Management
Amir Bassan-Eskenazi
Chief Executive Officer, President and Co-Founder
Amir Bassan-Eskenazi is the chief executive officer, chairman of the board and co-founder of BigBand Networks. Recognizing the advancement of video, voice and data services provided over broadband networks, Mr. Bassan-Eskenazi is dedicated to optimizing operators' infrastructure. He has led BigBand Networks' activities from conception through successful implementations with the leading global service providers, driving content to tens of millions of subscribers. Mr. Bassan-Eskenazi's success with BigBand Networks extends a record of leadership in the establishment of the digital video. He was previously an executive of industry pioneer Optibase (NASDAQ: OBAS) where he rose to executive vice president of marketing and chief operating officer. Other roles with Optibase included development engineering, technical support, project management, product planning, marketing, business development, pre-sales and sales. Mr. Bassan-Eskenazi was a member of the JPEG Committee, has published on the future of broadband multimedia services, and holds several patents. He graduated from Technion Institute of Technology, where he studied electrical engineering.
Ran Oz
Chief Technology Officer, Executive Vice President and Co-founder
Ran Oz is chief technology officer of BigBand Networks, which he co-founded as a new breed of company combining advanced multimedia and communications technologies. He has been the primary visionary in the development of the company's products, now globally deployed and utilized for more and better services over more efficient networks. Under Mr. Oz' technical leadership, BigBand Networks is pioneering vital advances in digital television, on-demand and IP services, and he is directing the company towards leadership in the industry's next-generation network initiatives. Mr. Oz was part of the founding team of digital video technology provider Optibase (NASDAQ: OBAS), and was the primary technical co-founder of Optibase spin-out VCON Telecommunications (Nouveau March: 022021), a vendor of IP video conferencing systems. Mr. Oz holds several patents in HFC networking, visual computing, media manipulation and other areas, and regularly publishes and presents on advanced technology topics at the most prominent broadband industry events. He is an electrical engineering graduate of the Technion Institute of Technology, and holds an MSEE from Tel Aviv University.
Maurice Castonguay
Chief Financial Officer
Maurice "Moe" Castonguay serves as senior vice president and chief financial officer of BigBand Networks, responsible for finance, accounting and investor relations. Mr. Castonguay has more than 30 years of experience in financial management, and spent more than 11 years as CFO of multiple public technology companies; including Xylogics, Inc. (acquired by Bay Networks, Inc.), Stratus Computer, Inc. (acquired by Ascend Communications, Inc.),and MatrixOne, Inc. which he lead through an initial public offering. Mr. Castonguay has also served as CFO for a number of private technology companies, including, most recently; Acopia Networks, Inc. (acquired by F5 Networks) and video-on-demand specialist Broadbus Technologies, Inc. (acquired by Motorola, Inc). Mr. Castonguay began his career in public accounting with Coopers & Lybrand (now PriceWaterhouseCoopers) and later with Peat Marwick (now KPMG). Mr. Castonguay is a certified public accountant (CPA) and holds a bachelor's degree in accounting and a master's degree in taxation from Bentley College, as well as an M.B.A. from Babson College.
David Heard
Chief Operating Officer
David Heard is BigBand Networks' chief operating officer. In his role, Mr. Heard oversees all of the BigBand's business units and is focused on scaling operations and increasing the scope of the company's solutions to meet its customers' media management and delivery needs. Mr. Heard has more than 18 years experience guiding high-growth technology companies focused on developing products and services to meet the needs of service providers. Mr. Heard has previously served as president and CEO of Somera Communications, president and general manager of Tekelec's switching division and president and CEO of Santera Systems. Mr. Heard has also held a variety of executive positions at Lucent Technologies, including vice president of the company's access division, and has held multiple manufacturing, marketing and business development management positions for AT&T. Mr. Heard earned a Bachelor of Arts in production and operations management from Ohio State University, and a master's in business administration from the University of Dayton. He also holds an additional master's degree in science and management from Stanford University.
Rajive Dhar
Senior Vice President, Corporate Development and Strategic Planning
As senior vice president of corporate development and strategic planning at BigBand Networks, Mr. Dhar oversees the company's global growth strategy through business development efforts including acquisitions and new product and market initiatives in digital video networking. Mr. Dhar brings a breadth of operational and strategic experiences to BigBand, gained throughout his 20 years of experience in the technology industry. During his career, he has spearheaded strategic acquisitions, investments, mergers and subsequent business integrations, along with channel building initiatives at start ups and public companies. Mr. Dhar most recently served as vice president of corporate strategy and planning at ARRIS Group Inc., where he led the company's acquisition and investment strategy. Mr. Dhar holds a master's in business administration from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a master's of science in computer engineering from Syracuse University. He holds several patents in the area of semiconductor technology.
