Executive History

Peter D. Michaels is the visionary, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Hop-on, Inc., a company that manufactures, develops and markets electronic cigarettes and wireless phones and accessories. Michaels is best known for using his own inventive, cutting-edge technology to create, build and market the first disposable cell phone, which is the most cost-effective CDMA phone on the market worldwide. The disposable cell phone, sold through Walgreens, was named one of the “Top ten Inventions of the Year” by Time magazine. Michaels is also the developer of the lowest-priced GSM cell phone as well, which was launched in February 2005 in Cannes. Since founding Hop-on, Inc., on March 16, 1993, Michaels has set the pace for Hop-on’s tremendous growth and success, and has branched out into many other successful ventures as a result.

Michaels developed and successfully closed many multi-million dollar real estate transactions, including many involving casinos, raw land, single family residences and commercial projects. He attended the communications school at the University of Southern California, where he was an All-American athlete earning a full scholarship for track and field, and completed the Entrepreneur Program in 1988. After leaving USC, Michaels worked with his father to develop raw land in Riverside County into the Lakes Project, a 1,900 single-family residence master-planned community. The Lakes Project was the third largest master-planned development in Riverside history.

Following the success of The Lakes, Michaels received a contract to develop the casino and resort for the Pechanga Band of Indians. He was the original developer of the Pechanga Resort and Casino, which is ranked high as one of the most popular casinos in California. Michaels also started World Wide Web Casinos, a company that ABC’s Nightline called “the largest Internet Casino in the world.”

As a proponent for corporate diversification of income, Michaels has launched several affiliated companies to assist in World Wide Web Casinos’ success. The purchase of a patent for portable change carts used in casinos resulted in a company called Casino a La Carte, which was responsible for the licensing and manufacturing of change carts for the casino industry world-wide. Furthermore, through PJ Promotions, Michaels garnered national and international exposure for World Wide Web Casinos as the promoter and sponsor of numerous professional boxing events. The affiliated Internet graphics development firm, Digital Age, proved to be yet another fruitful venture, producing web pages for well-known clients and earning a Silver Cindy Award for the graphic design of the Net Pirates web page for World Wide Web Casinos.

Michaels then sought to tie-in land based Casinos to the Internet, by opening the St. James Casino in Antigua. He also synched actual land-based slot machines to the Internet slot machines. His spin-off software company, Binky Roo Software, developed the most secure software on the market to allow Internet gaming customers to gamble in a safe environment secure from hackers. Michaels developed credit card processing long before similar types of commerce were available. Michaels software was also animating images on Netscape’s browser before Java script was readily available. In addition, he acted as a consultant to the Little Hoover Commission of California, a gaming commission convened to educate California’s elected officials regarding legal gambling ventures.

Michaels is the technological mastermind behind all of his companies and is directly responsible for their day to day operations. He assembled and led key personnel in their specific fields to assure the success of the entire operation including gaming lawyers, securities lawyers, financial consultants, gaming consultants, casino management, computer programming and graphic specialists.

Currently, Michaels is in the business of manufacturing electronic cigarette and cigar products and securing distributorships throughout the U.S. and foreign markets. The products are smoking alternatives that are tobacco free to promote a smokeless lifestyle.

Samuel Demissie, President

Mr. Demissie brings over 20 years of experience in management, leadership, and development roles. With over 7 years of practical experience in International business development across South East Asia and Latin America, he has successfully negotiated, executed and delivered various products to the major handset manufacturers in China, Chile and Mexico.

Mr. Demissie holds a B.A. and M.A. in Economics with emphasis on Econometrics, Linear Programing, optimization methods and statistics, from the University of Cincinnati. After graduation, He began his career at NEC America Inc., a leading manufacturer of electronic components, as a Sales Analyst and quickly grew in the organization performing key roles, such as budgeting, forecasting and product planning for TDMA. GSM and CDMA air interfaces. He developed a clear understanding of the Wireless Industry, handset design and manufacturing processes as well as business development strategies. After ten years of exemplary career, he decided to gain understanding of the semiconductor components that are used to develop and manufacture wireless handsets and moved to Philips Semiconductor to work with the CDMA System Solutions Division. In his role as marketing manager of system solutions, he was able to expand his knowledge of various technologies, and came to have a full knowledge of the design and manufacturing process through a combination of Receiver and transmitter chips, base band and various power management technologies. He utilized this knowledge to develop product development road map and led the marketing team to mar    ket a reference design with all the semiconductor components manufactured by the Company.

He closed various multi-million dollar contracts with major handset manufacturers in China and successfully managed the project through testing, implementation and delivery phases.

After Philips semi sold its division to a Chinese Company known as Holly Communications, he was given the role of VP, Global Marketing and continued to help the Company in their attempt to transfer the technology to China. When the transfer is completed, Mr. Demissie assembled a team of Hardware and Software engineers and joined the Hop-on team to help them complete the design and manufacturing of the disposable phone. The handset design and development arm of Hop-on was established and open its research and development office in Dallas, Texas. Mr. Demissie managed this team through various projects that transformed the Company into a global solutions and handset provider for various carriers in Latin America. Hop-on established long lasting relationship with manufacturers in China to bring its design to market.

Mr. Demissie led handset qualification projects to ensure interoperability, successful call completion and hand offs among various cell sites. After going through successful testing and qualification with various careers, the Hop-on 1806, the smallest GSM handset became the most popular handset in Chile and Mexico. Through Mr. Demissie's leadership, Hop-on introduced the smallest CDMA handset to the market. In addition, the design, manufacturing and sales of the Hop-on headset, based on RF technology, became the most cost effective and fully functional ear piece in the market.