David King, Chairman and CEO, AirTight Networks

David King was formerly the Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Proxim, Inc. He joined Proxim in December 1992 as Vice President of Marketing, was appointed President and CEO in July 1993 and took the company public in December 1993, making Proxim the first publicly traded WLAN company. He grew Proxim from $4 million to over $100 million in annual revenues.

Before Proxim, David was Vice President of Marketing and Customer Services at Vitalink Communications Corporation, a pioneer in wide area data networking, where he served in various executive capacities from 1990 to 1992. From 1985 to 1990, he was a senior manager in the San Francisco office of McKinsey, where he was a leader in the firm's high technology and health care practices.

David holds an A.B. in Economics, as well as J.D. and M.B.A. degrees, all from Harvard University.

Kiran Deshpande, President, AirTight International

Kiran Deshpande brings 24 years of management and technology experience in the software industry. Kiran was formerly the Managing Director and CEO of Mahindra British Telecom (MBT). Kiran grew the company from US $7m in five years achieving over 60% CAGR on revenue and 110% CAGR on net profit. The company became one of the top software services companies from India.

Prior to MBT, Kiran was Senior Vice President of Software Services at IMR (later acquired by CGI). At IMR, Kiran conceptualized and successfully implemented software engineering research programs resulting in substantial growth of company leading to IPO at NASDAQ. Kiran spent 14 years at Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) in various executive, sales and engineering positions.

Kiran has a BSEE from Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, India and MSEE from Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai. He is a senior member of IEEE.

Mark Smith, Infoblox, Inc.

Mark Smith, Vice President Worldwide Sales, Infoblox Mark Smith is an Independent Board Member of AirTight Networks and brings over twenty years of sales and sales management experience in network security, networking, computer systems and client/server software.

He was vice president of sales for two of the most successful start-ups, Network Peripherals (NPI) and NetScreen, which became the top IPO’s of 1994 and 2004 respectively.

Prior to Network Peripherals, Mark was with Digital Communications Associates and Zenith Data Systems. His responsibilities included all aspects of sales, regional marketing, administration, support engineering and budget for the western region. His accomplishments are consistent #1 position in sales and consistently meeting and exceeding targets.

Mark has BA in Political Science from Wheaton College Wheaton, Illinois.

Faysal A. Sohail, Managing Director, CMEA Capital

Faysal Sohail joined CMEA Ventures in 2002 as a Managing Director. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Applied Wave Research, Catalytic, Inovys Corporation, Pyxis Technology, Symwave and Telsima; and Faysal previously served on the board of Alien Technology. Mr. Sohail brings with him more than a decade of senior executive experience in engineering, marketing and business development. He was CEO of Cadabra Design Automation and managed its acquisition by Numerical Technologies (NMTC) where he served as Sr. Vice President of Worldwide Field Operations.

Prior to Numerical Technologies, Faysal was Senior Vice President of Corporate Strategy for Synopsys Inc. (SNPS). In 1990, he co-founded Silicon Architects, which was acquired by Synopsys in 1995. Earlier in his career, Faysal spent several years in IC design engineering and marketing positions with Actel Corporation (ACTL) and LSI Logic Corporation (LSI).

Mr. Sohail holds a Bachelor of Science degree in computer engineering from the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign), where he also served on the College of Engineering Advisory Board (CEAB) and is Chairman of the Board of the San Jose Education Foundation.

Eric Zimits, Managing Director, Granite Ventures

After spending a long career in finance and investments with a focus on the communications sector, Eric Zimits joined Granite Ventures in 2000 to focus on investing in early-stage communications and components companies.
Prior to Granite, Eric was Managing Director and head of the Communications Research Group at Hambrecht & Quist (later Chase H&Q), where he sponsored several venture capital investments, including: Amber Networks, acquired by Nokia; InterNAP (NASDAQ: INAP); Paragon Software, acquired by Openwave; WavTrace, acquired by Harris Corporation; and VocalData, acquired by Tekelec.

Prior to H&Q, Eric launched a research effort in the telecommunications and wireless industries as a General Partner at Volpe, Welty & Company. He also held analyst positions at Rauscher Pierce Refsnes and Morgan Keegan & Company.

Eric’s years of experience tracking the communications industry teamed with his financial savvy enables him to guide portfolio companies in making sound business decisions based on a deep understanding of the marketplace. He currently serves on the Boards of Directors for AirTight Networks and Quantance.

Eric received a B.S.E. from Purdue University and an M.B.A. from Tulane University's A.B. Freeman School of Business.

J. Alberto Yépez. Trident Capital

J. Alberto Yépez is a Managing Director in Fund VII at Trident Capital focusing on Enterprise Software and IT Security. Prior to Joining Trident, Yépez was Vice President of Identity Management and Security Strategy at Oracle after Oracle acquired Thor Technologies, Inc. At Thor, Yépez was Chairman, President and CEO leading it from the pre-revenue stage to rapid growth and global expansion. Yépez has had a more than 20 year career building successful global businesses in enterprise security and infrastructure software. Besides AirTight, he currently serves on the board of Trident following portfolio companies including HyTrust (a virtualization security and compliance company). In addition, he actively works with other companies in the portfolio as an advisor to management, including Arxan, TriCipher and Voltage.

Yépez holds a B.S. in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, and Electronic Physics from the University of San Francisco.

Stu Phillips, Walden International

Mr. Phillips has a rare combination of in-depth operating expertise coupled with a successful track record in venture capital. Prior to founding Ridgelift Ventures, he was a General Partner at US Venture Partners where he led investments in communications, software and services companies, such as Cacheflow, @Road, Procket Networks, Flyswat, Merlin Networks and Force10 Networks.

Before becoming a venture capitalist, Mr. Phillips gained over 20 years of operating experience, most recently at Cisco Systems where he was the VP of Central Engineering responsible for the strategy and development of the Cisco IOS. In addition, he held operating roles at Tandem Computers, Logica, and ICL.

Mr. Phillips holds a BS in Electronics (summa cum laude) from the University of Waldes in Cardiff, UK.

Dr. Maximilian Schroeck Managing Partner, Cipio Partners

Prior to joining Cipio Partners, Maximilian was Managing Director of Agilent Ventures, Palo Alto, CA, overseeing Agilent Technologies' global venture investments in communication and measurement technologies as well as biotech. While at Agilent, the world's leading high-tech test & measurement company, Maximilian was also in charge of the firm's corporate strategy group and new business development function, where he launched and managed efforts in nano-scale measurement and other emerging technology areas.

Before joining Agilent in early 2001, Maximilian was Vice President and Partner with A.T. Kearney, a global management consulting firm. Based in Silicon Valley, he co-led the EDS/A.T.Kearney Venture Fund after a distinguished, decade-long consulting career in Europe and the U.S. advising many of the world's leading high technology companies on corporate strategy issues around growth, innovation and operational effectiveness. Maximilian holds MBA and Doctorate degrees in Strategic Management from Munich University, Germany.

  • Customer Testimonials

    Government agencies, power companies, airlines, and commercial industries all have cyber components and depend on the secure transmission of data for their successful operations, which is why we chose AirTight for the wireless intrusion prevention we provided to an important Federal agency.
    Gina English, Senior Network Engineer at Serco-NA

    AirTight is a perfect fit for our risk-based program. AirTight's innovative technology will help the agency mitigate wireless risks to our network that might be introduced accidentally or maliciously.
    Phil Heneghan, Chief Information Security Officer, US Agency for International Development (USAID)
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