Greg Greco
Senior Vice President, Global Research & Development
Greg Greco is BigBand Networks' senior vice president of global research and development. In this role he is responsible for worldwide product development. Mr. Greco brings over 30 years experience in product development and product management of complex, scalable, and highly reliable networking products for video, wireless and wireline applications. He has spent the last 18 years building highly motivated and effective development teams in geographically diverse centers in the US, Europe, and Asia. Previously, he held executive level positions at Tekelec, Santera, and Lucent Technologies. Mr. Greco holds a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering and a master of science degree in electrical engineering from the Polytechnic University of New York.
Rob Horton
Senior Vice President & General Counsel
Rob Horton serves as the senior vice president and general counsel for BigBand Networks, responsible for the company's legal and regulatory interests, including intellectual property protection, licensing, regulatory compliance and corporate governance. Horton previously served as senior counsel for Borland Software (NASDAQ: BORL). Prior to Borland, Horton was an attorney in private practice at the law firms of Covington and Burling LLP and Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich and Rosati, PC. Horton holds a Bachelor of Arts in history from the University of Notre Dame and a JD from Northwestern University.
Ralph Rondinone
Senior Vice President, Global Operations
Ralph Rondinone is BigBand Networks' senior vice president of global operations. In this role he is responsible for worldwide customer service, manufacturing, quality, information technology and infrastructure. Mr. Rondinone brings more than 20 years of experience in customer service, manufacturing engineering, quality and operational responsibilities with companies ranging from start ups to public networking companies. Previously, he held executive level positions at SeaChange International, Lucent Technologies and Ascend Communications. He spent 13 years of his career at Digital Equipment Corporation where he worked in both the US and Europe in engineering and in manufacturing operations. Mr. Rondinone holds a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
Sean Rooney
Senior Vice President, Worldwide Sales
Mr. Rooney brings more than 20 years of experience in sales, business development, marketing and product management with large multi-national, small and start-up companies in the broadband industry. Before joining BigBand, he served as senior executive of sales at Motorola, building and integrating the on demand systems group following its acquisition of Broadbus Technologies. At Broadbus, Mr. Rooney built and managed the worldwide sales and service organization, managing global accounts such as Comcast, Time Warner, Charter, UPC, Rogers, Telenet, and BSkyB. Additionally, he held various positions at Netrix, a VoIP pioneer, and at Sony, where he spent more than 10 years growing a newly created unit to more than $250 million in revenues. Mr. Rooney holds a bachelor's degree in political science from Ohio State University and a master's of international business from the University of South Carolina.
Paul Crann
Vice President, Product Management
As vice president of product management for BigBand Networks, Mr. Crann is responsible for delivering new breakthrough solutions to service providers worldwide. He brings 20 years of operational experience to BigBand having served in a variety of management roles across the data networking and wireless communications industries. Mr. Crann has worked extensively with service providers including recent roles with start-up companies serving the fixed mobile convergence and WiMAX markets. Previously, Mr. Crann served as senior. vice president of marketing and business development for Avici Systems, a core IP/ MPLS routing vendor. He has also held senior product management and market development positions with Lucent Technologies and Ascend Communications where he as part of the core switching business unit. His earlier experience includes roles with Omnipoint, one of the early PCS wireless service providers, PRTM as a management consultant, and the U.S. Navy where he served as a submarine officer. Mr. Crann holds a master's in business administration from the Harvard Business School and a bachelor's degree in engineering from Villanova University.
John Holobinko
Vice President, Marketing
As vice president of marketing, Mr. Holobinko oversees product marketing and corporate marketing and provides the foundation for growth through the development and continual innovation of key market and technology segments including broadcast video, switched video, IPTV, and addressable advertising. Mr. Holobinko previously served as vice president of product management and vice president and general manager of BigBand's Cable IP Business Unit. He has over 25 years of experience in leadership positions within suppliers of video and IP solutions to cable television and telco providers. Prior to BigBand Networks, Mr. Holobinko was president and chief executive officer of VPI Systems, president and chief executive offier of Aplion Networks, and division vice president of marketing and strategy for ADC Telecommunications. He was a cofounder of American Lightwave Systems, a successful fiber video solutions provider that became the most successful acquisition of ADC Telecommunications. Mr. Holobinko began his communications career as a pioneer in fiber video transport systems and fiber to the home systems. He holds a bachelor's in electrical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. Mr. Holobinko has published more than 50 papers on video systems and IP networking.
Judith Yampolsky
Vice President, Human Resources
As vice president of human resources, Ms. Yampolsky is responsible for worldwide human resource activities including staffing, compensation and benefits, and organizational development. Prior to joining BigBand, Ms. Yampolsky spent more than 20 years with Intel Semiconductors in engineering and human resource management where she played a strategic role in the management and direction of human resource functions and programs across Israel, Ireland, Philippines and China. Ms. Yampolsky holds a bachelor's of science in chemistry and a diploma of senior business management from the Hebrew University.