Management Team

Hassan Ahmed is chairman of the board at Sonus Networks. Ahmed successfully lead Sonus as chairman, president and CEO from 1998 until June 2008; during that time Ahmed grew Sonus to be a market leader in IP-Voice infrastructure with five of the five largest global operators within it’s customer base. Prior to joining Sonus in 1998, Hassan was executive vice president and general manager of the Core Switching division of Ascend Communications, which grew to a $1 billion business under his direction. He served as chief technology officer and vice president of engineering prior to Ascend's acquisition of Cascade Communications. Previously, Hassan was president and founder of WaveAccess, a pioneer in high-speed wireless network products. He has also held the positions of product engineering manager, Analog Devices, and director, VSLI Systems, Motorola Codex. Additionally, he was an associate professor at the Graduate School of Management, Boston University. Hassan holds a BSEE and MSAE from Carleton University and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Stanford University.

Richard N. Nottenburg, Ph. D., is president and CEO and is responsible for the strategic direction and management at Sonus Networks. Prior to joining Sonus in June 2008, Nottenburg was executive vice president and chief strategy & technology officer at Motorola, responsible for shaping Motorola’s overall corporate strategy and technology agenda. Prior to joining Motorola, Nottenburg was vice president and general manager of Vitesse Semiconductor Corporation after its merger with Multilink Technology Corporation in 2003. From 1995 to 2003, Nottenburg served as president and chief executive officer of Multilink leading the company from inception to a successful initial public offering in 2001. From 1991 to 1998, Nottenburg was a tenured associate professor of electrical engineering at the University of Southern California. In 1984, Nottenburg joined AT&T Bell Laboratories where he co-invented what in 1988 was the world's fastest transistor. Nottenburg has authored more than 50 publications and presentations and holds eight U.S. patents. He has earned three degrees in electrical engineering – a doctorate from the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne in Lausanne, Switzerland, a master's from Colorado State University and a bachelor's from Polytechnic Institute of New York.

As chief financial officer, Richard Gaynor oversees Sonus' worldwide finance team and manages the financial strategy of one the fastest growing companies in the high-technology industry. He leads the implementation of several finance initiatives, including strengthening the company's information systems to streamline revenue conversion and quarterly accounting close processes, while providing real-time access to critical financial metrics. Richard brings Sonus nearly twenty years of financial management experience in publicly-held companies. Previously, he served as chief financial officer of Sycamore, expanding the company's market opportunities and improving its financial performance. Before his role at Sycamore, he served as the vice president and corporate controller of Manufacturers Services, Ltd. He has also served as chief financial officer of Evans and Sutherland Computer Corporation, and held various senior financial management positions with Cabletron Systems.

As chief technology officer, Vikram Saksena is responsible for Sonus' advanced technology direction, guiding the future development of Sonus' wireless solutions, and increasing Sonus' technical focus on external audiences and government agencies.

Vikram has over twenty years of senior management experience in the telecom and cable market. Before Sonus, he spent sixteen years at AT&T building their data network services, software and network infrastructure for Frame Relay, ATM, and IP. He became an AT&T fellow and chief technologist of the Data Networking Business Unit, responsible for service and technology innovations around IP quality of service, Multi-protocol Label Switching (MPLS), and IP-voice. Previously he served as chief technology officer and vice president of engineering of two start-up companies, MaxComm Technologies and Narad Networks, focusing on the development of next generation technologies for the DSL and cable markets. Vikram has published over one hundred papers and has been awarded over fifteen patents. He holds a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and is a senior member of the IEEE.

As senior vice president of global services, Matt Dillon oversees all customer service functions, including TAC and field support, as well as the network design, performance analysis, technical publications and technical training teams. Mr. Dillon has over twenty-six years of customer service leadership experience. Prior to joining Sonus in 2001, he was a founding member of Boston Technology (later purchased by Comverse) which created the de-facto standard in scalable central office based voicemail platforms for Bell Atlantic. Initially responsible for alpha product platform design, deployment and support, Matt’s role evolved into support initiatives for the expanding customer base of RBOC and Global Service providers across the US, EMEA and Asia-Pacific. Matt started his communications career at Fisk Telephone (later purchased by Centel) as a field engineer and over the years held a variety of positions, including contracts manager, branch service manager and regional operations director.

