Mahesh Balan
mahesh@pravici.com · mahesh.balan@cgu.edu
Enterprise delivery leader, founder, and doctoral researcher. I focus on systems that ship—GenAI and classical platforms, Enterprise Blockchain Technology, health wallets, federated learning, and teaching—so ideas become measurable outcomes for organizations and patients.
Executive summary
Enterprise AI transformation leader and former Oracle/Siebel Technical Director with 30+ years building and scaling revenue-generating consulting organizations and delivering enterprise systems across Fortune 500 and public-sector clients. I am a leader in applying blockchain technology to enterprise software: Pravici’s coalition loyalty platform is built on the invention claimed in my U.S. patent US11854038B1 — a multi-party, multi-point-type decentralized loyalty system using a permission-based distributed ledger for promotion, point issuance, and redemption. Founder & CEO of pravici.com, scaling consulting to $2M–$4.5M ARR and launching AI-enabled SaaS platforms. Hands-on with GenAI and LLM deployments (ChatGPT API, RAG, vector databases, evaluation, monitoring, governance) and experienced leading customer-facing engineers through workshops, structured adoption, and post-go-live optimization. Published IEEE researcher and U.S. patent holder; doctoral candidate with intensive AI research, model deployment, and teaching at Claremont Graduate University. I am a Student Fellow of the AI for Humanity Lab at CGU, focused on responsible, human-centered AI.
Core themes: AI success & adoption · enterprise delivery · customer enablement & workshops · GenAI / LLM & RAG · evaluation & observability · responsible AI & data privacy · APIs · PostgreSQL / pgVector · cross-functional leadership (sales, product, engineering).
Doctoral research: health wallets & federated learning
Doctor of Technology (AI & Healthcare), Claremont Graduate University — expected graduation Fall 2026. Two-plus years of intensive AI research, model deployment, and responsible AI study. I am a Student Fellow at the AI for Humanity Lab, where we advance AI grounded in human values, ethics, and real-world impact.
Key AI coursework completed: AI for Digital Transformation, AI for Digital Transformation Practicum, Natural Language Processing, Generative AI and Applications, Deep Learning & Computer Vision, Machine Learning for Healthcare, Persuasive Technology & Ethics, Introduction to Use-Inspired Research.
MyWellWallet — a health wallet I am developing as part of my doctoral work. It now runs the latest MedGemma 4B-parameter model locally for natural-language interaction, custom-tuned for medical terminology, alongside a Model Context Protocol (MCP) client connected to a FHIR MCP server I am building (mcp-fhir-server.com). The goal is a patient-centered, 360-degree view of health data with conversational access throughout.
My research extends MyWellWallet to participate in decentralized model building through federated learning: enabling collaborative improvement of privacy-sensitive models across participants without pooling raw PHI, while aligning incentives and trust with on-chain accountability where appropriate.
Federated Learning with SpEG Scoring
Title: FLAI Protocol: Decentralized Federated Learning with On-Chain Rewards and sPEG-Based Contribution Scoring
Description: A blockchain-coordinated federated-learning protocol pairing decentralized training with tamper-evident ledger records, on-chain reward mechanics, and sPEG-style contribution scoring so participant value is measurable and equitable.
Links: ICCE conference paper PDF · EDAS session listing
FedLoRA Fine-Tuning with TurboAggregate Secret Sharing
Title: Decentralized Federated LoRA Fine-Tuning for On-Device LLMs: A Blockchain-Based Approach
Description: FedLoRA-based fine-tuning for on-device large language models, coordinated via a blockchain layer and secured with TurboAggregate aggregation and secret-sharing–style cryptography to shrink communication overhead while resisting inference from individual updates.
Link: BCCA submission PDF
Signals for Bitcoin Market Intelligence
Theme paper: Reddit Versus News: Signals for Bitcoin Market Intelligence
Full title: Institutional vs. Retail Information Channels for Cryptocurrency Market Intelligence: A Comparative Analysis of Signal Quality and Decision Support Implications
Description: Work from the OasisCoin research line comparing alternative information channels—from social (Reddit) versus news-derived signals through institutional disclosures versus retail-oriented feeds—for cryptocurrency market intelligence, with implications for trader decision-support quality.
