About Us

The team behind Zomes.

Why Zomes?

We are Shereef and Karim Bishay, two brother immigrants from Egypt living in California for the past decade. We thought of the idea of Zomes in response to the recent uptick in California fires; we didn’t want to build anything that would burn!

We fell in love with Bioceramic Cement and its properties: Sturdy, light, earth-friendly, and incredibly resilient, and Zomes was born. Having been part of startups for the past 20 years, we were both suffering from “Startupitus” and didn’t want to build vaporware or promise that we would change the housing industry with this single app, etc., etc.

We want to build something beautiful and real that will outlast us and be there for our children and their children. We are so proud of what we’ve built with our team and are equally as excited to share it with you.

Karim Bishay

Karim is a serial entrepreneur and has founded and managed over six companies in the last 15 years. He was head of admissions and Engineering Empathy lead at Dev Bootcamp, which started the now popular industry of developer boot camps.

He is also one of the founding members of Learners Guild, a new educational model for developers targeting at-risk and low-access communities with a viable, debt-free alternative to education. He has two master’s degrees, one in Pastoral Counseling (Highest Honors, Holy Cross, 2008) and an MBA (High Honors, Boston University, 2008). He has been a facilitator at the Interchange Counseling Institute (2011-2013) and for the YES! Leveraging Privilege for Social Change jams (2010-201).

Karim lives and loves in Oakland with the love of his life, Marielle Amrhein, and their children Noor and Malak. He spends time dancing, hiking, and adventuring externally and internally when possible.

Michael O’Neil

Michael O'Neil brings 20+ years in manufacturing operations leadership and a passion for process and continuous improvement. Most recently, Michael has been helping organizations implement and start down their own lean journey as a consultant for the last 3 years. Applying decades of experience, he is excited to be a part of and build up Zomes operations to position the company for significant growth. He continues to serve clients as a career/life coach and is on the Board of Directors for 3 companies.

Michael is new to Northern California and enjoys hiking (completing 300 miles of the AT in 2018), golf (but it's been a while), and volunteering to serve his community. He is VERY interested in living in a Zome full time.

David Tunstall

David Tunstall brings 15+ years of manufacturing and sales experience in the building products industry .Most recently, David has been managing sales in the Bay Area for Simonton Windows & Doors, a national company under Cornerstone Building Brands. His background started in production and manufacturing then transitioned into sales, giving him a versatile understanding of what it takes to be successful on both sides of a business. David’s keen attention to detail and customer satisfaction has made him highly successful in his field. These are some of the key attributes he’s eager to bring to the Zomes team as we set to embark on this amazing journey.

David is a Northern California native who resides in Brentwood with his better half, Genea Tunstall, and their kids David and Faith. In his leisure he enjoys sports, especially football, outdoor activities, traveling and quality time with his loved ones.

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