Executive Management

Siraj Nour El-Ahmadi

Founder, President & Chief Executive Officer

Siraj, a co-founder of Menara, brings over 17 years of experience in optical transmission in particular and the telecom industry in general. Prior to founding Menara, Siraj served as Vice President - Marketing & Product Management at Nortel responsible for the OPTera LH 4000 ULR product (acquired from Qtera); that achieved over $200M in revenues in its first two years. Prior to that, Siraj was the Product Architect & Vice President of Product Management at Qtera Corporation, a successful technology Start-up acquired by Nortel in 2000 for $3.25 Billion. Siraj also held a Senior Manager position at Bell Northern Research and worked as a Transmission Engineer at WilTel (WorldCom) where he evaluated and deployed the world first bidirectional EDFA and bi-directional WDM transmission. Siraj holds a BS and MS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Oklahoma, is a member of Eta Kappa Nu and is the inventor of 11 patents, issued or pending, in the area of optical communications. He authored a number of publications and is a frequent speaker at telecom and optical networking events and conferences.

Dr. Salam El-Ahmadi

Founder

Dr. Salam El-Ahmadi has over 15 years experience in system design, test, and deployment of various communications systems including wireless, wireline, and optical networks. His background combines in-depth knowledge of signal processing techniques, digital communication theory, and nonlinear optics propagation, allowing him to bridge gaps between the seemingly unrelated fields of communication theory and the physics of fiber optics. Through a hands-on management style, he leads diverse teams of highly skilled engineers and scientists with the clear objective of taking disruptive technologies from conception stages to viable commercial products. Prior to founding Menara, he held senior positions, ranging from research to field deployment, with Nortel networks' wireless division and Qtera's WDM system design group. He co-authored several patents and holds a BS and MS from the University of Oklahoma and a Ph.D. from SMU, all in Electrical Engineering.

Dr. Matthias Bussmann

IC Design Lead

Dr. Bussmann is leading the company's custom high-speed ASIC design efforts. He contributes his expertise in high-speed fiber-optic IC and module design paired with his design experience in a broad range of advanced integrated circuit technologies. Prior to Menara, Dr. Bussmann was with Eltech Precision, Multilink Technology, and Micram Microelectronics, all companies specializing in design, development, and marketing of high bit-rate electronic products for advanced fiber optic communication systems. In the roles of co-founder, CTO, and Senior Scientist of Multilink Technology, Dr. Bussmann helped Multilink grow into a 350+-employee NASDAQ-traded company. Dr. Bussmann holds a Dipl.-Ing. and a Dr.-Ing. degree (summa cum laude), both in Electrical Engineering, from Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany.

Dr. Ricardo Saad

Vice President – R&D and Operations

Dr. Saad brings over 23 years of experience in the research and developemnt of high-speed optical communication equipment and systems. Prior to Menara, Dr. Saad worked for Finisar Corporation, Tellabs, Alcatel, Xtera Communication, Avanex Corporation, and Harmonic in technical and managerial roles. His expertise is in the area of optical equipment for long haul, metro, PON and CATV applications. Dr. Saad has been a consultant for large, medium and strart-up optical communication companies. He is also a part-time faculty member in the Electrical Engineering Department at the University of Texas at Dallas. He holds a Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Toronto, a M.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from the State University of Campinas, Brazil, and a Diploma in Electrical Engineering from National University at Cordoba, Argentina.

Dr. Sri Nathan

Vice President – Business Development

Before joining Menara Networks Dr. Sri Nathan was an independent consultant, to small and medium size companies to create new market opportunities, evaluating efficiency of various large networks with detailed architecture analysis, and, guiding teams to build strategic planning and modeling tools. Prior to this he was the CEO and President of Jasmine Networks, a Metro Optics Sub-System Company. At the peak of operations Jasmine Networks had 300 people at four locations. He played a significant role in securing multi-million dollar contracts with leading system vendors. Prior to Jasmine Networks Sri served as the Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Business Development for Qtera Corporation and secured multi-year contract totaling US $1B. He also played a key role in successfully selling the company to Nortel Networks for US $3.25B (January 2000). He also held various Engineering, Business Development and Management positions in MCI and Nortel Networks. Sri earned his Ph.D. in Management and Administrative Science and an advanced degree in Computer Science from the University of Texas. He has a B.S. in Engineering from Madras University (India). He holds twelve patents in optical technology applications, has many publications and is an avid speaker in various conferences.

Adam Hotchkiss

Vice President – Product Line Management

Adam Hotchkiss brings more than a decade of experience in the definition, launch and support of telecommunications and data transmission systems to interchange and local exchange carriers. Prior to Menara Networks, Adam served as Product Line Manager for WDM Systems at Qtera Corporation, which was acquired by Nortel Networks in 2000. In his role with Qtera and Nortel Adam served in a senior position responsible for the definition, requirements and architecture of WDM transport products, which led to the successful launch of two generations of WDM platforms including the industry's first ultra-long haul 10G WDM system. Prior to Qtera and Nortel Networks, Adam served at Fujitsu Network Communications where he was responsible for the launch of Fujitsu's first WDM system and the support for SONET access and core infrastructure products and networks.