Karim is the founder and CEO of Baliston, the first company dedicated to smart footwear in the world. He invented the original design for Baliston's technology and has overseen it from concept through commercialization.

Karim graduated from the Ecole des Mines de Nancy where he studied Industrial Systems Engineering. After graduating in Innovation Marketing and Technology Transfer, he setup his first company in 1993. Over his career, he has worked for and created several footwear brands, invented many “firsts” in the footwear industry, and received numerous awards and honors. His most notable awards and honors include receiving the Best Innovation of the Year from the French Footwear Federation in 2006 and in 2008, he was awarded by French President Jacques Chirac the Knight of the National Order of Merit. Karim has also served as an engineering expert for the European Commission for technology transfer and innovation audit.

Karim Oumnia's achievements :

• International award for the best shoe of the year in 2001 in Paris
• In 1998, he invented the lightest soccer shoe in the world
• In 2000, created the first soccer shoe designed specifically for women
• In 2006, received the Best Innovation of the Year from the French Footwear Federation
• In 2008, awarded by French President Jacques Chirac: Knight of the National Order of Merit <has context menu>
• In 2014, he created the first smart connected insole with heating technology
• In 2015, he developed and launched the first auto-lacing connected shoe
• In 2017, he invented a smart shoe for workers that detects back pain, injury and fatigue when standing long hours or doing manual labor

Malik is Baliston's Co-founder and President, leading all functional areas of the company. With a deep understanding of the wearables and shoe market, Malik has led the team developing and launching the Baliston by STARCK collection. 

He has 10 years of experience in the footwear industry helping brands launch connected footwear such as the Digitsole PodoSmart or the Jimmy Choo Voyager Boots, launched in 2018.

Malik has a Bachelors degree in International Business as well as a Master degree in Communication and Digital Marketing from ICN Nancy (France).

Phil directs the product design, product management, customer support, and UX/UI teams at Baliston.

He has held product leadership roles at industry-leading consumer electronics companies such as Hitachi, Palm, Nokia, Amazon, and Garmin for more than 25 years.

Phil has a Bachelor of Science degree from Stanford University School of Engineering and an MBA from Santa Clara University.

Chris oversees the development of biomechanical and physiological educational and recommendation material for Baliston’s customers. He has over 25 years of experience in sports and clinical sciences, in higher education teaching, and research with an emphasis on human movement. Chris is a licensed chiropractor, certified strength and conditioning specialist, formerly certified athletic trainer, and still has a private practice. He is a Doctor of Chiropractic, a PhD(abd) in Exercise Science, and holds a Master of Science in Exercise Science and a Bachelor of Science in Sport Management and Health Fitness.

Denis directs the organization's software engineering and quality teams at Baliston.

For over 15 years, he has served in leadership roles within the Information Technology sector at companies including eProseed, Digicash Payments, and as the owner of IRLMobile.

Denis specializes in iOS and Android development, with expertise in product research and development. He is an expert in mobile and enterprise applications. Additionally, his expertise extends to programming languages and technologies including Ruby, MySQL, Oracle DB, JavaScript, and Java.

François leads the biomechanical research and development team at Baliston. This team develops the algorithms and other technology in Baliston’s shoes that identify, analyse, quantify, and qualify customers’ foot movements. He worked for 8 years at the Volkswagen Group as an expert in biomechanics to improve driver and passenger safety. François has an engineering degree from the Ecole des Mines de Saint-Etienne (France) and has a PhD in Biomechanics from the Marseille University (France).