Management Team

The Virtela executive team combines world-class technology, consulting, and managed services expertise with award-winning, multinational savvy gained at BT Infonet, Equant, Qwest, Sprint, UUNet, IBM, and other industry leaders. This diverse and experienced management team directs and executes Virtela's market strategies and technical initiatives, and guides the company's fast-paced growth.

 

B.V. Jagadeesh, President and CEO

B.V. Jagadeesh is a highly regarded business executive with a proven track record of managing and building market leaders. Previously, Jagadeesh served as Group Vice President and General Manager of Citrix Systems' Application Networking Group after the company's acquisition of NetScaler, where he served as President and CEO. During his tenure at NetScaler, Jagadeesh grew the company to become the market leader in Application Delivery Systems, leading to its acquisition by Citrix for $325 million. Prior to NetScaler, he co-founded Exodus Communications. While with Exodus, he successfully helped the company grow from start-up to a leader in the Web co-location market and was instrumental in leading its highly successful initial public offering (IPO). Jagadeesh was also president and CEO of 3Leaf Systems, which was sold in a private transaction, and has held various management and engineering positions at Novell and 3Com.

Jagadeesh serves as chairman of the board of NetMagic Solutions, a leading IT services company in India, and was a director of Ankeena (acquired by Juniper Networks) and Ocarina Networks (acquired by Dell).

Jagadeesh holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Bangalore University and a master's degree in electrical engineering from University of Bombay, India.

bvjagadeesh@virtela.net

Ted Studwell, Senior Vice President, Engineering and Operations

Ted is responsible for delivering expertly designed networks and services to Virtela customers including responsibility for the company's 24x7 Network Operations Center. Previously with Qwest, Ted led the planning and engineering of the company's data products. He drove the design and construction of Qwest's Frame Relay and ATM network and helped Qwest gain market share with major corporate customers. Earlier, Ted was responsible for budgeting, planning and engineering Sprint's data networks, and leading the company into new data and Internet service markets. He led the effort to grow Sprint's Frame Relay network, managed the growth of the company's Internet network, and managed the first widespread use of packet over SONET. Ted was also responsible for building the first private IP network used for Intranet services. Before joining Sprint, Ted worked in communications systems at Aeronautical Radio, COMSAT, and General Electric. He has served the U.S. Navy in active and reserve capacities as a submarine officer for over 25 years, achieving the rank of Captain.

tstudwell@virtela.net

Ron Haigh, Vice President, Customer Solutions and Cloud Architecture

Ron Haigh is responsible for customer solutions, cloud architecture and delivery. Ron has an extensive technology background in the fields of scientific computing, high performance networks, and nuclear physics diagnostics.

Prior to Virtela, Ron was a senior member of the technical staff at Qwest and a R&D group leader at Lawrence Livermore National Labs (LLNL). While at Qwest, he was a on the first board of directors of the Optical Internetworking Forum. During his years at LLNL, he lead R&D projects for multiple DoE, DoD, and DARPA programs and received DOE's Award of Excellence. He holds five patents and has co-authored more than 20 technical papers.

Ron holds a master's degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and a bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Missouri-Rolla.

rhaigh@virtela.net

Jian Li, Chief Technology Officer and Vice President, Technical Solutions

Jian is responsible for Virtela's IP-based network architecture and customer network design services. He ensures that customer technology requirements are met and identifies new and emerging technologies for the company's service portfolio. He also is responsible for channel partnerships in the Asia Pacific region. Before joining Virtela, Jian was senior director of IP engineering and emerging technologies at Qwest, where he founded the IP architecture team and led the design of the company's OC-48 and OC-192 nationwide IP backbone. Previously, Jian was a principal architect of Sprint's IP service backbone. He also designed and built Global One's international IP service backbone. Earlier, Jian held network architect positions at Rice University and the University of Kansas. He was also a major contributor to the design and deployment of the first commercial Internet network in China, sponsored by China Telecom in 1994.

jli@virtela.net

Sandip Gupta, Vice President of Sales and Business Development

Sandip is responsible for sales and business development at Virtela. He has held leadership positions in the service provider industry for more than 15 years. Most recently, Sandip was the president of Netmagic Solutions, a leading managed service provider specializing in data center, managed hosting and remote infrastructure management services for global customers.  Prior to Netmagic, he was president and CEO of Ensim, a provider of hosting automation solutions to more than 200 service providers around the world. He holds an MBA from the Stern School of Business at New York University and a Bachelor's Degree with Honors in Mechanical Engineering from the MN National Institute of Technology, Allahabad, India.

sgupta@virtela.net

Liza Adams, Vice President of Marketing

Liza is responsible for customer solutions, corporate marketing, product marketing, demand generation, and marketing communications.

