Management Team
RIFT.io’s management team uniquely brings together experienced leaders from the wireless, enterprise software, carrier, and cloud services industries. RIFT.io’s leaders bring years of professional experience across a wide array of established companies including ArrowPoint, Bell Laboratories, Cisco, EMC, Juniper Networks, Redback Networks and 3Com. RIFT.io’s management team has also supported more than 10 venture-backed companies, including Affirmed Networks, LogMeIn, Inc., Movik NetWorks, and Starent Networks. The combination of skills and experience brings entrepreneurial spirit and the ability to execute.
TONY SCHOENER
PRESIDENT
Tony has worked for 25+ years building communications systems. At RIFT.io, he is is responsible for guiding corporate strategy. Tony works closely with customers and partners to help foster the evolution and adoption of RIFT.ware-based solutions.
Prior to RIFT.io, Tony was a Co-Founder and VP of Engineering at Starent Networks, where he led the team responsible for building Starent’s mobile gateway products. After Cisco’s acquisition of Starent in 2009, Tony served as the VP of Engineering for Cisco’s mobile technology group.
Prior to Starent Networks, Tony held technology management roles at several communications equipment companies including Wellfleet Communications and 3Com.
MATT HARPER
CHIEF DEVELOPMENT OFFICER & CO-FOUNDER
Matt has architected and led the construction of numerous sophisticated communications systems in his career. Matt leads the RIFT.io development organization, where he is responsible for the delivery and evolution of the company’s platform, RIFT.ware.
Prior to RIFT.io, Matt was the System Architect for Affirmed Networks. Prior to Affirmed, Matt was the System Architect at Starent Networks for 10 years.
Prior to Starent, Matt was an Architect and Project Leader for the USR/3Com Total Control multi-access system.
Matt holds over 25 patents, covering hardware and software communications systems.
SCOTT BRYCE
CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER
Scott brings more than 25 years of financial and operational experience to his role as CFO at RIFT.io. Prior to joining RIFT.io, Scott was CFO at BNI Video, a provider of software solutions for video service providers which was sold to Cisco Systems in 2011.
Prior to BNI Video, Scott was CFO at Cartiza, Inc., a 4G wireless equipment provider. Prior to Cartiza, Scott was VP of Finance for Broadbus Technologies, Inc., a video-on-demand server company, which was sold to Motorola in 2006.
Scott began his career with KPMG LLP and is a Certified Public Accountant licensed in MA.
Noel Charath
Vice President Of Service Delivery
Noel has nearly 20 years of support and service delivery experience with enterprise and carrier customers. At RIFT.io, Noel is responsible for services delivery of the RIFT.ware open source and commercial product portfolio, including professional services.
Prior to RIFT.io, Noel served as the Director of Services of Starent Networks where he managed customer support and professional services globally. With the acquisition of Starent by Cisco, Noel expanded his responsibilities to direct services delivery for North American carrier customers.
Prior to Cisco and Starent Networks, Noel held various roles spanning network engineering, product management, and systems engineering at successful firms such as US Robotics, 3COM and CommWorks.
GEORGE HAMILTON
Vice President Of Product Marketing
With over 20 years of experience in marketing, market research, and sales, George leads marketing for RIFT.io’s open source and commercial network virtualization software. George brings extensive experience as a software and services marketing leader, industry analyst, and consultant.
Prior to RIFT.io, George led the product marketing for EMC’s software-defined and cloud storage products within EMC’s Emerging Technology Division. George also served as a research director and industry analyst for Yankee Group/451 Research where he led a research team focused on cloud computing, IT infrastructure, network and application performance management, and mobility.
George has also held various marketing, sales, and technical roles with both large and small technology firms, including GTE/Genuity, LogMeIn, Sybase, and CA, Inc. George holds a BS in Business Administration from Northeastern University and a MS in Computer Information Systems from Bentley University.
LEONARD SCHWARTZ
Senior Vice President Of Engineering
Leonard has over 25 years experience designing and developing networking and data communications products for carrier and enterprise customers. Leonard leads the RIFT.io engineering team.
Prior to joining RIFT.io, Leonard served as VP of Software Development at Starent Networks from the company’s founding in 2000 through Cisco Systems’ acquisition in 2010. Following the acquisition he served as Senior Director of Software Development for the Mobility Information Technology Group at Cisco Systems. During this time, he led the software development team that successfully designed, developed, and deployed two different carrier class platforms for 3G & 4G Internet data services for wireless service providers, including Verizon, Sprint, KDDI, SKT and many others.
Leonard has held various technical leadership roles at Xedia, Alcatel-Lucent, Lightstream, and 3Com. Leonard holds a BS in Computer Science from Northeastern University and BS in Civil Engineering from Belarus Polytechnic Institute.
LAKSHMI SHARMA
Senior Vice President of Strategy, Architecture And Product Management
Lakshmi brings twenty years of experience developing large-scale enterprise and carrier-grade systems that demand high scalability, security, and reliability. Lakshmi leads RIFT.io’s Silicon Valley team and is responsible for cloud platform development and RIFT.ware technology solutions. Her team is responsible converting the strategic vision of RIFT.ware into technology that can be presented to customers and industry standards bodies to advance compelling technology solutions.
Prior to RIFT.io, Lakshmi led development of cloud, virtualization products, and orchestration solutions at Cisco. She previously served as Director of Engineering and Distinguished Engineer in the Core Business Unit at Juniper Networks. In her previous experience at Cisco, Lakshmi held technical leadership roles in the ASR1000 team where, as an early team member, she helped the company to retain and grow their share of the enterprise security and edge routing space.
Lakshmi holds an MBA from the University of Santa Clara and Masters in Computes Applications from Delhi University.
VINCENT SPINELLI
Senior Vice President Of Business And Market Development
Vin leads the customer experience at RIFT.io with responsibility for go-to-market strategy and delivery of RIFT.ware to enterprise and service provider markets.
Prior to RIFT.io, Vin served as Managing Director, Mobile Solutions Group at Juniper Networks where he led sales, marketing, channel & business development, and services and support for a $300M business unit. Vin also held senior management roles at Starent Networks, which he helped grow from a $40M point product company to a $500M solutions company and guiding the company to a successful acquisition by Cisco.
Prior to Starent Network Vin served as Chief Architect for Mobility at Cisco where he organized and led mobile sales operations. Vin holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from California State University at Long Beach and is a military veteran having served in the U.S. Navy.
Rene Tio
Vice President Of Product Management
René has over 20 years of experience in mobile and broadband data networks and subscriber management systems. He has been directly involved in the successful placement of new and innovative products at service providers such as Vodafone, Verizon, and NTT. René is responsible for the launch of RIFT.io’s new products and the evolution of existing products to meet the needs of RIFT.io’s business partners and global customer base.
Prior to RIFT.io, René was Vice President of Product Management at Movik Networks where he was responsible for leading Movik’s products strategy and evangelizing Movik’s products to Tier 1 service providers world-wide. He also served as Senior Director of Product Management at Starent Networks where he was responsible for the GSM/UMTS, LTE, CDMA, and WiMAX packet core product portfolios.
René has also held senior positions at Redback Networks, Cisco Systems, and Nortel Networks.