MetaSwitch - Executives: leadership and management experience

MetaSwitch is led by a highly experienced management team who have been developed by the parent company, Data Connection, and by the experience of working with other major industry players such as IBM, Cisco, Microsoft and Nortel. We are proud of our record of

Prior to founding Data Connection, Ian spent eleven years with IBM UK, where he played a major role in the late 1970's transition of IBM from a large mainframe, list price company to a major network provider offering more flexible terms and conditions. He is also actively involved in a UK government initiative to improve the effectiveness and relevance of the national education and training system to meet both the aspirations of young people and the needs of employers. His significant contributions in this area were recognized by Queen Elizabeth II in 2005 with the award of Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).

As CEO of MetaSwitch, Graeme continues his passion of building a customer-centric organization that he demonstrated as CEO of Data Connection's Internet Applications Division, a position he held from 2000 until the merger of the company's softswitching and applications divisions in 2007. In that role, he transformed a technology-oriented business unit into an industry leader in telecom applications, in the process establishing relationships with many of the world's largest service providers.

Graeme joined Data Connection in 1985 after gaining a BSc in Computer Science from Glasgow University. Similar to the majority of the company's senior managament team, Graeme worked his way through engineering and customer support roles on the way to establishing himself as a world-class business leader.

Outside of work, Graeme is a passionate golfer and enjoys living within easy driving distance of some of Scotland's most glorious links courses, including Carnoustie and St. Andrews.

John Lazar joined Data Connection in 1987 as a software engineer, and has worked in several different divisions in the company, covering both communication/networking and Internet applications. John was a key member of the founding team that established MetaSwitch, and he led the organization from 2003 to 2007, overseeing the organization's growth from initial market entry to a market leadership position with $50M+ revenue and over 250 customers worldwide.

In his role as President and COO, John's focus is on shaping a sustainable long-term strategy for technology and product evolution; building products and solutions that meet MetaSwitch's customers' needs while exceeding their already high expectations for world-class quality; operational growth; and marketing � where he will continue to work closely with MetaSwitch customers and the industry.

John graduated from the University of Oxford, United Kingdom, with an MSc in Computation and a DPhil in History. His interests include soccer, music and art - and spending time with his family.

Chris joined Data Connection as one of the founding team in 1981. Prior to joining Data Connection he acquired a degree in Computing from Cambridge University and worked for IBM on mainframe and communications systems software.

In the early years at Data Connection, Chris was lead architect for all the company's communications products. Next, he was responsible for the creation and development of Data Connection's successful real time conferencing business. In 1995 this led to a strategic relationship to provide Microsoft with core technology for NetMeeting (Microsoft's entry into the data conferencing space). Before joining MetaSwitch, Chris oversaw Data Connection's product strategy for messaging and conferencing solutions, targeted at a broad spectrum of service providers.

In his current role with responsibility for product management and long-term technology strategy, Chris leverages his years of experience, working closely with partners and customers, to ensure that MetaSwitch delivers superb end-to-end solutions that meet carriers' requirements not just today, but well into the future.

Outside work, Chris splits his time between running a charity to develop assistive technology for the disabled (enlightened self-interest as he is himself blind) and water skiing for the British disabled team which he has led to three world championship titles.

With more than 16 years of Sales leadership in the telecom and networking industries, Michael Ward brings a wealth of experience to the MetaSwitch organization. Most recently, he led Paradyne Networks' successful effort to increase its customer base and revenue in the North American independent telco market, while also developing global Tier 1 and strategic carrier accounts. Prior to Paradyne, he built North American Sales for Corvis Corporation, leading to their successful IPO. Michael is also widely recognized for the role he played in the success of Ascend Communications, both before and after its acquisition by Lucent Technologies, where he drove an emerging service provider business that resulted in over $1bn in annual sales.

Michael, who is based in Tampa, Florida, has a BS in Electrical Engineering from Virginia Tech, and an MS in Engineering Management from the University of South Florida. He enjoys competitive sports and activities and spending time with his wife, two daughters and twin boys.

John Palombo first joined Data Connection in January 1983, as a pre-university intern. He then went on to complete a Masters degree in Computer Science from Cambridge University before joining the company full time in October 1986.

Over the last twenty years, John has played a wide ranging role as both an engineering manager and as a business generator. In particular, during the 90's, he was the driving force behind a number of highly successful ventures, including the conception, development and support of Data Connection's ATM, MPLS and SS7 portable software product suites now in use by hundreds of deployed products from many different companies.

John was a member of the team that founded MetaSwitch and for more than two years was the VP of Engineering. During this period, John and his team successfully delivered the first release of the MetaSwitch VP3000 in February 2001, closely followed by the VP3500 - the first Class 5 softswitch to support VoIP, VoATM and TDM.

John is now responsible for MetaSwitch's worldwide customer support and professional services organizations, leveraging both his deep technical knowledge and his experience working with customers. He divides his time between North America (where the Level 1 and Level 2 support teams are based) and the UK (the primary location for MetaSwitch's Level 3 support team). Outside of work, he enjoys squash and skiing.

Martin Taylor has spent over 20 years in the telecom and network equipment industries, with diverse experience in product marketing, engineering, technology planning and business development. Since joining MetaSwitch in 2004, he has been responsible for developing the company's IMS technology strategy and has also led key technology initiatives in hosted VoIP services, Web Services interfaces and Web portal evolution.