Links: AMCIS camera-ready PDF · AMCIS 2026 program
Broader interests include agentic technology and user ownership of data and consent, verifiable credentials, decentralized web nodes, self-sovereign identity, and cryptography (threshold signatures, differential privacy, homomorphic encryption).
Entrepreneurship & products
- Founder & CEO · pravici.com · 2013–present Scaled an enterprise consulting portfolio to $2M–$4.5M ARR; owned P&L, pipeline, executive relationships, and delivery. Clients have included General Motors, Vauxhall Motors, Opel, Groupe PSA, Zebra Technologies, Quest Software, NXP Semiconductor (Freescale), and realtor.com. Built and deployed Pravici SaaS: Pravici TLP, RnR, WPX, and PocketCred — verifiable credentials for health, lifelong learning, and more using SMART on FHIR.
- Fractional CTO · MyNuGen.ai · 2025–present Leading ChatGPT-based retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) architecture for the platform’s agentic AI college admissions and coaching stack (OpenAI API, pgVector, similarity modeling, evaluation workflows).
Additional product engineering (selected)
- Bespoke blockchain loyalty (Ethereum, Hyperledger Fabric) for an automotive OEM.
- Verifiable credentials and NFT-based learning and employment records using OpenBadges 3.0 and ERC-721 / ERC-1155, with OpenZeppelin.
- NFT marketplace for carbon credits on Polygon using Infura and Pinata.
Teaching & speaking
Claremont Graduate University
- Teaching Assistant: AI for Digital Transformation (IST 601)
- Teaching Assistant: AI Practicum (IST 697)
- Teaching Assistant: Machine Learning for Healthcare (IST 347)
- Teaching Assistant: AI-Powered Enterprise Systems and Intelligent Supply Chains (IST 314)
- Teaching Assistant: AI for Humanity (TNDY 409D)
- IEEE ICCE 2026 — Conference tutorial
Harvey Mudd College / AXL Conference 2026
- May 21, 2026 — Lightning talks on the societal impacts of GenAI, (Re)Imagining Liberal Arts & STEM Education in the Age of GenAI (AXL Conference 2026), Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, CA. Talk: Local LLMs, Global Impact: Reimagining AI Ethics Through Patient-Owned Health Wallets — MyWellWallet as a case study for local/medical LLMs, patient-mediated FHIR, federated learning, and the environmental & ethical tradeoffs of on-device vs. cloud GenAI. Session page · Slides (Google)
Industry & community (verifiable credentials, privacy, health)
Earlier experience
- Technical Director · Oracle / Siebel · 2000–2013 Led 30+ enterprise CRM deployments; partnered with sales and product; coached cross-functional engineering teams. Sample clients: Toyota Financial Services, Nissan Motor Acceptance, Hyundai Motors, Toshiba; Gilead Sciences; Motorola SPS; Cymer (ASML); Honeywell; McAfee; Nationwide Financial Services; Peregrine Systems; Jenny Craig.
- SAP BASIS Manager & Technical Systems Specialist · City of Phoenix · 1990–2000 SAP ERP for City of Phoenix Finance: BASIS operations, reliability, security, disaster recovery, and compliance. Phoenix Police: mission-critical 911 dispatch, criminal history, and AFIS systems — high availability, fault tolerance, data integrity, and 24×7 operations in regulated environments.
Education
- Doctor of Technology candidate (AI & Healthcare), Claremont Graduate University — expected Fall 2026
- Master of Science, Computer Science, Arizona State University, 1996 — GPA 4.0/4.0
- Bachelor of Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Birla Institute of Technology & Science, 1986 — GPA 9.6/10, first in class
Patent, papers & articles
- U.S. Patent US11854038B1 — Multi-party decentralized loyalty on a permissioned ledger
- AMCIS 2026 (accepted, Reno NV) — Institutional vs. Retail Information Channels for Cryptocurrency Market Intelligence (camera-ready PDF) · OasisCoin (GitHub) · Conference program
- IEEE ICCE 2026 — FLAI Protocol (full PDF)
- IEEE BCCA (submitted) — FedLoRA & Turbo Aggregate for communication-efficient federated learning: submission PDF
- Advancing employee behavior analysis through synthetic data (ABMs, GANs, statistical models)
- Unveiling employee behavior dynamics through Wolfram cellular automata
- If data is the new oil, where is your health data?
- “Member as API” — Interoperability rule & verifiable credentials
- Loyalty and health — improving decisions with a nudge