OUR EXECUTIVE TEAM
Chairman
Dr. Amirie has a Bachelor of Arts degree in History and Political Science from Eureka College, in Eureka, Illinois, a Master of Arts and a Ph.D. in International Relations and Middle East Politics from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois. He was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree by Eureka College after giving the Commencement Speech to the graduating Class of 1975. Dr. Amirie has taught Political Science and Middle East Politics at Kent State and Tehran Universities as well as UCLA and UCI for over twenty years. In July of 1980, while a Visiting Professor of Political Science at UCLA, Dr. Amirie met the late President Ronald Reagan in Los Angeles where he asked Dr. Amirie to assist his foreign policy team headed by Mr. Richard Allen. During President Reagan's first term, Dr. Amirie advised the Reagan Administration on issues concerning the Middle East.
Dr. Amirie's background spans the field of business as well as academics and politics. Over the past twenty years, he has directed the operations of Civil Service Academy, a non-profit, public benefit organization dedicated to assisting minorities gain careers in the field of law enforcement. He is the noted author of several books and over 150 newspaper and magazine articles. He is a dynamic speaker and is currently the Chairman of Vontastic's Board of Directors.
Chief Operating Officer
Duane started down his strong ethical path when he joined the U.S. Armed forces in 1986. Duane was posted in Northern California where he was in charge of the records and data management for the entire battalion. In 1988 he was transferred to Ansbach, Germany where he served as the personnel-processing specialist for the 400th Command. Duane was released from active duty in 1990 and moved to the Silicon Valley to start his civilian career.
During this time the break-up of AT&T was seeing many changes in the phone industry and many smaller independent phone companies were starting to emerge. Duane wanted to be part of this emergence and obtained a position at a small 3rd party billing company called Integretel Inc. Running the customer financial settlement group for Integretel, allowed Duane to be exposed to all levels of the telecommunication billing arena.
In 1999, Duane accepted a position at Enhanced Communications Network as Revenue Director. Here is where Duane was able to use his talents to oversee the operations of both the billing and provisioning of customers phone service. Continuing to interact with 3rd party billing as well as billing customers directly, Duane was successful in provisioning and billing over 60,000 lines a month. Duane left ECN in 2004 to pursue the start-up of a telecommunications consulting firm. During this time he was able to recognize the opportunity in the voice over IP market. Seeing that Vontastic was on the cutting edge of this new exciting market, Duane definitely wanted to be a part of their success. Duane joined Vontastic early in 2006.
Chief Information Officer
Taylor Lilley began his professional career with a four-year stint in the United States Marine Corps. During his enlistment he graduated first in class from 1st Marine Division's Scout Sniper School, and received his honorable discharge in 1998. In 1999, after returning to Dallas, he dove headlong into the world of information technology, working for several Fortune 500 companies including IBM, Frito Lay, Johnson & Johnson, and AmerisourceBergen.
In 2004 Taylor caught the "entrepreneurial itch" and moved to Orange County with his wife and son where he spent the next two and a half years architecting the core products for companies such as Vontastic, DecisionInsite, and EquiMine, all of which are now thriving enterprises at the forefront of their respective fields.
December of 2006 found Taylor looking for a new challenge. He decided that Vontastic's rapidly growing environment offered the unique challenges and limitless opportunities he needed and contacted Vontastic CEO Jayme Amirie to offer his services. As the chief architect of Vontastic's existing systems he felt uniquely qualified to help Vontastic make the jump to the next level and Mr. Amirie agreed. Taylor now enjoys the daily challenge of turning the Vontastic vision of a global network into a technical reality.
Director of Support Services
Kalpesh earned his degree in Chemical Engineering in India in 1999 and began
his career working for a successful multi national company in India. Much to
the dismay of his family, his career as a Chemical Engineer did not excite
Kalpesh. He is a people-person, supportive and passionate about technology.
He decided to emigrate to the United States in 2004 and moved to Provo, Utah
where Vontastic customer support was located at that time. In a chance meeting
with some support personnel, Kalpesh heard the company story and was immediately
intrigued. He joined the Vontastic team in 2004 as a lead customer service
representative serving the Hindi language group.
Kalpesh quickly climbed the success ladder at Vontastic which ultimately led him
to his current position as Director of Support Services. He travels extensively
in his role, training support staff in Manila and scouting new locations in other
countries where Vontastic will ultimately operate. Kalpesh is the epitome of our
corporate tag line "The Passion to Serve." He is responsible for all Customer
Service and Distributor Support personnel globally. As a pivotal member of the
Executive Team, Kalpesh, or "KP" as we call him keeps the wheels of support
running every day, 7 days a week!