T. Russell Shields is co-founder and Chair of Ygomi LLC, Connexis's parent company. Mr. Shields has a 40-year track record of successfully building new companies that define new industries, including Shields Enterprises International (SEI LLC), Cellular Business Systems (now part of Convergys (NYSE:CVG), and Navteq (NYSE:NVT).

Mr. Shields was first President of the Automotive Multimedia Interface Collaboration (AMIC), a founding member of the organization that became the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association, and a founding officer and director of the Intelligent Transportation Society of America.

He received the 1998 SAE Delco Electronics Intelligent Transportation Systems Award for distinguished service to the ITS industry, and was named an SAE Fellow in 2007. In 2008, he was inducted into the inaugural class of ITS America’s ITS Hall of Fame, and in 2010 he was named the inaugural U.S. member of the ITS World Congress Hall of Fame.

Mr. Shields holds a BA in mathematics from Wichita State University and two degrees (an MA in history and an MBA) from the University of Chicago. In 2008, the University of Chicago Booth School of Business awarded Mr. Shields the Distinguished Alumni Award in the category of Entrepreneurship.