Prior to Virtela, Liza was the Vice President of Marketing for Level 3 Communications' Business Markets Group, responsible for marketing data, voice, and converged enterprise services. She also held various strategy, marketing, and product management lead positions at WilTel, the service provider that launched the world's first Layer 2 networking services for enterprises. Early in her career at WilTel, as an Applications Engineer, Liza designed some of the largest and most complex enterprise data networks in the world.

She was also Vice President at TeleChoice, Inc., an industry analyst and marketing and strategy consulting firm. She worked with technology vendors and service providers to market enabling technology products and networking services, respectively. Liza is a co-author of Frame Relay Internetworking and a contributor to ATM for Dummies.

Liza has a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Missouri - Rolla.

ladams@virtela.net

Mark Hansard, Vice President, Security and Systems

Mark is responsible for creating Virtela's world-class network management, business systems and information technology security practices. Previously, during a 15-year tenure at Sprint, Mark established the enterprise-wide security architecture for Sprint's local, long distance, and PCS networks and systems environments. He also created Sprint's IT security policy and security requirements for the company's major initiatives. Mark built the team responsible for network and systems support for the company's Internet/Intranet IP services, leading the design of Sprint's first Web hosting systems architecture. He also led the team that created Sprint's LAN/WAN support systems, private line services center, and customer service management center. Earlier with Sprint, Mark was responsible for systems design and analysis for network services provisioning. For GTE Sprint, he led the project to integrate SPC Communications and GTE's regional network service.

mhansard@virtela.net

Andy Funk, Vice President, Global Access Strategy

Andy is instrumental in growing and maintaining Virtela's extensive global network footprint by developing and managing strategic vendor relationships worldwide.  Andy drives Virtela's value by aggressively negotiating rate structures, contract terms, and service guarantees to deliver competitive pricing and optimal network performance to customers.  Since joining Virtela in 2000, Andy has held key roles including the development and management of Virtela's network provisioning team and the design of the company's award-winning automated provisioning system.  Prior to Virtela, Andy led the access pricing strategy team for Qwest Communications.  While with Qwest, Andy was also responsible for developing product strategy for Qwestlink local fiber services and designing the network architecture for Qwestlink's 25 metropolitan markets. Previously, he was responsible for setting standard pricing and performing competitive analyses for all of Qwest's data services (Frame Relay, Private Line, ATM, and DIA).

Andy holds degrees in Finance and Economics and has an MBA from University of Denver, Daniels College of Business.

afunk@virtela.net

Gary Schlisner, Vice President of Finance and Controller

Gary is responsible for the financial management of Virtela, including accounting, financial reporting and planning, and related systems. With Virtela since the beginning of the company, Gary has served as Director of Finance and Controller prior to assuming his current post. Prior to Virtela, Gary served as senior financial analyst for Qwest Communications, where he was responsible for budgeting, analysis, and accounting for the telecommunications company's field operations and IP network engineering group. Earlier in his career, Gary managed the programming costs and analysis team for Primestar (now DirecTV) and managed a team in regulatory compliance at Tele-Communications Inc. (now Comcast). He is also a certified public accountant.

gschlisner@virtela.net

Jane Morrissey, Vice President, Corporate Communications

Jane is responsible for directing Virtela's communications programs, including media and analyst relations and marketing communications initiatives. Prior to joining Virtela, Jane built the technology public relations practice at Qwest, most recently serving as group director for media relations where she led media and analyst relations programs across the company's product initiatives. Earlier in her career, Jane was a technology journalist chronicling the high-tech industry as a freelance writer and editor for publications such as eWeek (formerly PC Week), PC World, Upside, and Investor's Business Daily. She previously spent eight years as a PC Week editor, covering business and technology news of the networking and software industries from the leading trade magazine's Silicon Valley bureau and Boston headquarters.

jmorrissey@virtela.net