About Private WiFi™

Kent Lawson is the President and CEO of Private Communications Corporation and creator of its flagship software Private WiFi.

With over 40 years of computer industry experience, Lawson has launched several highly successful technology ventures. Prior to Private Communications Corporation, Kent founded Magna Software Corporation and ran it for nearly 20 years, before retiring in 1998. Magna specialized in mainframe software, and its products are still being used in businesses and government agencies today. Prior to Magna, he was President of Lupfer and Long, a computer programming company that provided consulting and contract services to government agencies.

Kent started his first company during his senior year of college and landed a contract to develop software for Pillsbury. During the Viet Nam war, Lawson served at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis where he trained faculty and Midshipman in computer use for academic purposes.

In 2010, after 12 years of retirement, Kent became interested in Internet privacy and security issues and the vulnerability of wireless communications in WiFi hotspots. He created Private Communications Corporation to protect consumers and corporations from privacy and security breaches on the Internet. Private WiFi, the company’s first product, protects individuals and business people while using laptops and other mobile devices at public WiFi hotspots.

Kent holds a BA degree in Economics from Beloit College, an MBA from Washington University and is a graduate of Harvard Business School’s Owner/President’s Management Course. Inc. Magazine recognized his previous company, Magna Software, as the 151st fastest growing company in the US.

Jennifer Praeger heads up all aspects of business development & partnerships for Private WiFi. In this role she is responsible for building sustainable partnerships to scale Private WiFi’s business. Her career spans executive-level marketing and online communication strategy positions at a range of non profit and for profit organizations. Prior to joining Private WiFi in 2011, Jennifer was the Web Marketing Manager at Mount Sinai Medical Center. Ms. Praeger also held senior level marketing positions at Metropolitan College of New York, ClickandBuy, Mason and Geller Marketing, and Lloyd’s of London Press.

Ms. Praeger holds a Bachelor of Arts from Sarah Lawrence College and a Master of Business Administration in marketing from NYU’s Stern School of Business.

Fred Kauber serves as Chief Technology Officer at Private Communications Corporation and is responsible for leading the development and operation of the company’s cybersecurity product platform and service offerings.

Fred possesses more than three decades of executive leadership experience as CEO, CTO, CIO, CPO and CMO, presiding over technology, product management, marketing and operations functions at Fortune 500 and entrepreneurial ventures alike in the financial services, marketing and technology industries at firms such as First Data Corporation, TRANZACT, Bigfoot Interactive, Dun & Bradstreet and IBM Corporation, among others. He is an experienced operator and transformation agent in private equity-backed ventures and has been an executive member of leadership teams that have successfully exited three companies; he currently provides senior leadership for several healthcare ventures in this capacity. He is also the Founder & CEO of venture studio Digiventures Media Group.

Fred is an active angel investor and advisor to early stage companies and currently serves on the Board of Directors of Rezzi, an IoT & analytics platform provider in the waste management industry. He also teaches enterprise technology strategy as an adjunct professor in the graduate program of the NYU School of Professional Studies and mentors aspiring technology leaders and entrepreneurs in the technology management and accelerator programs of Columbia University, NYU, Northeastern University and Westchester County’s Element46 program.

Fred graduated from Manhattan College with a BS in Computer Science and received his MBA from New York University’s Stern School of Business. He also holds an MS in Telecommunications from Pace University. He is a Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), has been trained as a Six Sigma Black Belt and is a member of the Forbes Technology Council.

As the Vice President of Technology Operations for Private WiFi, Lane Franklin Liston oversees the technological infrastructure implementation and administration to streamline transnational developers, servers, and ancillary equipment functions for rapid, secure and effective product delivery. Working to build effective coordination between customers, clients and technological infrastructure, Liston is involved in all dimensions of Private WiFi's capacity to anticipate and re-imagine technological possibilities.

Lane joined Private WiFi with over fifteen years of IT expertise in both an established Fortune 500 company and smaller businesses with distinction in the field of innovation and technology.  He worked for Honeybee Robotics for ten years holding the position of Director of IT/MIS and provided the overall strategic operational leadership of technological planning, architecture, research and development. Memorable projects include his involvement in heading up Honeybee’s communications for the MER link and SAP Station to Jet Propulsion Laboratories and then the planet Mars for the 2003 Mars Exploration Rovers mission. Lane has also worked at Proteometrics as a Software Test Analyst and at Texas Instruments (formerly Tartan Laboratories) in different positions, learning multiple machine languages and JTAG emulation for digital signal processors and microprocessor toolsets.

Lane holds a BA, MS and MBA and has studied at the University of Pittsburgh, Juilliard, Fashion Institute of Technology, Marymount, Polytechnic and NYU.

In addition to being a trained NYS certified EMT, Lane enjoys taking classes in sewing and tailoring, as well as jewelry design and gemology at New York's Fashion Institute of Technology. He is an avid Steelers football fan. He lives in Manhattan.

Pat Brill serves as Private WiFi’s Director for HR & Finance. In this role she is responsible for all aspects of human resources, business administration and finance for the business.

Pat joined Private WiFi in 2010 as it’s first employee. She has more than 30 years of management experience in finance, human resources, and office management. Her roles as a Business Manager and Director of Human Resources have been with small to medium sized companies in the technology and creative industries. Pat earned a Bachelor of Science is Social Sciences from Adelphi University, New York.

Rima Christie is Private WiFi’s Director for Customer Support Management. Rima and her team are responsible for the company’s world class customer support.

Rima brings over 10 years of sales experience in the promotional product industry. She also worked for Xerox in Inventory Management. In addition, she volunteered for 10 years as Knowledge Coach for the United States Pony Club. Rima graduated from William Paterson University with a BS in Psychology with honors, Magna Cum Laude. In her spare time she is an avid equestrian, enjoys African drumming, quilting and volunteers as a foster for dogs in danger.

Keegan Govender serves as Vice President of AI Product Innovation & Development and is responsible for leading the development of AI/ML strategy and solutions.

Keegan is a seasoned technology leader and advisor with over 20 years of experience, bringing a unique blend of deep technical expertise and global operational experience to drive innovative AI/ML integration. This experience encompasses hands-on engineering, technical architecture design, product development, and advisory roles. Keegan has advised Private Equity firms such as Warburg Pincus and BC Partners on maximizing value from innovative technology investments in ML frameworks, MLOps tools, and NLP . In his regional leadership positions at global product engineering and innovation industry leaders Slalom and Valtech, Keegan has led several cloud modernization initiatives across AWS, GCP , and Azure, and transformative innovation initiatives for start-ups, mid-market leaders, and Fortune 500 enterprises such as Capital One, PG&E, Dolby, Motorola, and Samsung.

Keegan holds a Bachelor of Information Science (Computer Science & Information Systems) from Massey University and postgraduate qualifications from MIT Sloan in Artificial Intelligence for Business Strategy, and has held lecturing responsibilities at Parsons School of Design in New York City in the Masters of Strategic Design and Management program.