Leadership Team

As President, Steven works closely with the BTI Executive Team, and provides strong leadership to the company overall. Steven is responsible for ensuring that all parts of the organization are working together towards BTI’s overall objectives and for the health and success of the business. With over 20 years’ experience in the networking and communication industries Steven has experience of successfully impacting on global supply-chains and managing strategic partnerships, business planning to optimize allocation of resources, and positioning to maximize business growth, and expansion to maximize profitability.

Steven’s career has included time as CFO with Retix (one of the early public networking companies), CFO/COO with SONOMA Systems (OEM relationships with Newbridge and Siemens and sold to Nortel in 2000), CFO/COO with Internet Photonics (spin-out of Bell Labs, sold to Ciena in 2004 and designer of the CN4200), and post acquisition VP, Sales Operation with Ciena. Most recently he was CFO and COO at Zetera Corporation, a network storage technology company.

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Peter Allen is Chief Financial Officer of BTI Systems in Ottawa. Prior to joining BTI, Peter was CFO of Allen Vanguard Corporation where he recapitalized the company during the global financial crisis. Mr. Allen has more than 25 years experience as a financial executive in a career that has seen him lead the finance organizations of a broad range of Canadian private and public corporations. Peter also previously Executive Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer of Export Development Canada.  During his tenure, EDC grew from $17 Billion to $90 Billion in annual business volume and was six times awarded the Auditor General of Canada's Award for Excellence in Annual Reporting.  Peter is a Fellow of the Ontario Institute of Chartered Accountants and has been twice nominated as Canada’s CFO Of  The Year.
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As Executive Vice President, Engineering, Jonathan is responsible for the product development and quality assurance organizations at BTI. He brings more than 20 years of industry experience in the telecommunications sector and will focus on ensuring that BTI’s product architecture and feature set align with customer and market requirements.

Most recently, Jonathan co-founded TurnTV and served as Vice President, Engineering and Operations. TurnTV delivers products and services that enable customers to deliver TV quality video over today’s Internet. Jonathan co-founded Catena Networks and served as Vice President, Engineering responsible for the development of Catena’s integrated voice and data technology and the CNX-5 and CN-1000 Broadband Access product lines. Jonathan’s career includes senior positions with Cadence Design Systems as Director, Broadband Product Development, where he was responsible for the delivery of MCNS compliant cable and ADSL modems and progressively senior roles Nortel Networks/Bell Northern Research, as Senior Manager, Broadband Access Development where he delivered the World Line Card (Nortel's highest volume line card) and the Cornerstone voice cable telephony product.

Jonathan currently serves on the Board of Directors for TurnTV and holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Queen’s University.

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Gary leads BTI’s solutions marketing and related partnership development efforts.

Before joining BTI, Gary was General Manager of Juniper Networks IPTV Solutions where he helped establish Juniper as the IPTV leader with eight of the top 10 IPTV deployments to date. Gary has also served as Vice President of Solutions Product Line Marketing at Ciena where he led the development and launch of Ciena's MSO VOD, Carrier Ethernet services and IPTV solution offers. Prior to his work at Ciena, Gary led Nortel’s optical Ethernet marketing efforts. Gary was a founding member of the MEF where he served as an officer and board member, and has most recently served on the Broadband Services Forum board of directors.

Gary holds a Masters in Finance from Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA and a Bachelor of Science in Marketing from Northeastern University, Boston, MA.

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Glenn Thurston is BTI Systems, Vice President, Global Marketing & Sales Operations. Glenn is responsible for the company’s business plans, technical and channel marketing direction, and global awareness and communications programs.

Glenn brings more than 20 years of experience developing new business opportunities in the telecommunications industry. He has held progressively senior roles in marketing, business development and network planning organizations across technologies ranging from microchips to systems to OSS software. Glenn’s breadth and depth of experience equips him with a unique understanding of the customer and technology challenges of new business growth in the telecommunications and IT sectors.

Prior to BTI, he was Vice President of Global Alliances, Nortel where he built successful partnerships with global systems integrators and major IT companies including EMC, Microsoft and SUN Microsystems.

A frequent industry speaker, Glenn holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Engineering Physics from McMaster University.  He is based in Ottawa Canada at BTI Systems corporate office.

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Jean-Charles manages BTI’s product portfolio evolution ensuring it meets customer and business requirements. His track record includes 14 years of product management and business development in optical networking, data networking and computing. He brings hands-on international experience to the BTI leadership team from his time working on assignment in the Netherlands.

Prior to joining BTI in 2005, Jean-Charles occupied progressively senior product management and product marketing roles at Nortel Networks including accountability for storage networking business globally, ownership of the frame relay business in EMEA, and leadership of the Benelux sales engineering team.

Jean-Charles holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Ottawa and an MBA in International Business from McGill University in Montreal.

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Peter’s role as Vice President, North American Sales and Business Development involves managing BTI’s channel and business development efforts. He has 18 years of experience in sales, marketing and business development in telecommunications and data networking.

Most recently, he served as Vice President of Sales and Business Development for Optovia Corporation, a company that provides extended reach optical amplifiers through OEM partners.

