Gregory Koss—Chairman and CEO // Gregory Koss is an industry veteran with over 28 years experience at executive level positions within the networking and communications industries. Previous to BTI Systems, Greg was CEO of SavaJe Technologies, developer of advanced Java-based mobile phone operating systems company (sold to Sun in 2007), Executive Chairman of Reef Point Systems, provider of scalable security gateway solutions for the fixed mobile convergence market and a Consultant to Warburg Pincus in New York, a leading global private equity firm.
Prior to that, he was CEO of carrier-grade Optical Ethernet systems provider Internet Photonics, a spin-out of Lucent/Bell Laboratories, which was acquired by CIENA Corporation in 2004 and CEO of Sonoma Systems, which was acquired by Nortel Networks in 2000. Earlier in his career he held senior management positions within technology companies such as Andrew Corp., CrossComm (co-founder,IPO in 1992), Fibronics, Analog Devices and Proteon (co-founder). He holds a BSEE from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
Allan Kline—Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer // As Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer, Allan works with the BTI leadership team to define financial and corporate development strategies as well as to further develop the company’s global structure. Most recently Allan was Vice President and CFO for Skyworks Solutions, Inc. Prior to joining Skyworks, he was the CFO for Fibermark, a producer of specialty fiber based materials. From 1996 to 2002, he was CFO for Acterna Corp., a global communications test and management company. Prior to this, he served as CFO for CrossComm Corp., a provider of internetworking systems, and for Cabot Safety Corp., a subsidiary of Cabot Corp., a basic materials manufacturer. He was also a vice president at O'Connor, Wright Wyman, Inc., an M&A advisory firm. In 1969, he began his career at Arthur Young & Co. where he was a partner for six years. Today he serves on Massachusetts Network Communications Council board of directors.
Allan earned his bachelor's degree in business administration at the University of Massachusetts in accounting, and a master's degree in business administration from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business. He is a certified public accountant.
Steven Waszak—President and COO // 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.
Ed Chaplin—Vice President of Finance // 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.
Jonathan Boocock—Executive Vice President, Engineering // 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.
Peter Dale—Vice President, North American Sales and Business Development // 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.
James Worrall—Vice President, EMEA Sales // As Vice President, EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Sales, James manages BTI's sales team, offices, and EMEA business strategy. He brings more than 15 years of experience in business development within the telecommunications and IT industry.
James has occupied various senior and executive roles within sales and he has been instrumental in BTI’s business generation and the execution of regional sales strategies. Prior to joining BTI he held progressively senior and executive global sales roles with AXXESSIT and Ericsson.
James was educated at Salford University, Manchester, UK and studied Economics and Business Management.
Glenn Thurston—Vice President, Global Marketing // As Vice President, Corporate Marketing Glenn is responsible for the company’s overall business strategy, 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.
Before joining BTI, he was Vice President of Global Alliances, Nortel Networks Metro Optical and Enterprise Businesses. He spearheaded Nortel’s 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.
Gary Southwell—VP & GM, Business Services Solutions // 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.
Jean-Charles Fahmy—Vice President, Product Management // 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.
John Mills— Vice President, Product Planning // 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).
Franca Marinelli—Vice President, Organizational Development // 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.