Smithsonian Laureate CTO, founder, philanthropist
Damion Hänkejh brings to bear 20 years of high technology and software engineering experience in his work developing, nurturing and launching forward-thinking companies innovating in commerce/communications, telemedicine and philanthropy.
As founder, board director, and CTO of InstantService.com, Hänkejh invented real-time customer service for the Internet in 1996 and led the design and implementation of the first carrier-class Internet communications company (US Patents 6915336 & 7346671, Hänkejh et al.). American Red Cross, AT&T, Oracle/Retek, Xerox, FedEx, Ernst & Young, Motorola, Verisign, Sony and Cisco are among hundreds of the largest international corporations relying on the communication services of InstantService today.
Hänkejh has also contributed technical resources and counsel to the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR) since 1995, launching the Foundation’s Web site and a digital version of the HIV/AIDS Treatment Directory Database - the only comprehensive online source of information covering HIV/AIDS at the time.
Hänkejh was honored as a Smithsonian Laureate in 1999 for his pioneering research as CTO of the Virtual Operating Room, a joint venture undertaken with Dr. Robert Lazzara and Swedish Health System that set the stage for centers of medical and surgical excellence to serve as accredited virtual operating rooms worldwide.
A bonafide technology prodigy, Hänkejh’s career began at a summer job working with the senior research-and-development team at Hewlett-Packard when he was 15 years old. He continued at HP during summers while studying software engineering at MIT, and subsequently worked with IBM and GE, before venturing forth on his own in 1995.
