Mr. Hamed Shahbazi earned his Bachelor of Applied Science degree in Civil Engineering from the University of British Columbia in 1997. His areas of specialization were fluid mechanics, environmental engineering and engineering economics. Mr. Shahbazi also completed Harvard Law’s program on Negotiation for Business Executives.

In August of 1997, Mr. Shahbazi co-founded Info Touch Technologies as the founding CEO and architect of the company’s business plan, focused the company 100% on using the kiosk tool as a vehicle for delivering digital content and all of its possibilities to the public domain. At the core of this strategy was the need for a robust, secure and highly manageable software platform that could reliably manage these self-service, interactive, customer facing terminals.

Mr. Shahbazi has transitioned the Company into a payment solution provider that specializes in delivering bill payment and other financial services to the cash preferred/un-banked marketplace through a variety of automated self-service and clerk assisted payment processing methodologies. Today, TIO Networks serves more than 700,000 people a month with in-person payment services. TIO Networks has partnered with some of the biggest billers and service providers in North America to assist them with their in-person payment collection strategies while helping the underserved cash paying demographic have access to cost effective, convenience, safe and secure bill payment services.

TIO Networks has made PROFIT 100 magazine’s list of top 100 Canadian companies based on its percentage of sales growth twice in the last 5 years. In addition, TIO Networks has been recognized with Deloitte & Touche Fast 50, Deloitte & Touche Fast 500, Burnaby Board of Trade’s Entrepreneurial Spirit, KIOSKCOM’s Excellence, and Profit 100 awards, and recently recognized as one of the 50 fastest growing companies in BC. In December 2001, Business in Vancouver presented Mr. Shahbazi with the prestigious 40 Under 40 Award in recognition for his achievements as one of top performers in business, public or private life.

Mr. Shahbazi’s leadership role has been key to establishing an impressive client base among Fortune 1000 companies and organizations, such as: Alimentation Couche-Tard, ExxonMobil, AT&T, Hewlett Packard, Cricket Communications, COX Communications, and Qwest Communications.

Mr. Shahbazi’s business achievements are only paralleled by his community involvement. In 1996/7, he was nominated for volunteer of the year by Unicef BC. He has a deep history of volunteering for grass roots development and community based organizations.