Martin's prior experience includes the role of founding CTO at CopperCom, where he was widely recognized as an early pioneer in Voice Over Broadband for his leadership of the ATM Forum standards work on Loop Emulation. In previous roles at Madge Networks and at Marconi, he was instrumental in significant business successes in areas such as Token Ring switching and passive optical networking.

Martin is a graduate of the University of Cambridge, England with a degree in Engineering. He enjoys skiing, golf, fly fishing and fine wine.

Mike Evans joined Data Connection in 1986 as a software engineer after gaining his degree in Mathematics from the University of Cambridge, England. He rapidly progressed to an architect's role on a number of strategic projects, and was a driving force behind Data Connection's strong focus on converged voice/data networking. As both business unit manager and senior architect, Mike has overseen the on-time delivery of dozens of successful, complex development projects.

When not in the office, Mike passes his time with his two children, as well as competing in off-road rallies throughout the UK - such as the Peugeot 205 Challenge and the BTRDA Championship.

Ben joined the company in 1995, after graduating from Oxford University with an MA in mathematics. Beginning his career as a software engineer, he has played a variety of roles across the company's divisions. Most recently he led the team that successfully established MetaSphere as the pre-eminent applications platform for tier one service providers, gaining deployments at four of the five largest North American carriers.

Prior to this Ben was vice president of sales and marketing for Data Connection's Network Protocol Division, and was instrumental in positioning the company as the only source for protocol software for optical networking, as well as growing the VoIP protocol market. In this role Ben developed strategic relationships with the key networking equipment manufacturers in Israel, China and Japan, significantly expanding the company's global business reach.

Ben has three young children who keep him very busy, and in any spare time he is involved in many activities in his local community.

Andy Randall has been with MetaSwitch's parent company Data Connection since 1988, where he held roles in engineering and general management in the field of real-time audio, video and data communications.

Since joining MetaSwitch in 2001, Andy has been instrumental in developing the company's marketing strategy, from the introduction of the industry's first IP-based Class 4/5 integrated softswitch, the MetaSwitch VP3500 series, to the expansion of the company's product line with the MetaSphere service delivery platform, MetaView network management system, and end-user applications including CommPortal and CommAssistant.

Andy holds an MA in Mathematics and Philosophy from the University of Oxford, an MSc in Software Engineering from the University of Stirling, and MBAs in Marketing and Finance from the Haas School of Business at Berkeley and Columbia Business School, New York.

Paul has 19 years' experience in data and telecommunications protocols, products and deployments - from SDLC right up to the latest protocols for VoIP and optical switching.

As Vice President of Systems Engineering, Paul manages MetaSwitch's team of systems engineers across North America, working side-by-side with MetaSwitch customers to plan softswitch deployments in many different environments. His work covers the entire range of service providers, from rural local exchange carriers through to nationwide competitive providers, and everything from greenfield deployments to VoIP migration of large multi-switch TDM networks.

Paul's achievements include his instrumental role in the success of BT's MetaSwitch deployment - the first major incumbent telco consumer Voice over Internet service. He is the author of, or major contributor to, several IETF RFCs (most recently on Fault Tolerance for MPLS), and several patents focused on reliability and call agent overload protection.

Paul joined Data Connection in 1986 after studying Mathematics at Cambridge University. When not at work, he can most often be found sailing around the Scottish islands.

As one of the small group of talented engineers that designed the MetaSwitch system architecture, Dave combines detailed product knowledge with rigorous project management skills. His engineering and management abilities have been proven over his 13+ years with Data Connection, as he has consistently delivered complex, challenging projects across a broad range of telecommunications technologies including SS7, SMTP, LDAP/X.500, and SNA. More recently, he was responsible for MetaSwitch's distributed softswitch architecture release, before taking over the entire development organization.

Dave graduated with a first class degree in Engineering from Cambridge University before starting his career with Data Connection.

Outside of work, Dave competes in both mountain bike and sail-boat races, and somehow manages to find time to relax by snowboarding, unicycling - and gardening.

Paul Drew has been with Data Connection/MetaSwitch for the last 15 years and currently is Vice President of Professional Services for MetaSwitch, responsible for managing both the professional services and training groups. Prior to establishing the Professional Services group in 2005, Paul fulfilled a number of different roles within MetaSwitch, including two years as director of product management with responsibility for setting the MetaSwitch product direction, and setting up and running the MetaSwitch partner program.

Paul graduated from Oxford University with a BA in Mathematics and an MSc in Statistics before starting his career with Data Connection. When not at work, Paul spends his time climbing, mountain biking and skiing.

Christine Martin joined Data Connection in 1993 as a software engineer and has since held various management roles in the communication/networking divisions.

Christine developed strong operational and delivery expertise while leading the System Test of Data Connection's ground-breaking SNAP-IX product and heading up a customer support team in the heyday of SNA. Christine was also the development manager for Data Connection's first ATM product, DC-Signaling, which is a key component of Data Connection's ATM portfolio and has been licensed to over 70 customers.

Prior to her move to MetaSwitch, Christine headed up Data Connection's internal IT and technical documentation groups where she was instrumental in driving forward state-of-the-art IT policy with overall responsibility for IT procurement. She now brings her experience and energy to heading up MetaSwitch's Operations Group with responsibilities for both supplier management and customer deliveries.

Christine graduated from the University of Michigan in Computer Engineering before securing a full scholarship to Cambridge, where she completed an MPhil and Phd in Computer Speech Processing. Outside of work she spends her time with her young family, playing as much sport as she can find time for and also volunteers at her church with various children's activities.

EXECUTIVES