CEO & Founder

Anil founded Idea Crossing in 2002 while launching the Innovation Challenge® competitions, now a franchise of university-based competitions that bring together global brands with innovative minds to solve real-world challenges.  Companies such as Hilton Hotels, Google, IBM, American Express, Harley-Davidson, Shell and Whirlpool and foundations such as The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation have sponsored the competitions.

Anil is a recognized expert and has been featured in McKinsey & Company's report on philanthropic innovation prizes and numerous articles in publications such as CNN Money, Business 2.0, Inc. Magazine, Chicago Tribune, MIT Innovations, as well as books on the topic of innovation prizes and crowd-sourcing. Anil graduated from the University of Wisconsin and received his MBA from Thunderbird-The School of Global Management.

Chief Marketing Officer

Ryan formerly ran Global Alliances for the X PRIZE Foundation, the world’s preeminent prize institute. Prior to that, he helped start a global technology services and marketplace management software company called Marketworks which was acquired in 2007 by ChannelAdvisor. Ryan initially cut his teeth in advertising at HA-LO Industries, once the largest promotional agency in the world. There he designed and executed global promotional campaigns for Fortune 500 clients, including sponsorship activations with NASCAR and the 2000 Summer Olympic Games in Sydney.

Ryan received his BA from Emory University and his MBA from Thunderbird-School of Global Management.

Chief Technology Officer

Denis Khoo consulted X PRIZE Foundation with their online initiative for bringing the prize model to a broader audience. He assisted in formulating the strategic and technical vision for the online initiative, and performed fundraising presentations to lock in seed capital. Denis is also a Founder a social media platform that keeps business travelers connected in the physical world with their network, called Placely. Prior, Denis was the CTO at Market Wire where he worked with the CEO, Jim McGovern, to turn the company profitable. Market Wire was venture backed by Hummer Winblad, Sequoia Capital, Blue Chip Ventures, Osprey Partners, and STV. The company was sold to CCNMatthews, the dominant newswire in Canada, in April 2006. He was formerly a Software Architect at Ticketmaster, Project Lead for CitySearch’s personalization engine, QA Team Lead for NetDynamics, Architecture Designer and Development Lead for Health Alliance Plan, SAP Sapphire Conference Developer, performed QA for Broderbund Software’s Banner Blue Division, and provided Technical Support and Beta Testing for Software Ventures Corporation.

In 1997, Denis was inducted into the Smithsonian Institution for his work in pioneering extranet applications for Health Alliance Plan. In addition to being Patent Bar Certified by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Denis currently holds 20 patents of his own. Khoo received his B.A. in Computer Science from UC Berkeley with a minor in Business Administration from the Haas School of Business.

Director, the Innovation Challenge®

As Idea Crossing's Director of the Innovation Challenge®, Asher oversees all Innovation Challenge operations as well as sponsorships and marketing for the U.S.-based competition. Originally hired as a Consultant for the Innovation Challenge, Asher accepted a full-time Director role with Idea Crossing in the summer of 2010. 

Prior to Idea Crossing, Asher held several management positions within the entertainment industry as well as the nonprofit sector (it was his work in entertainment that prompted a move to philanthropy and he hasn't looked back).  Like many of his Idea Crossing colleagues, his philanthropy work brought him to the X Prize Foundation where he was the sole Project Manager of the nonprofit’s Prize Development Department.  In this role, Asher was responsible for the day-to-day and long-term operations involved with the development of multi-million dollar incentivized prizes.

Before his move into development for incentivized programs, Asher spent several years at Sony Pictures Television and Paramount Pictures as a Television Development Executive.  Asher helped develop a variety of series at each studio including CBS’s ‘Stone Cold’ movie series, which remains the highest rated movie series in CBS’s history; Warner Brother’s ‘Jaime Kennedy’ and ‘The Parkers’ series; CBS’s ‘Hack’; and the syndicated television shows ‘Judge Judy’ and ‘Judge Joe Brown’.  During this time, Asher also sold several scripts of his own to New Line Cinema.

Asher received his BA from San Jose State University before traveling to Bath University where he studied Organizational Management. In his spare time Asher helps local nonprofit organizations secure corporate dollars and grants.  He also serves on the board of the Until They Come Home Foundation.

Director, Marketing & Client Services

As Director of Marketing and Client Services, Michael Timmons strives to ensure quality customer satisfaction by overseeing Skild product integration and execution.  Additionally, he assists with strategically administering all unified communications, public relations, social media and marketing for Skild.

Previously, Michael invested over four years at the X PRIZE Foundation as the Manager of Communications where he directed both internal and external messaging for the foundation and it's prizes including the Google Lunar X PRIZE, the Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE, the Archon Genomics X PRIZE, the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander X CHALLENGE and the Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X CHALLENGE. 

Michael's professional experience exceeds fifteen years and encompasses a variety of fields including law and entertainment. In addition to his appointment at Skild, Michael simultaneously owns and operates a successful photography business.  He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Photography and Cinema from The Ohio State University.

Joe is one of the lead Java engineers at Skild. With more than 5 years of experience in full lifecycle software development, Joe knows what it takes to architect highly robust and flexible systems. Joe comes to Skild from Just Price where he was the lead back-end developer for their pioneering E-Mortgages technology. There he successfully digitized the traditional mortgage application process into an easy to use web-based app, which is currently used as the company’s core business tool. Prior to Just Price, Joe was a video editor for AnimAction, Inc. where he worked on such notable projects as The Simpsons, Spongebob Squarepants, The PowerPuff Girls, and many more.

Joe previously served as a Motor Transport Officer in the Singapore Armed Forces where he achieved the rank of Sergeant in less than 3 years. Joe has B.S. in Computer Science from the University of Hawaii at Manoa in Honolulu, and a diploma in Computer Information Systems from Singapore Polytechnic.