Los Angeles and has a BA from Javierana University in Bogota, Colombia.
Operations Team
Boris Carlos. Boris had a long history working with Frogtek before joining full-time as he was literally the first shopkeeper in our pilot project. Prior to running his own store Boris studied some semesters of Industrial Design and worked in an auto repair shop, a company warehouse, and a horse ranch, among other places, in both the US and Colombia. Boris continues to work part-time in his own store which he bought with his wife three years ago.
Harby Arango. Like Boris, Harby was one of the first shopkeepers in our pilot project and provided us with valuable customer insight before joining Frogtek full-time. Prior to joining Frogtek Harby had his own store in Bogota, and prior to that experience Harby worked in sales at a number of different retailers in Colombia. Harby was also in the Colombian Military Forces.
Diego Velásquez Díaz. Prior to joining Frogtek Diego worked for 12 years in the sales group for Bavaria, the largest beer company in Colombia, where he sold a range of products to micro-retailers in Bogota.
Alberto Quiroz. Prior to joining Frogtek Alberto was a technical support engineer for Apple Computer in Mexico City where he worked on a range of customer service projects.
Roberto Carlos. Prior to joining Frogtek Roberto was a Web and database programmer for InterMexico in Mexico City where he worked on numerous client projects and technologies.
Verónica Lozano. Verónica has been in sales for the last 6 years. She has also been a psychologist and a language teacher. She applies everything she has learned throughout her life to every sale she makes. Meditation is essential to her so she can connect better with people and create strong, trustworthy ties.
