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, technical initiatives and guides the company's fast-paced growth.

• Vab Goel, CEO
• Kurt Johnson, Vice President of Sales, Eastern Region
• Matthew DiMarsico, Vice President of Sales, Western Region
• John Powell, Vice President, Global Channels
• Liza Adams, Vice President of Marketing
• Ted Studwell, Vice President, Engineering and Operations
• Jian Li, CTO and Vice President, Network Consulting Services
• Mark Hansard, Vice President, Security and Systems
• Gary Schlisner, Vice President of Finance and Controller
• Jane Morrissey, Vice President, Corporate Communications

Vab is the CEO of Virtela, the leading global network solutions company he founded in April 2000. Vab is also a general partner with Norwest Venture Partners, a premier venture capital firm, where he focuses his efforts on systems, services and Internet investments.

Previously, Vab served Qwest as vice president of emerging technologies, a group he founded. In that position, he was responsible for identifying new networking technologies. He also fostered strategic relationships with start-up companies such as Qtera, Corvis, Sonus Networks, Redback Networks, Siara Systems, Juniper Networks, and Extreme Networks. Earlier, as vice president of IP network engineering and advanced technology, he created and implemented the "Qwest IP Network and Data Center Strategy", designed to enable seamless services with open standards and a strong customer focus.

Prior to joining Qwest, Vab worked at Sprint, where he was a principal architect for the Sprint Internet backbone and contributed to the company's IP and optical network strategy. He created the optical Network Strategy which drove the world's first IP over Sonet and the first IP over DWDM network. He played a key role in the Global One IP network, a venture partnership among France Telecom, Sprint, and Deutsche Telecom.

Vab serves on the board of Virtela as well as LifeSize Communications and Unisfair, and has worked closely with Extreme Networks. Other investments include C2C Pte. Ltd., Qumranet (acquired by Red Hat), Sonoa Systems, Veveo and Winphoria Networks (acquired by Motorola).
vgoel@virtela.net

Kurt is responsible for sales and service delivery for the Eastern Region of the U.S., as well as the Midwest and clients in Europe. He brings with him over 15 years of sales, customer care and operations leadership experience. Prior to joining Virtela, Kurt was Regional Manager of the Central Region at BT Infonet, where his region led the country in new client wins and customer satisfaction. In earlier roles at BT Infonet, EDS, MCI and Baxter Healthcare, he consistently exceeded all sales targets. Kurt received his Master of Business Administration from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management and is active in the Chicago community serving as a board member and advisor to several non-profit organizations.
kjohnson@virtela.net

Matt is responsible for sales and service delivery for the Western Region of the U.S., which includes Texas and clients in Asia. Matt brings a combined 15 years of experience in global IT markets, including management experience in IT outsourcing, integration services, managed network services, security services and consulting. Prior to joining Virtela, Matt held management positions within BT Global Services, Infonet and Orange Business Services, including Head of Integration Services and Director of Channel Development. He received his Master of Business Administration from Southern Methodist University's Cox School of Business, where he remains an active alumnus.
mdimarsico@virtela.net

John is responsible for Virtela's worldwide channel sales organization. He brings more than 20 years of diverse management experience in the telecommunications industry. A successful thought leader who has founded two companies, John possesses a strong track record of growing sales organizations during difficult times. In his past two positions at Equant and BT Infonet, he took over sales organizations that had experienced several years of declining revenue and restored them to double-digit growth.

Most recently, John was an area vice president of sales at Equant, responsible for the company's sales of network and IT solutions in the western U.S. During 2004, new sales orders for his organization increased by 58%. Prior to this position, John was a regional vice president of sales at Infonet. During a three year period when most telecommunication companies were experiencing severe revenue erosion in the U.S., John doubled revenue in his region. He has held several executive positions at BT Infonet, including founder and managing director of its subsidiary, ESG Communications, and CFO of Infonet USA.

John started his career in the telecommunications industry working for a subsidiary of NYNEX after having been involved in the start-up of a national magazine.
jpowell@virtela.net

Liza is responsible for marketing of Virtela's managed network services, working closely with CIOs, IT directors and their staffs to understand their global business needs and designing personalized managed services that deliver exceptional performance and support. She brings over 15 years of experience developing, launching and marketing enterprise network services.

Liza was the Vice President of Marketing for Level 3 Communications' Business Markets Group, building and launching wide area network services to enterprises. 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. For enterprise companies, she was influential in helping them make purchase, design and implementation decisions about IP VPN, MPLS, Ethernet, Frame Relay, ATM, transport and managed services. Liza is a published author and a contributor to several networking books, white papers and articles.

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

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

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. 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

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

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 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