Corporate Governance

Lior Tal has served as Cyngn’s Chief Executive Officer and Director since October 2016.  From June 2016 to October 2016, Lior served as the Company’s Chief Operating Officer.  Prior to Cyngn, he was director of international growth and partnerships at Facebook (now Meta Platforms, Inc.) where he worked from April 2011 to June 2016.  Lior co-founded Snaptu (acquired by Facebook) in September 2007 and was vice president of business development until May 2011.  During his time at Snaptu, Lior helped grow the user base from launch to tens of millions of users.  Prior to co-founding Snaptu, he was a partner at Barzam, Tal, Lerer Attorneys at Law & Patent Attorneys from March 2004 to August 2007.  Lior has also held leadership roles at Actimize (acquired by NICE), DiskSites (acquired by EMC) and Odigo (acquired by Comverse).  Lior holds an LLM in law from Tel Aviv University, and, an LLB in law and a BA in business management from Reichman University.

Don Alvarez has served as Cyngn’s Chief Financial Officer since June 2021.  Prior to joining the Company, Don was the vice president of finance of the International Council of Shopping Centers from 2017 to 2020.  During his time there, Don helped improve internal controls, increase productivity and reduce cost.  From 2015 to 2017, Don was vice president of finance of QuVa Pharma, Inc. where he helped create an accounting and finance department.  From 2011 to 2014, Don was the national managing partner, chief operating officer and chief financial officer of Tatum, a Randstand Company.  During his time there, Don oversaw a business turnaround that significantly improved Tatum’s financial performance.  Don has held several other senior financial and operational roles in both private and public companies, including chief financial officer at Broadband Discovery Systems, Inc., Fatbrain.com and Shop.com.  Don was also regional managing director of Resources Global Professionals.  Don began his career in the audit and assurance practice where he served seven years at Deloitte.  Don holds a BS in business administration from California State University, East Bay.

Ben Landen has served as Cyngn’s Vice President of Business Development since May 2021 including responsibilities in Sales and Marketing. From September 2019 to May 2021, Ben served as the Company's Senior Director of Product & Partnerships. Prior to joining the Company, Ben was head of product and business development at DeepScale, an artificial intelligence software startup that was acquired by Tesla.  (DeepScale was founded out of the University of California, Berkeley and developed efficient computer vision solutions for autonomous driving, using deep neural networks.) Prior to DeepScale, Ben managed an automotive semiconductor product line with over $100 million in annual revenues as senior business manager at Maxim Integrated.  Ben holds an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley Haas School of Business and a BS in electrical engineering from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.

Sean Stetson has served as Cyngn’s Vice President of Engineering since May 2023.  Prior to joining the Company, Sean was vice president of engineering at Seegrid where he scaled the engineering organization across the robot hardware, autonomy software, cloud software, and quality assurance teams.  Prior to Seegrid, Sean was at Google where he held the position of Technical Program Lead in the Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) group.  Sean holds a PhD in electrical engineering from the University of Michigan and a BS in electrical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.

Felix Singh has served as Cyngn’s Vice President of Engineering Services since April 2023.  Prior to joining the Company, Felix was vice president of quality assurance engineering and robot technical operations at Brain Corporation from 2019 to 2023.  During his time there, Felix was responsible for leading all QA engineering and technical operations for autonomous mobile robots and cloud technologies for an entire fleet of tens of thousands of robots deployed around the world.  Prior to Brain, Felix was senior director of engineering and other various leadership roles at Qualcomm from 1999 to 2018 where he was responsible for system test and test automation at scale for mobile application chipset systems and software, IoT products and automotive infotainment solutions.  Felix holds an MBA from UCLA Anderson School of Business, an MBA from National University of Singapore (Asia-Pacific focus), an MS in electrical engineering from Wichita State University and BS in electronics and telecommunications from the University of Mysore.