As vice president of Product operations, Gale England is responsible for global Product Operations, including Product Testing Operations, Corporate Quality, Corporate Operations (consisting of Engineering Program Management/Business Systems), Supply Chain Management, Order Fulfillment and Execution, Distribution and Logistics, Technical Operations, and Worldwide Procurement. In this role, he is focused on streamlining the Company's operational business model and increasing cost efficiency across the organization.

Prior to joining Sonus, Gale was the CEO and President of Numetrix Inc., a San Francisco based Software Applications Company, as well as, General Manager and VP of Engineering Development at VillaMontage Systems (a Broadband Access Solution funded by Convergence Partners). He has also held senior management positions at Digital Equipment Corp., Wellfleet Communications, Inc., Bay Networks, and Nortel Networks, Inc. Gale holds a Bachelor of Science degree from California State University, a certification in professional technical management from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and in professional engineering management from Boston University. Gale has been a consultant on corporate transformations for the Graduate School of Engineering Management at Stanford University for the past several years.

Charlie Gray joined Sonus Networks as vice president and general counsel in 2002. Prior to Sonus, Charlie served as general counsel of Appian Communications, a private, optical access networking company and as general counsel of ArrowPoint Communications, a web switching company, through its initial public offering and its $5.7 billion acquisition by Cisco Systems. Charlie was associate general counsel at Wang Global from 1996 through its $1.8 billion acquisition by Getronics, a Dutch computer services company, in 1999. He began his career as a trial attorney at Hale and Dorr from 1988 to 1996, where he specialized in technology and antitrust litigation. Prior to entering private practice, he clerked for The Honorable J. Lawrence Irving in the United States District Court for the Southern District of California. He is a graduate of Georgetown University and Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley.

As vice president and senior advisor at Sonus Networks, Jeff Mayersohn oversees all customer service and support functions, including business and network consulting, network design, installation and integration, systems engineering, problem resolution, program management, and training. Prior to joining Sonus in 1998, Jeff held the position of senior vice president at GTE Internetworking, where he was responsible for the deployment of the America Online network, and served as the principal designer of other large, mission-critical networks such as the U.S. Defense Data Network. Jeff spent nearly twenty years with BBN, holding a variety of management and technical positions, including senior vice president of engineering, senior vice president responsible for U.S. government networks, vice president of professional services, and director of network design and analysis. Jeff holds an AB from Harvard College and a M.Phil from Yale University, where he did graduate work in particle physics.

Mohammed Shanableh has been working for and teamed with some of the elite telecommunications industry leaders today. Almost exclusively, his talents and efforts have been concentrated on edge technology with a primary focus on voice architecture development and applications. His responsibilities have included sales, construction and development of R&D divisions that have pioneered the way for delivery of voice services over Packet Networks and has held various leadership roles of support test teams accountable for software and hardware deliveries.

Mr. Shanableh currently is responsible for Worldwide Sales and Sales Engineering for carrier customers for Sonus Networks. Prior to Sonus, He was responsible for setting the Customer Carrier Strategy for Telica, who has since been acquired by Lucent Technologies. Mohammed Also co-founded Valiant Networks. Mr. Shanableh was responsible for working with carriers and vendors in building the next generation voice and signaling networks. Mr. Shanableh had the responsibility for the OSS Integration/Voice R&D division at Williams Network Services. Prior to joining Williams’, Mr. Shanableh held executive positions with TeleHub Technologies Corporation, WorldCom and WilTel in various engineering leadership roles concentrating on many dynamic voice/data applications.

Mr. Shanableh has completed both his Bachelor and Masters of Science in Electrical Engineering at the University of Kansas.

Shailin Sehgal is vice president of product marketing & product management at Sonus Networks Inc. He is responsible for the strategy behind product delivery and product marketing to Sonus’ global markets. In addition, Shailin leads corporate marketing, aligning all go to market strategies for Sonus solutions worldwide.

Shailin brings over 19 years of experience in telecommunications product development, network planning and product management to this role, and strong expertise in addressing international markets. Prior to returning to Sonus at their headquarters in Westford, MA, Shailin was the founding managing director at Sonus Networks R&D center in Bangalore, India. Before moving to India, Shailin was director of Access Product Management at Sonus Networks in the US.

Prior to joining Sonus, Shailin held several key management positions at MCI (Verizon Business); from 1994 – 2000 he was the manager of the Advanced Network Architecture group and was awarded 3 patents. Shailin started his career in telecom industry in 1990 with Bell Northern Research (Nortel Networks). Shailin holds a Masters Degree in Computer Science from the University of Texas at Dallas, USA and a Bachelor Degree in Electronics Engineering from Nagpur University, India.