Level 5 Networks: EtherFabric

Steve Pope PhD - Founder, CTO and VP Software Architecture

Steve co-founded Level 5 Networks in July 2002. Previously, Steve was post-doctorate researcher of high-speed network solutions at Olivetti Research Labs, which later became AT&T Laboratories Cambridge. While at AT&T Labs, he was leader and one of the architects of the CLAN high-performance network project. As well as being a recognized authority on high-performance networking, Steve also has extensive experience in operating system software development. Steve holds a first class degree in Computer Science and a PhD in mobile applications from the University of Cambridge.

Derek Roberts PhD - Founder, Chief Scientist & VP Hardware Architecture

Derek co-founded Level 5 Networks in July 2002. Prior to this, Derek was the hardware architect for the CLAN high-performance networking project at AT&T Laboratories Cambridge. While at AT&T Labs, he was also responsible for numerous leading-edge hardware developments. Previously, Derek headed up application software development at Myriad Solutions. Derek holds a first class degree in Electrical Sciences and a PhD in Voltage Standards from the University of Cambridge.

Ashfaq Munshi - Chief Executive Officer

Ashfaq Munshi is the CEO of Level5 Networks. Ash brings a unique mix of 20 years of entrepreneurship, engineering, marketing, and management experience to Level 5 Networks. In addition to his current CEO position at Level 5 Networks, Ash has founded four other Silicon Valley companies: Radiance, Vivecon (where he currently serves on the Board), SpecialtyMD (acquired by Ventro), and Commerce Engine (became Ariba).

Earlier in his career, Ash served as a corporate vice president at Applied Materials, where he was responsible for software and automation. Prior to Applied Materials, Ash was Vice President and General Manager of the Enterprise Business Unit at SGI. Ash began his executive career at Oracle Corporation where he was director of development and marketing.

Ash currently serves as Chairman of the Board at Radiance Technologies, Inc., is a board member of Vivecon Corporation and MSC Software Corporation. He serves also as an advisor to Transitive Corporation and is on the Dean's Leadership Council for the Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University.

Ash holds an A.B. in Mathematics from Harvard, has completed graduate work in computer science at Brown and UCSC and is an alumnus of the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Manmohan Mittal PhD - VP of Engineering

Prior to joining Level 5 Network in September 2003, Manmohan was Vice President of WW Engineering & Operations at Qualcore Logic where he managed +120 multi-site team to develop chips, boards, software, design tools, and IT infrastructure for consumer and networking applications. He was previously VP of US LSI Engineering at GlobespanVirata (formerly Excess Bandwidth) where he had an outstanding record of first-time successes in silicon design with chips of up to 8M gates in 0.13um process for xDSL and Network Processors. At Excess Bandwidth, he successfully built strong team, engineering infrastructure and relationships with off-shore manufacturing houses in a startup environment to deliver first-time working product on time. His more than 20 years' engineering management experience in fabless semiconductor industry also include developing products for video encoders & decoders, high performance GaAs processors and ATE pin electronics, disk drive controllers and modems at C-Cube Microsystems, Vitesse Semiconductors Corporation and Silicon System, Inc. where he provided the leadership to build methodology for designing >10M gates complex chips, software, boards & FPGA Implementation. Dr. Mittal has earned his Ph.D. in Electrical & Computer Engineering from Washington State University, USA, Master in Electrical Engineering from University of Ottawa, Canada and Bachelor in Electronics Engineering from Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University, India. He is a senior member of IEEE and member of Tau Beta Pi and Sigma Xi societies.

Dan Riordan - VP of Sales

Dan joins Level 5 Networks, Inc. with 20 years of senior management and sales experience at leading high technology companies. Most recently, he was a VP of Sales, Asia Pacific for Extreme Networks. Prior to Extreme, Dan served as VP of Sales/Business Development for Optranet. Optranet was focused on WAN technologies & Network Management solutions and was acquired by Extreme in 2002. In addition, he has held Sales leadership roles at SkyStream Networks, C-Cube Microsystems and PMC Sierra . Dan holds a Bachelor's Of Science Degree in Electronics Engineering from California Polytechnic, San Luis Obispo.

Yousuf Palla - VP Manufacturing & Quality Operations

Yousuf joined Level 5 networks in January 2005 having over two decades of experience in successfully transitioning complex storage, communication, and SoC products into high volume production. Yousuf came to Level 5 networks from NeoMagic Corporation and prior to that Yousuf spent 16 years at Cirrus Logic where he was part of the early pioneering team for the emerging fab-less model. At Cirrus, Yousuf’s most recent responsibilities included VP operations for storage mixed signal products exceeding $350 million in revenues. Yousuf also held a number of technical and management positions at Signetics / Philips Semiconductor and at Systems Industries. Yousuf has B.S. degree in Electronic Engineering from Weber State College (Utah) and M.S.E.E. from San Jose State University. Yousuf was also a Sloan Fellow at Stanford University and received a Sloan Master's degree in Management from the Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business.