Management Team / Advisory Board Bios
John Bair, Cheif Executive Officer
John is the Chief Executive Officer of Ubihere where he leads the overall strategy and operations of the company. He also leads the design, development and manufacturing of the Ubihere product lines. Prior to joining Ubihere, John spent several years founding and developing the Center for Design and Manufacturing Excellence (CDME) at The Ohio State University. This industry facing applied engineering center was a first for universities in the State of Ohio and very successful with over $21 million in revenue generated in the first three years. Prior to supporting Ohio State, John co-founded Pinnacle Data Systems, a full product lifecycle, diversified integrated computer and electronics systems company, in 1989. The company was responsible for designing, commercializing, manufacturing and supporting technology that integrated into Fortune 100 and 500 OEM product lines. Under his leadership, as president and CEO, he grew the company into a global manufacturer/provider of OEM-integrated product/design solutions and support services focused on the telecom, imaging, defense/aerospace, medical, semiconductor, industrial automation and IT markets. In 1996, John took Pinnacle public through an initial public offering on the Nasdaq-AMEX exchange (Nasdaq: PNS). He served as the President, CEO, CTO and Chief Innovation Officer and as the Chairman of the Board of Directors while overseeing years of company growth. In 2012, John led the company through an acquisition by Avnet, Inc. and served as the Sr. Vice President through 2014 when he left to pursue various entrepreneurship opportunities. John has a B.S. in Computer and Electrical Engineering from The Ohio State University.
Alper Yilmaz, Chief Technology Officer
Dr. Yilmaz is the Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Ubihere. He oversees the translation of his research into Ubihere commercial product lines. He also leads the research and development efforts of Ubihere next generation products. He is a Professor of Geo-Informatics with appointment in Civil Environmental and Geodetic Engineering Department at The Ohio State University. Dr. Yilmaz is a senior member of the U.S. National Academy of Inventors, fellow of American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, and a senior member of IEEE. He is serving as the Editor-In-Chief for the Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing Journal since 2016. He has served as Associate Editor for the Computer Vision and Image Understanding Journal between 2014 and 2016 and the Machine Vision and Applications Journal between 2006 and 2011. Among other honors, he was awarded the Lumley Research Award (OSU) in 2012, and the Lumley Interdisciplinary Research Award (OSU) in 2015, honorable mention for the Masao Horiba Award (Japan) in 2016, Presidential citation in 2019 from the ASPRS, and recipient of the Innovator of the Year Award from The Ohio State University in 2020. He has advised 22 PhD students to completion on topics ranging from geopositioning, navigation, object tracking, 3D scene recovery, and machine learning who have found position in prominent academic institutions, industry and government. Dr. Yilmaz has his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Central Florida where his dissertation title was Object Tracking and Activity Recognition in Video Acquired Using Mobile Cameras.
Mike Minihan
Director and Advisor
Mike is a Director at Ubihere and a strategic advisor to the company. In addition to his role at Ubihere, Mike founded BX3 in 2018 after more than 20 years as an international tax attorney and entrepreneur. He has seen virtually every aspect of international taxation, having worked for the Internal Revenue Service, in private industry, and for Big Four public accounting and tax consultancies KPMG and PwC. Mike’s entrepreneurial spirit came into its own at PwC, where he helped to build and lead their industry-leading Quantitative Solutions practice. He went on to co-found WTP Advisors (WTP), a boutique international tax consulting firm that specialized in assisting the world’s largest companies with the thorniest of tax structuring and compliance issues. WTP was listed on the Inc. 5000 for four consecutive years, leading up to its successful sale in 2014 to Dallas-based Ryan, LLC. After the sale, Mike was a Partner in Ryan’s International Tax practice, where he stayed until the start of his second consultancy career at BX3. Mike holds both a BBA (Finance) and a JD from Pace University, and an LLM in Taxation from New York University. He is admitted to practice law in New York, Connecticut and the District of Columbia.
