Our Leadership Team

Industry veteran and former Nortel senior executive, John Vice brings more than 25 years of telecommunications experience to Kodiak Networks. His extensive background includes working in a variety of functional areas which make him particularly suited to leading the Kodiak team. John brings a unique, broad understanding of the mobile communications industry, as well as, extensive hands-on experience in the development and deployment of mobile solutions.

Before joining Kodiak, John had been a strategic management and investment consultant to companies ranging from small startups to Fortune 500 size corporations. He also served as CEO for Geyser Networks, Inc., a privately held supplier of optical network systems in Sunnyvale, Calif.  John also had a distinguished, 19-year career at Nortel Networks, where he advanced to President and General Manager, Mobility Solutions, in Richardson, Texas.

Career Highlights

• Presided as CEO of leading optical network systems company, Geyser Networks based in Sunnyvale, CA
• Managed a 2,600-person organization that expanded sales of CDMA, GSM, and TDMA platforms to network operators in 40 countries across the Americas, Europe, and Asia-Pacific.
• Served as a key member of the leadership team that drove Nortel’s annual wireless revenues from $1.5 billion to $4.5 billion over a three-year period in the late 1990s.

John holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Western Ontario and a master’s degree in business administration with a marketing concentration from McMaster University.

Kris Patel has more than 17 years of experience and thought leadership in wireless, VoIP, broadband and Voice networks. Kris has led the design, development and deployment of carrier class systems around the world. His extensive qualifications stem from all facets of project lifecycle development, from initial feasibility analysis and conceptual design through documentation, implementation, user training and enhancements. Kris is a proven organizational leader, team builder and project manager.

Prior to Kodiak, Kris was Vice President of Engineering at XYBridge Technologies Inc. Kris has delivered systems to NTT DoCoMo and Verizon Wireless and is well-versed in leading teams across two continents.

Career Highlights

• Led development of Integrated Digital Enhancement Networks (iDEN) for Motorola
• Architected Data Over Cable technology (DOCSIS) for 3Com
• Guided conception of XYbridge’s next generation all IP core product strategy
• Differentiated XYbridge’s position and architecture in the next generation 3G wireless and converged broadband market (Class 5/4 replacement)
• Played lead role in selling XYBridge to Zhone Technologies

Kris holds a Bachelor of Science degree in electronics from B.V.M. in V.V. Nagar, India and a Masters degree in Computer Engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology.

Bruce Lawler brings over 15 years of telecommunications experience in fixed wireless, satellite, and terrestrial local and wide area networks. Bruce was a founding partner of inOvate Communications Group, and led the company’s investments in Danger, Rosum Corporation and Kodiak Networks. In addition, he served as the Network Operations Center (NOC) program manager for AT&T Wireless Services where he gained intimate knowledge of carrier operations.

Career Highlights

• Drove development and production of the MPEG2 encoding technology used by Hughes DirecTV and Thomson Consumer Electronics while serving as Director of Product Engineering for Compression Labs
• Served as a founding executive of iBEAM Broadcasting (NASDAQ:IBEM), the leading provider of streaming media services over the Internet
• Led joint development of digital video set top boxes with Philips Consumer Electronics.
• In addition, Bruce has held engineering and management positions at Motorola, GE, and Eastman Kodak

Bruce received his Bachelors of Science in Engineering degree from Purdue University and holds Masters degrees in Engineering and Business from the Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Tim Hall has nearly 20 years of experience working with Fortune 500 and start-up companies in the wireless, tele/data communications, and security industries. His management career has included key marketing, sales and business development positions for leading hardware and software companies including ITT Industries, UB Networks (now Alcatel Lucent), Adaptec, Terayon (now Motorola), and Portal Software (now Oracle). Before joining Kodiak Networks, Tim was VP, Sales and Services for Asia and Japan at Narus, where he successfully partnered and sold security and mediation software to some of Asia’s largest telecommunications providers including KDDI, NEC and Korea Telecom.

Career Highlights:

• Successfully established global partnerships and negotiated alliance agreements with such industry-leading companies as Cisco, Motorola, Nokia, ZTE, Sony Ericsson, HTC, Research in Motion, SUN, HP, Fujitsu, Microsoft, Alcatel Lucent, Oracle, Openwave, NEC, Sumitomo, Samsung and Nortel
• Established and managed channel sales/marketing and business development organizations across three continents resulting in significant overall revenue growth and increase in reseller sales
• Led business development teams with focus on large System Integrators and strategic OEM contracts with IBM, Accenture, France Telecom, Deutsche Telecom, Logica, PWC, CapGemini, Datacraft, and BearingPoint (formerly KPMG), to drive new business and sales opportunities
• Drove marketing launch of world’s first S-CDMA cable head-end and modem for high speed internet access into worldwide markets

A graduate of Santa Clara University with a B.S. degree, Tim also holds a management certificate from the Wharton Business School.

John Dilley brings over 18 years of telecommunications expertise to Kodiak Networks, including an extensive sales background in wireless mobility, applications, broadband, wireless, wireline, OSS, and Enterprise.  Recognized as a successful sales leader, John has worked for a number of well-known organizations, ranging from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies.

Career Highlights

• Responsible for overseeing and building the MVNO business unit at Comverse
• Successfully introduced HyperScale Technology and next generation multi-media messaging software applications to global wireless service providers while at Gemini Mobile Technologies.  Closed first US and Latin America contracts, and major OEM/Re-seller agreements with Hewlett Packard and Lucent Technologies
• Introduced a new GPRS/UMTS intelligent monitoring system to worldwide wireless carriers at Cyneta Networks. Forged strategic alliances and reseller agreements with multiple OEM, OSS, and strategic companies
• At Nortel Networks, selected to lead multiple sales teams including Wireless, Broadband Wireless and High Speed Access. Exceeded quota for seven consecutive years, and teams booked over $1 billion dollars of business.

A graduate in Electronics Engineering from the ITT Technical Institute in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, John also completed Executive Sales Management at the Columbia University Graduate School of Business in New York.

Juan Gutierrez has spent over 25 years in the telecommunications industry working with start-ups and large multi-national corporations. He joins Kodiak Networks from LeadCom Integrated Solutions, a Miami-based system integrator for wireless and wireline operators in the CALA region. Prior to working at LeadCom, Juan spent a significant portion of his career at Nortel Networks in a variety of sales and marketing roles.

Career Highlights

• Responsible for overseeing market development and sales within the CALA region for the last twenty years.
• Managed overall operations for a six-country area with revenues in excess of $300 million per year.
• While at Nortel, increased regional sales rates 125% with major wins including IMPSAT, Silica Networks, Smartcom PCS, Antel Uraguay and BellSouth.

Juan graduated Cum Laude with a BSEE from the University of Miami. He also holds a MBA degree from Saint Mary’s College based in Moraga, CA.