The Orbee Team
Atul Patel is Orbee’s Co-Founder and CEO bringing to the automotive industry 20 years of tangible marketing technology experience gained in starting and scaling martech companies.
Atul holds several patents in marketing data compliance that have saved large marketers millions against compliance and inefficiencies. These patents became the core technology behind Jornaya (LeadiD), a company that Atul co-founded and which was acquired by Verisk, a data analytics and risk assessment firm which also acquired Infutor and Contact State.
Atul also founded Optimal.com, an ad blocking company acquired by Sovrn; OptimalSocial, a social graph analytics and media buying platform acquired by Brand Networks, where he serves on the Management Board. Brand Networks works with large brands like Walmart and is a certified partner of Facebook, Instagram, Snap, Tiktok, Pinterest, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
He also founded OneScreen, a digital video, CTV and OTT technology company and helped define early video ad standards; co-founded LeadROI, a bleeding-edge lead management system for financial services; advised AdGear, a DSP and SSP that became Samsung Ads; built a digital video practice for NTENT, a search engine and search monetization provider to mobile carriers; and served as founder, advisor, and executive on many startups in and out of the automotive industry.
He was born and raised in Southern California and now resides in Houston, TX.
Peter L. Fong is the Chief Commercial Officer of Orbee, a leading provider of customer experience (CX) middleware for the automotive industry. Peter brings more than 26 years of industry experience, having held numerous executive-level sales, marketing, and brand management positions at Ford Motor Company and Chrysler/Chrysler Group LLC in addition to his former position as the senior vice president of Dealership Operations at the National Automotive Dealers Association (NADA).
Prior to joining Orbee, Peter ran his own consultancy that advises innovative companies in the automotive industry. As a military veteran that served as a Naval Aviator and Leadership & Management Instructor, Fong brings a fresh and disciplined perspective to the automotive industry and has a proven track record of success, experience, and leadership working with automotive dealerships.
Chris Prijic is Orbee’s Co-Founder and CTO. He has over a decade of technical experience across multiple engineering disciplines. Chris was instrumental in transitioning the Company from its initial hardware and software platform for used car photos to the powerful digital marketing stack the company has today.
Chris founded the UAV Forge senior project at UCI, where he built a team of over 60 engineers and computer scientists across 5 majors and delivered three different working UAVs over the course of one year, plus securing recurring annual funding to provide the project with materials. He also built control systems for the Heterogeneous Adaptive Maritime Mobile Expeditionary Robots (HAMMER) research project at SPAWAR to build U*Vs that can complete missions successfully through cooperation, including arial, surface, and submersible vehicles.
Chris spends his time building teams that make dynamic, customer-focused technical solutions by pioneering modern technologies in cloud-native and open-source communities. His approach brings modern, data-centric and elastic solutions to the Automotive industry. In his free time, he supports and encourages STEM programs at school districts across Orange County, CA where he resides.
Narumi Takagi is Orbee's VP of Product Management. She brings her talent of analyzing, optimizing and strategizing to Orbee. After graduating from the University of California, Irvine and joined Orbee in 2017. She has been refining Orbee’s processes and ensuring that our products are helping our clients meet their business goals. She has served in many roles including account management, reporting, human resource manager, social and search advertising trafficker and now leads the customer and business operations teams.
Narumi is heavily involved in Orbee's customer operations and product development. She is a "Jack of all trades, master of many." Her experience in customer facing, advertising, support and project management roles have contributed to her unique combination of expertise. Narumi’s passion for operations stems from the belief that there is “always a better way.” This mantra has been a driving force of her contributions to Orbee.
When she is not working Narumi is a lover of the outdoors! She enjoys traveling, hiking, camping and spending time in nature.
Kai Nielsen is an automotive industry veteran with over 15 years of experience. He brings a deep understanding of the software and vendor ecosystem, combined with firsthand knowledge of dealership operations.
Kai spent much of his career at Cox Automotive, where he held roles in sales, customer operations, product, strategy, partnerships, and business development. His early career experiences traveling the country to help dealerships migrate DMS platforms and build integration programs gave him a strong foundation in workflow efficiency. He also had the opportunity to participate in the NADA Academy, further strengthening his expertise in dealership profitability and customer loyalty.
Kai is passionate about helping dealerships leverage technology to streamline operations and drive success.
When he’s not working, Kai enjoys life in Salt Lake City, Utah, with his wife and two kids. In the winter, you’ll find him on the slopes enjoying the greatest snow on earth, and in the summer, he’s out on the lake making the most of the sunshine.
Zach Hendrix is the Vice President of Sales at Orbee, leading go-to-market strategy and sales for the automotive industry's most advanced Customer Data Platform (CDP). With a passion for automotive SaaS, data-driven marketing, and dealership technology, he helps dealers and vendors leverage automation and analytics to improve customer engagement, streamline operations, and drive revenue growth.
With over a decade of experience in automotive technology, Zach has held key leadership and strategic roles at Invoca, Shift Digital, DealerSocket, Driven Data, and Bolderstream, where he built high-performing sales teams and pioneered innovative marketing and automation solutions. His expertise spans digital retailing, call intelligence, customer data platforms, and AI-driven automation—positioning him as a trusted leader in the industry.
Originally from Texas and now based in Newport Beach, CA, Zach balances his professional drive with time spent with his daughters, ensuring they see firsthand the value of hard work, ambition, and a little bit of well-placed wit. When he’s not shaping the future of automotive tech, you can find him traveling, crafting sharp LinkedIn posts, running his soccer focused non-profit "Nets for Communities", or spoiling his Boston Terrier, Chili.
