Under his leadership, the company provided mission critical systems-connectivity solutions to more than 300 of the Fortune 500 companies including the world’s largest stock exchanges, retailers, manufacturers, telecommunications service providers, financial institutions, airlines, federal and state governments, etc. BLADE attracted partners such as HP, IBM, Juniper Networks, NEC, Netezza, Teradata, SGI, Avnet, and many of the world’s leading technology resellers.

 

While the Global Financial Crisis saw many technology companies struggle, Vikram led BLADE and delivered spectacular revenue growth, gross margin expansion, and customer diversification. In the summer of 2009 he successfully raised capital as part of a Series B financing round led by new investors at a 5x increase in valuation over the Series A round in 2006).

 

He led BLADE’s expansion from modest operations in Silicon Valley (California) with highly concentrated domestic sales, to sales of the company’s product in over 100 countries and design, development and manufacturing operations in Ottawa (Canada), Santa Clara (USA), Raleigh (USA), Wuxi (China), Shen Zhen (China) Penang (Malaysia), Bucharest (Romania), and Bangaluru (India).

 

Vikram brings over 25 years of technology industry experience. He brokered the spin out of Nortel’s Blade Server Switch Business Unit (BSSBU), establishing BLADE as an independent company in February 2006 with funding from the Private Equity investors.

 

Over the years, Vikram has developed invaluable experience being on both sides of M&A transactions, often in different parts of the world. He has orchestrated two successful spinouts from multi-billion dollar corporations and played a key role in the successful integration of acquired businesses. He has a proven track record in delivering on commitments and exceeding the expectations of investors while building a sustainable business with loyal customers and motivated employees.

 

Vikram came to Nortel in 2000 through its acquisition of Alteon Web Systems and there he laid the foundation for what became Nortel’s BSSBU. Vikram was General Manager of Nortel’s BSSBU. Previously, he spent 12 years at Hewlett-Packard in various management and executive positions in several countries across the Asia Pacific region and the U.S. His last position at HP was General Manager, Enterprise Servers, Americas Super Region (a billion dollar plus business).

 

Vikram is recognized by employees, investors and customers for his leadership qualities, drive, attention to detail, multi-country experience, and consistently delivering on commitments. He has a straight-talking and transparent management style, strong deal-making abilities, an uncanny ability to break down the most complex problems into simple and actionable tasks, and a relentless passion for delighting customers.

 

In 2009, Vikram won the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year® award in the “Emerging” category for Northern California and was subsequently honoured as a National Finalist Winner and inducted into the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year Hall of Fame. Vikram received the 2014 Global Australian Award (ICT). He holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the Birla Institute of Technology.

 

Vikram is 47, of Indian origin, a citizen of Australia, and Permanent Resident of USA. Prior to moving to the USA, he has lived and worked in India, Singapore, Australia, and Hong Kong and has extensive experience doing business and raising capital in complex markets like China, Japan, South East Asia, and Korea. He resides in California.

 

Vikram servers as a Director of the AISUSA Foundation (http://www.aisusafoundation.com) and a Charter Member of TiE (www.tie.org)