Board of Directors
Mr. Mathews serves as chief executive officer and chairman of the board of Near. Mr. Mathews is the founder of Near and has been serving as CEO of Near since November 2012, leading and developing Near’s short-term and long-term growth and operational strategy, and creating and implementing Near’s vision and mission. Mr. Mathews has spent the past 22 years as a serial entrepreneur and has built successful businesses around engineering, messaging, and social. He is passionate about creating new market companies with a strategic vision and technology capability that can provide substantial growth. Prior to Near, Mr. Mathews served as CEO at Imere and Netkode, both tech-driven companies. Mr. Mathews is also an advisor and investor to numerous startups across the globe.
Sherman Edmiston has decades of experience providing financial and operational advisory services to corporations and comes with a breadth of leadership knowledge through active participation in a number of corporate boards across industries. Mr. Edmiston has served as the Managing Member of HI CapM Advisors, Ltd, a firm providing strategic and financial advice to corporations, private equity firms, and credit funds, since August 2016. In addition to serving on the Company’s Board, Mr. Edmiston is currently serving on the board of directors at ARKO Corp. (Nasdaq: ARKO), one of the largest operators of convenience stores and wholesalers of fuel in the United States. Mr. Edmiston is also serving on the board of directors at the following private corporations: GTT Communications, Inc., a multinational provider of telecommunications and internet services; Key Energy Services, Inc., a leading provider of oilfield services in the Permian Basin and California; and Real Alloy, the market leader in third-party aluminum recycling and specification alloy production. Mr. Edmiston formerly served on the board of directors of Arch Resources (NYSE: ARCH) and Harvey Gulf International Marine and is also a director on several private company boards. From November 2009 through December 2015, Mr. Edmiston served as managing director of Zolfo Cooper LLC (now Alix Partners), where he provided financial and operational advisory services to corporations and investment funds. Mr. Edmiston holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Arizona State University and an M.B.A. from the University of Michigan.
Mr. Greene serves as a director of Near. He also serves as a board member of National Credit Care, a market-leading credit counselor and Harris & Harris, an accounts receivable management service bureau. Previously, Mr. Greene served as chief executive officer for Openlink Financial from September 2012 to September 2015, where he was responsible for introducing an integrated functional organizational model, significantly upgrading leadership, and deploying best-practice systems and processes for product management and development, sales, human resources, and finance. Mr. Greene has also served as the chief executive officer of Fair Isaac Corporation between February 2007 and December 2012. Between 1995 and 2007, he held various leadership positions at IBM in the software and sales groups. He formerly served on the board of directors of Capella Education Company, The Retail Equation, Renaissance Learning, Openlink Financial, Neustar, Ryzgo, Blue Zones, and Straive. Mr. Greene holds a B.A. in economics from Amherst College and an M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from the University of Michigan.
Ms. Krishnamoorthy serves as a director of Near. Ms. Krishnamoorthy is the CFO and the head of data analytics for ZeeMee Inc., a venture-funded education technology company based in Silicon Valley. She also serves as the CFO and board member of KludeIn. Previously, Ms. Krishnamoorthy served as a senior member of the capital markets team of Kabbage, a financial technology company. From 2013 to 2015, Ms. Krishnamoorthy served as chief of staff for corporate development and treasury at HP Inc. and was part of the strategy and planning team during HP’s restructure. Previously, she worked at Deutsche Bank as part of the global banking COO team in London and started her career at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia in the structured finance team. Ms. Krishnamoorthy received her MBA from Macquarie Graduate School of Management and a Bachelor’s Degree in actuarial studies from Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia.
Ms. Petralia serves as a director of Near. Ms. Petralia is the co-founder of Keep Financial, a fintech empowering employee retention. Prior to founding Keep, shea co-founded Kabbage, an SMB-focused fintech that was acquired by American Express in 2020. Prior to Kabbage, Ms. Petralia spent 15 years with financial technology and e-commerce start-ups. She served as vice president of strategy for Revolution Money, also acquired by American Express, and was the director of corporate development for CompuCredit. In 2018, she was named to Forbes’ list of the World’s Most Powerful Women. Ms. Petralia also serves on the boards of CARE USA, Tricolor, CoreCard (Nasdaq:CCRD), and Padsplit.
Richard J. Salute, CPA, has provided accounting and complex audits for public and private companies during his career. Additionally, Mr. Salute has been appointed to serve as chairperson of the Audit Committee of the Board. Mr. Salute served as Capital Markets and SEC Practice Director at J.H. Cohn and CohnReznick LLP from 2004 to 2014. Prior to that, he spent 29 years, from 1972 to 2001, at Arthur Andersen managing complex audits for public and private companies. During his tenure, he was responsible for providing clients with strategic planning services as well as consulting on corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, and process evaluation. His clients included large multinational companies and entrepreneurial start-ups. In addition to his client responsibilities, he started three business lines for Arthur Andersen: the Enterprise Group (New York Metropolitan area), the Technology Practice (New York office), and the Bankruptcy and Corporate Recovery Practice (nationwide). More recently, Mr. Salute served as Chief Financial Officer of PAVmed Inc. from June 2014 to September 2015. Mr. Salute also served as a director of Walker Innovation Inc. from 2015 through 2018. He currently serves on the board of directors, the governance and compensation committees, and as chair of the audit committee and audit committee financial expert for Newtek One, Inc. (NASDAQ: NEWT) and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and The New York Society of Certified Public Accountants. Mr. Salute has more than 39 years of audit, accounting, and tax experience. Mr. Salute holds a Bachelor of Business Administration, Accounting from Adelphi University.