Prior to Optovia, Peter occupied sales leadership roles in the enterprise and cable markets at Ciena Corporation. He joined Ciena when they acquired Internet Photonics in 2004, where he served as Vice-President of the Cable Business Unit, providing an optical transport platform for cable operators deploying advanced video services. Throughout his career he has held various sales leadership positions at Narad Networks, Spring Tide Networks, Lucent Technologies and Bay Networks.

Peter holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Pennsylvania State University.

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As Vice President, APAC Sales, Fahim manages BTI’s sales team, offices, and overall APAC sales strategy. He brings more than 12+ years of experience in R&D, business development, and sales within the telecommunications Industry. Fahim has occupied various senior and executive roles within sales and he has been instrumental in BTI’s business development in Canada, EMEA and APAC. Prior to joining BTI he held senior R&D positions within Accelight Networks, Metera Networks and Nortel Networks.

Fahim holds a Master’s in Electrical Engineering from Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada.

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Samuel has 20+ years of experience in Telecommunications/Wireless, Software Engineering, IT, and Electronics industries in both North America and the Asia Pacific region. As VP & General Manager of BTI Asia, Samuel is focusing on building BTI’s strategic partners in engineering, R&D, sourcing, EMS, and a high-performance team as part of the BTI company expansion in Asia. Prior to joining BTI, Samuel was Vice President of Global Product Management & Operations at iSkoot. He has also held various senior management roles with Motorola, Nokia, Nortel, SavaJe, and Beijing Electronic Appliance Manufacture.

Samuel has an MBA degree from University of Toronto, Global Executive MBA program, Master degree in Systems Design Engineering from University of Waterloo, Canada, and Bachelor degree of Computer Sciences from Hangzhou University of Electronic Engineering, China.

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Kieran has over 20 years of experience in Telecommunications and Software Engineering. As Vice President and General Manager of BTI’s European Center Kieran is focused on supporting our growing European Customer base and managing the local software development center in the delivery of Software Solutions that compliment the BTI product set.

Prior to BTI Kieran has worked in product development roles GEC-Marconi, British Telecom, Aepona and F5 Networks. Kieran holds a Bachelor of Science from Queens University Belfast and a Master’s in Telecommunications from University College London.

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John brings more than 25 years of experience in optical networking to his role as Vice President, Product Planning at BTI. An industry veteran in transmission systems, he has worked on system design and development of systems from 135Mb/s to 10G.

Prior to joining BTI in 2002, John was part of Nortel Japan where he set up and localized the OC-48 and Optera 3000/5000 for the Japanese market. During his time in Japan, John was also responsible for managing the Optical Sales Engineering team in support of NTT, Japan Tel, KVH and KDDI. Prior to his assignment in Japan he held senior development and product management positions for Nortel Networks Transport (OC-48) and Metro Optical (OPTera 3000) groups. John was part of the original concept development team for the Optera 3500 and a senior system design prime for both of Nortel’s OC12 and OC48 transport products. John also was a member of the original Nortel (BNR Edmonton) Transmission team that developed the 135Mb Async and the FD-565 product families in Nortel’s early transmission days. He holds a number of patents for his extensive work in the area of optical networking.

John holds Bachelor of Science from the University of Salford (UK).

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As Vice President of Finance, Ed, is responsible for establishing the company’s fiscal policies and best practices. Ed’s financial expertise is key to BTI Systems growth as a leading supplier of Intelligent Service Edge solutions. Prior to joining BTI, Ed was Corporate Controller at Corel Corporation, a leading developer of graphics, productivity and digital media software which traded on both the NASDAQ and TSX. Throughout his tenure he led the Company’s finance team through Corel’s initial public offering and supported the integration of several key acquisitions. Most recently he relocated to Corel’s Taiwan office, where he lead the financial integration of InterVideo and Ulead, acquired by Corel in late 2006. He also played an integral role in driving the company’s corporate governance, internal controls, and financial reporting process to ensure compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley. Prior to joining Corel, he held positions in audit and U.S tax practices at Ernst & Young. Ed is a Certified Chartered Accountant and holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada.

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Franca is responsible for establishing the company’s overall people strategy, organizational development and effectiveness direction, and the delivery of innovative human resources initiatives and programs.

Franca brings more than 20 years experience in the development and successful execution of organizational and human resources strategies. She has held progressively senior and executive roles in the human resources management field including recruiting, compensation and benefits, corporate and employee development, employee relations, strategic development, and mergers and acquisitions in multinational companies. Franca has held executive organizational development and human resources positions with St. Joseph Communications, Catena Networks and DRS Technologies.

Franca holds a Bachelor of Social Sciences in Psychology and Industrial Relations from the University of Ottawa.

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As Director, Global Supply Chain Kevin has overall accountability for end-to-end product supply chain capabilities in alignment with cost, fulfillment and quality. Kevin works closely with both supply and manufacturing partners to optimize BTI Systems’ delivery to its customers and partners globally. He has over 20 years of combined engineering and management experience in Telecom, IP Networking and Computer Server product development, support and operations.

Most recently Kevin was Director of Operations at Liquid Computing where he implemented a fully outsourced manufacturing model. Prior to that, as Business Development Manager with Sanmina-SCI Corporation, he was responsible for development of a new customer base for an established NPI contract manufacturing facility. Kevin also spent time with Nortel in various management positions, from product support to hardware and software design to product assurance for OEM products.

Kevin holds a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering from Carleton University in Ottawa.

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