Wayne Embree
Director and Advisor
Wayne is a Director at Ubihere and a strategic adviser to the company. He is currently serving as the EVP of Investments & Venture Acceleration at Rev1 Ventures, Wayne assists the Venture Development and Investment teams in guiding entrepreneurs on how to build effective and competitive businesses, including establishing long-term goals for building an investable enterprise. Embree taps into his three decades of experience to connect startups with the right people and provide them with the strategies and access to the resources necessary to identify co-investors and follow-on funding. Wayne is an experienced seed-stage investor with a track record of fueling startups with guidance and venture capital. He’s been involved in over 200 investments, including sitting on over 50 boards and taking more than 60 businesses through exits. Throughout his career, he has maintained his passion and enthusiasm for helping entrepreneurs change the world. Wayne has a BS in Natural Sciences from Western Oregon and an MS in Urban Planning from the University of Oregon.
Eric Wagner
Executive Vice President
Eric is the Executive Vice President of Government Programs for Ubihere. He oversees the business development and contracting activities of the company for all federal related work. Prior to joining Ubihere, he worked at Ohio State University where he was a founding executive for Ohio State’s Center for Design and Manufacturing Excellence (CDME), an industry-facing commercialization center within the university. While at OSU, Eric was a founding instructor of the I-Corps@Ohio program and led the engineering and physical sciences cohorts for three years. He spent several years at Ohio State’s commercialization office (TCO), where he oversaw the strategic planning and start-up execution activities; including supporting the successful launch of over 22 technology start-ups. Before OSU , he was the president of D&SCI, an aerospace and defense commercialization company with revenues exceeding $270 million annually which developed high-tech field deployable commercial solutions for the DoD ranging from communications to intelligence systems. Eric has a B.S. in Computer Science (with honors) and Executive MBA (salutatorian) from The Ohio State University.
Abby Kitchen
Program Manager
Abby is a Program Manager at Ubihere where she oversees technology development and commercialization efforts for the Ubitrax intelligent tracking tag suite of products. She is currently overseeing a $1mm+ research and development effort for the United States Air Force. Her project was recently singled out by Gen. Timothy Ray, Commander of the Air Force’s Global Strike Command, as an example of how the DoD can successfully partner with innovative technology companies to solve large challenges. Abby manages a team of engineers and support professionals to ensure that client expectations are exceeded. Additionally, Abby leads critical hardware design and development efforts for the Ubitrax and Ubivision commercial product lines. Prior to joining Ubihere, Abby was an electronics designer for Converge Technologies, a technology commercialization company. While at Converge, she provided technical expertise, printed circuit board design, product design, electronics assembly, component testing, and other value-added support for numerous technology development efforts. Abby is highly experienced with Altium Designer and other electronics development tools. She graduated from the Ohio State University with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering (magna cum laude).
Carol Lin Vieira
Vice President Public Relations
Carol Lin is the Vice President of Public Relations for Ubihere where she directs the company’s engagement with the public. She is a seasoned public relations and marketing professional with a strong track record of securing appearances, awards, and placing articles, expert quotes, and other thought leadership content in top-tier news outlets including Forbes, Fortune, Fox News, and the Wall Street Journal. Carol Lin is also a partner at BX3 where she provides helps startups and midsize companies grow by amplifying their brand within the marketplace, developing impactful content, and connecting them with media and influencers who can help contextualize and convey their messages to key audiences. She has worked across numerous industries including healthcare, blockchain, consumer goods, non-profits, science, tech, and tax, and has won multiple awards in the PR and content marketing industry. She holds a B.A. in English from the University of Virginia.
Alice Hilliard
Vice President of Marketing
Alice is the Vice President of Marketing and Business Development for Ubihere where she oversees the company’s commercial marketing activities. Prior to joining Ubihere, Alice spent her career in women’s apparel retail where she oversaw a fortune 500 business with annual sales more than $750mm. Her focus and success have always been on the customer; ensuring the customer's voice was heard and working to develop and deliver products that the customer wants and needs. Alice was also an on original board member for Dress for Success Columbus and still works with that organization. Alice has a B.S. in Retail Merchandise and Marketing from The Ohio State University.
