Eli Traitel is the founder and owner of TraiTel Telecommunications Pty Ltd of Australia, TraiTel Telecommunications Limited of New Zealand, TraiTel Technologies Corp, TraiTel Mobility Corp and TraiTel Telecommunications Corp in USA.
Prior to starting TraiTel Telecommunications, Eli started building his career from the young age of 12, repairing broken IT equipment (mainly computers) and selling it for a profit. Eli’s first formal job was at a used computer sales store in 1994 where he worked for a year before venturing on his own and starting the very first “mobile computer repair company” in New Zealand. At age 17, only a year after starting his computer repair company (EliTe Computech Ltd) and building up a significant local presence, he made an offer to his previous employer and purchased the company he used to work for (Second Byte Ltd), which included stock, customer data, and continued employment of a few key members of staff.
Shortly after, Eli made further acquisitions by purchasing a competitor’s business (Metro Computer Systems Ltd) and once again, the deal included stock, customer data, and the retention of a few key members of staff. As his company grew, it became well known that he was a successful entrepreneur with innovative ideas that at the time were bringing change to the traditionally run computer industry.
After the first two acquisitions, Eli was approached by a receiver whom had been appointed to overlook the collapse of one of the largest and previously very successful computer companies (AB Computers Ltd) in the capital city of New Zealand. Eli went on a bidding war and eventually won and acquired his third company at the early age of 18 years. After a few short years, the company was eventually sold at a profit to a competitor, which allowed Eli to pursue the idea of moving to Australia where much larger opportunities existed. This move led Eli to make a pivotal decision to move into telecommunications.
Since its inception in 2003, TraiTel Telecommunications has been growing year on year and simultaneously innovating technologies that are now common place. TraiTel was the first internet based telecommunications company to offer VoIP, eFax and SMS in one platform. Currently, TraiTel Telecommunications is a profitable business and has over 25,000 customers in Australia and over 350,000 users of its software (TTMessenger) worldwide.
Eli Traitel has become a leader in his profession, an expert in information technology and a dedicated plus motivated entrepreneur. In his spare time, he spends time with his family, flies planes and teaches martial arts.
Alain Lapalme Chief Technology Officer
Alain Lapalme is the Chief Technology Officer at TraiTel group of companies.
Alain was born and raised in Ontario, Canada. As a child, he took an interest in computer programming and learned to program in BASIC at 8 years old. Over the following years, he advanced his knowledge in computing and studied a number of additional programming languages, such as C/C++ and assembly.
Alain successfully completed the Advanced level high-school program and went on to pursue post-secondary education. He graduated from the Information Technologies Program at Collège Boréal with a 4.0 average. During this time, Alain founded an internet service: “AtomicBoards.com”, a hosted forum & chat platform. At it's peak, this service had an active user base of over 35 000 members who had exchanged over a million messages. After graduating from Collège Boréal, Alain continued his education in the Software Engineering Program at the University Of Ottawa. Alain received a scholarship from Nortel Networks valued at $8,000 to this end.
During his first year at the University of Ottawa (2003), Alain worked online as a freelance software development contractor for a number of businesses and companies online, including TraiTel Telecommunications. Alain left the University after his first year to spend a year in Australia (2004) working with Eli Traitel. Alain has since then returned to Canada but continues in his role as CTO.
Alain speaks both French and English. He is passionate about computer programming and has an understanding of multiple Operating Systems including Linux, Windows, Unix, OSX, and Android. He can program in C, C++, C# .NET, Basic/Visual Basic, Assembly and Java. He has a strong understanding of the SQL database query language. Finally, he is also proficient in a number of web technologies including Perl, PHP, Python, JavaScript, HTML and CSS.
Joseph Ventura Chief Financial Officer
Mr. Ventura's expertise lies in the areas of taxation and business planning. He was a member of Arthur Anderson & Company for four years and holds a masters in taxation degree. He has assisted clients in the San Diego area with tax planning, estate planning, representation before local, federal and state taxing agencies and general business consulting. He is an avid car enthusiast and collector.