Karen Macleod has served as a member of Cyngn’s board of directors since July 2021.  Ms. Macleod was the founder and chief executive officer of The Arete Group, LLC from 2015 to 2021. She was president of Tatum, Randstand Holdings NV Company from 2011 to 2014.  Ms. Macleod was president of Resources Connection, Inc. North America from 2004 to 2009 and previously served in other capacities after joining the firm in 1996.  She was a senior manager at Deloitte from 1985 to 1994.  Ms. Macleod has served on the board of directors at Lakeland Hills YMCA since 2020, chair of the finance committee since 2022 and member of the executive committee in 2023.  She has also served on the board of directors and member of the audit committee of the FWA of New York from 2018 to 2021, the Track Group Inc. since 2016, Overland Solutions from 2006 to 2013, and Resource Connection, Inc. from 1998 to 2009.  Ms. Macleod holds a BA in business economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Colleen Cunningham has served as a member of Cyngn’s board of directors since September 2021.  Ms. Cunningham was senior vice president and corporate controller of Zoetis, Inc. from 2012 to 2018.  Prior to that, she was the global managing director of Resources Connection, Inc. from 2007 to 2012. Ms. Cunningham was president and chief executive officer of Financial Executives International from 2003 to 2007.  She was chief financial officer at Havas Advertising, North America from 2001 to 2003.  Ms. Cunningham served at AT&T as chief accountant at AT&T, Inc. from 1999 to 2001, division manager of accounting policy and external reporting from 1995 to 1999, and assistant controller from 1988 to 1995 of AT&T Capital Corporation.  She was senior auditor at Touche Ross/Coopers & Lybrand from 1984 to 1988.  Ms. Cunningham has served as a board of director and treasurer of Northstar Pet Rescue since 2017.  She served as a member of the US Chamber of Commerce financial reporting committee from 2015 to 2018, a member of the FEI committee on corporate reporting from 2012 to 2018, and a member of international issues conference committee of AICPA.  She served as a member of the advisory board to the accounting department of Pennsylvania State University from 2005 to 2018. Ms. Cunningham served as a board of director and chair of the Ethics Resource Center finance committee from 2005 to 2009.  She served as a member of both the international accounting standards board standing advisory committee and the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) advisory committee from 2003 to 2007.  Ms. Cunningham holds a MBA in management from New York University, Stern School of Business and a BA in economics from Rutgers University.

James McDonnell has served as a member of Cyngn’s board of directors since September 2021.  Mr. McDonnell has served as senior vice president of sales and marketing at Vispero since 2017.  Prior to that, he was vice president of sales at Honeywell from 2013 to 2017 and senior vice president of sales and marketing at Intermec from 2010 to 2013. He was senior vice president and served in many executive sales and marketing roles at Hewlett-Packard from 1983 to 2009.  Mr. McDonnell began his career at the General Electric Company from 1977 to 1983.  He served as a board of director of Asetek from 2014 to 2019.  Mr. McDonnell holds a BS in electrical engineering from Villanova University.

Lior Tal has served as Cyngn’s Chief Executive Officer and Director since October 2016.  From June 2016 to October 2016, Lior served as the Company’s Chief Operating Officer.  Prior to Cyngn, he was director of international growth and partnerships at Facebook (now Meta Platforms, Inc.) where he worked from April 2011 to June 2016.  Lior co-founded Snaptu (acquired by Facebook) in September 2007 and was vice president of business development until May 2011.  During his time at Snaptu, Lior helped grow the user base from launch to tens of millions of users.  Prior to co-founding Snaptu, he was a partner at Barzam, Tal, Lerer Attorneys at Law & Patent Attorneys from March 2004 to August 2007.  Lior has also held leadership roles at Actimize (acquired by NICE), DiskSites (acquired by EMC) and Odigo (acquired by Comverse).  Lior holds an LLM in law from Tel Aviv University, and, an LLB in law and a BA in business management from Reichman University.

Don Alvarez has served as Cyngn’s Chief Financial Officer since June 2021.  Prior to joining the Company, Don was the vice president of finance of the International Council of Shopping Centers from 2017 to 2020.  During his time there, Don helped improve internal controls, increase productivity and reduce cost.  From 2015 to 2017, Don was vice president of finance of QuVa Pharma, Inc. where he helped create an accounting and finance department.  From 2011 to 2014, Don was the national managing partner, chief operating officer and chief financial officer of Tatum, a Randstand Company.  During his time there, Don oversaw a business turnaround that significantly improved Tatum’s financial performance.  Don has held several other senior financial and operational roles in both private and public companies, including chief financial officer at Broadband Discovery Systems, Inc., Fatbrain.com and Shop.com.  Don was also regional managing director of Resources Global Professionals.  Don began his career in the audit and assurance practice where he served seven years at Deloitte.  Don holds a BS in business administration from California State University, East Bay.