Carol Realini is an imaginative pioneer whose foresight and business acumen have built companies that have changed the landscape of our daily lives.
TECHNOLOGY VISIONARY
In 2005, Carol Realini founded Obopay to meet the need for an industry leader in mobile payments technology. In only a few business quarters, Carol secured $29 million in funding and finalized deals with every major cellular network in the United States. Today Obopay is defining an emerging industry and quickly gathering the market share necessary to ensure longevity.
Carol was inspired to found Obopay when she traveled to Africa and saw, first hand, the opportunities that mobile payments would bring to both industrialized and developing nations. Obopay fulfills Carol’s interest in industry-changing advancements and her desire to support social and economic development throughout the world, bringing financial services millions of under- and unbanked people.
HISTORY OF SUCCESS
Before founding Obopay, Carol was Chairman and CEO of Chordiant Software, a leader in one-to-one marketing and customer interaction software. During her tenure, Carol Realini raised more than $30 million in VC financing and played a key leadership role in the start-up, development, and successful IPO of the company.
Prior to her success at Chordiant, Carol was the CEO and President of J. Frank Consulting, a consulting firm dedicated to helping corporations achieve breakthrough business results through successful applications of enterprise-wide client/server solutions. As CEO/President, Carol Realini guided the Company through significant growth, ending in her orchestrating the firm’s sale to MCI.
As Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Legato Systems, a network storage software innovator, Carol launched the company's first series of products and established key strategic business relationships.
Carol also served as Director of Product Marketing at Ingres Corporation, a commercially supported, open-source relational database management system, where she was responsible for product strategy, planning, and marketing.
Carol began her career with Amdahl Corporation (now Fujitsu) a supplier of hardware, software, and operational consulting throughout the world. There, Carol developed new operating system software and worked with Amdahl’s largest clients on successful implementations.
Carol holds a B.A with Honors in Mathematics from the University of California, Santa Cruz and a Masters of Science in Computer Science from California State University, San Jose. Additionally, Carol successfully completed the Executive Management Program at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business.
RECOGNIZED ACHIEVEMENT
In 2007, Obopay, was awarded the Fierce Wireless Fierce 15 Award, bestowed on the “most innovative private companies set to take the industry to another level.”
In 2000, Call Center Magazine awarded Carol Call Center Pioneer Award, signifying achievements that have had a significant impact on the call center industry. Peppers and Rogers One-To-One Marketing Group named Carol a One-To-One Pioneer and McGraw Hill recognized her with a prestigious listing in the Top 100 Women in Computing.
MAKING A DIFFERENCE
Carol is a trustee for Search for Common Ground and European Centre for Common Ground, a not-for-profit organization that operates in the field of conflict prevention and resolution. In 2003, Carol led SFCG’s Global Marshall Plan Conference, where public and private sector thought leaders from all parts of the globe discussed a new vision for meeting contemporary development challenges.
Carol also served on the board of The GlobalGiving Foundation, which is dedicated to enabling individuals, companies, and other groups to find and support high quality grassroots social and economic development projects around the world and the Anita Borg Institute of Women and Technology, a group whose mission is to increase the impact of women on all aspects of technology.
Carol’s passion is education. She and her husband provide scholarships for women in Sierra Leone and Liberia and AIDS orphans in Uganda.