Thais Maya Director of Media Relations
Thais is our in-house social media guru - expert and actress extraordinaire! She is awesome at making people laugh here and ensuring everybody (ITZA especially) is well connected with the social media world. Thais is kind enough to lend us her hand and sharing her many talents with us, however, Thais's expertise lay with her amazing acting ability.
She's originally from Brazil and as well as her native Portuguese, she speaks Spanish and a little English too! - though admittedly we can hardly ever understand her, but that's ok!
You can find her as @thaismayaofficial in any social media platforms.
Nicolai Steinal Software Developer
Nicolai has been developing software from the moment he was gifted his first computer, the mighty commodore 64. Before joining TraiTel Telecommunications he worked for startup Mubiz developing blockchain-based applications. The biggest project he led development for was Mubiz.com, a search engine which crawls the decentralized marketplace OpenBazaar. He also worked on parallel computing efforts running very large datasets to solve complex calculations whilst working at DARA which stands for Deutsche Agentur fr Raumfahrtangelegenheiten (German Agency For Space Flight Affairs). He is highly skilled in C, C++, Assembly, Symfony and SQL. Nicolai regularly attends blockchain meetups in Berlin and is happy and able to strike up a conversation with just about anyone. Nicolai holds a Master of Science in Software Engineering from the University Carlos III in Madrid.
Arnold Broch Software Developer
As a Software Engineer, Arnold takes much pride in his work. Due to his past QC experience, he makes sure that the quality of the code base (both ITZA and the firmware in the SiB) are flawless, something which he takes very seriously. He spent six years in Quality Control prior to joining the TraiTel team. He's excited to see IOT transform the way homes will be connected in the future as well as industries by making it easier to monitor and collect real time data of absolutely anything and everything. He also feels that the current state of the IOT sector is at its infancy and that the SiB has everything necessary to become a pioneering solution. When he isn't working, Arnold enjoys reading non-fiction, sports and traveling. Arnold holds a Bachelor of Science in Informatics and Control in Technological Systems from the Moscow Aviation University.
Mina Barusferger Software Developer
As TraiTel's freshest programmer, Mina spends her time doing GUI development, back end development and maintenance for both the Android and iPhone developments of ITZA among many other things and of course, soaking up as much knowledge from her very experienced colleagues as she can. Prior to TraiTel, she built the backend and middleware for a learning app for the Chamber of Crafts in Berlin. In 2012, she was an intricate team member of the start up Fairmondo which is now one of the leading marketplaces in Germany. From the moment she first learned about computers, she realized programming was her future and that through software she could one day make a broad and positive impact in this world. She built her first web page as a teenager - to promote saving the rainforest. Mina is currently working towards her Bachelor of Science in Media Informatics at Beuth University.
Helmut Gunter Software Developer
Helmut works as a web developer (frontend and backend development and administration) and in the back office.
Helmut studied Software Engineering (MSc) and Computer Science in Berlin and Paris. He then wrote books and articles about digital photography and worked as a content manager at an online store. Through his interests in technology and design, he finally dedicated his focus to designing Firmware and was soon after employed by Cisco Systems to focus on next gen IOT embedded networks. Before becoming a team member of TraiTel, he was involved in the Silhouette Hero program, for example during the last crowdfunding campaign.
Peter Phipps Technical Manager / Support
During his early years, Peter prior to joining TraiTel had been working with Digital Dictation and Speech Recognition technologies in New Zealand for over 15 years. Having worked in IT for several years in a top 10 Legal firm, he came to TraiTel to look after all technical / hardware related issues.
In his time at TraiTel he has worked in several areas of the business including Support, Development and Programming and has relished the challenge of establishing TraiTel as a pioneer in the SMS, eFax and VoIP space and is very proud on being part of the development of the ITZA app as well.
Peter's background is in the Arts having studied Drama and Classics at university. He then went on to study English and Philosophy for his Masters degree at Wellington University which will explain why he prefers flowing prose over bullet points as his chosen means of expression. In his spare time he enjoys science fiction literature, golf and fishing and is an occasionally successful cook.
