GridGain Systems Leadership
Our management team and board of directors includes seasoned executives, leading investors and technologists
Management Team
Eoin O’Connor
President & CEO
Eoin O’Connor
Eoin O’Connor
Eoin O’Connor serves as GridGain’s president and CEO and is leading the company’s efforts to drive continued rapid growth, broaden the customer base, and enhance its distributed in-memory computing product offerings. Eoin joined GridGain in 2016 as chief financial officer and was appointed to his current position in 2022. In his previous roles at GridGain, he was responsible for finance & accounting, sales operations, legal, human resources, corporate compliance and IT.
Prior to joining GridGain, Eoin was an executive at a number of public companies, including Oracle and Siebel. He began his career at KPMG, specializing in initial public offerings and audits of hi-tech public companies. He then spent many years in leadership roles across both finance and operations. More recently, at ON24 and Space Time Insight, he was instrumental in managing fast revenue growth in a very short time span. Eoin has facilitated multiple venture capital funding transactions for GridGain and other growth-stage companies.
Eoin holds a Bachelor of Commerce from University College Cork, Ireland, and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants. He is an avid golfer and enjoys attending concerts.
Nikita Ivanov
Founder & CTO
Nikita Ivanov
Nikita Ivanov
Nikita Ivanov is founder and CTO of GridGain Systems, started in 2007 and funded by RTP Ventures and Almaz Capital. Nikita provides the vision and leadership at GridGain to develop the world’s top in-memory computing platform, now used by thousands of organizations around the globe to power business-critical systems and enable digital transformation initiatives.
Nikita has over 20 years of experience in software application development, building HPC and middleware platforms, and contributing to the efforts of other startups and notable companies including Adaptec, Visa and BEA Systems. Nikita was one of the pioneers in using Java technology for server side middleware development while working for one of Europe’s largest system integrators in 1996.
He is an active member of Java middleware community, contributor to the Java specification, and holds a Master’s degree in Electro Mechanics from the Baltic State Technical University, Saint Petersburg, Russia.
Mark Mszanski
EVP of Sales
Mark Mszanski
Mark Mszanski
Mark Mszanski has more than 25 years of executive management experience in sales and operations at both startups and large-scale software companies. Mark specializes in recruiting, developing and leading geographically dispersed sales teams and developing highly effective go-to-market strategies.
Prior to GridGain Systems, he was Vice President of Sales Financial Services and Eastern Region at Akana Software Inc., a leader in the API Management and Application Services Governance space that was purchased by Rogue Wave Software. At Akana, Mark transformed the sales organization for growth and quota attainment, securing Fortune 500 accounts. Before Akana, Mark was Vice President of Financial Services for Kony America’s Solutions Inc., where he built and managed a team focused on Financial Services in the U.S and Latin America. His sales team accounted for 50 percent of Kony’s total revenue. Prior to Kony, Mark held executive management positions at Evolven Software Inc., Hewlett Packard Company, DataSynapse Inc., BEA Systems, Inc., and more.
Mark holds a BS degree in Business from Springfield College.
Lalit Ahuja
SVP, Customer Services
Lalit Ahuja
Lalit Ahuja
Lalit is responsible for ensuring customers gain the most value from their GridGain investments. He oversees delivery of vertically-aligned solutions in collaboration with GridGain’s strategic partners and leads a global team of solution architects focused on customer success.
In his career spanning over 20 years, Lalit has led various IT functions including enterprise architecture, product management, large scale program management, IT operations and served as a digital strategy advisor to executives at Fortune 500 enterprises.
Prior to GridGain, Lalit led the global Customer Success team at Akana, a leader in API Management and Application Services Governance space, where he was responsible for increased customer retention and more than 300% growth in Akana’s consulting services business.
Lalit holds a Master’s degree in Engineering and an MBA from UCLA.
Board of Directors
Geoffrey Baehr
Partner, Almaz Capital
Geoffrey Baehr
Geoffrey Baehr
Geoffrey Baehr is a Partner at Almaz Capital, investing in diverse areas ranging from security, to networking, analytics and big data problems.
From 2000-2012, Geoffrey was a General Partner and later Venture Partner at US Venture Partners in Menlo Park CA. He remains an Advisor to USVP.
From 1988-2000, Geoffrey Baehr served as Chief Network Officer for Sun Microsystems responsible for technical and strategic network directions. During his tenure at Sun, he developed advanced technical products and, with his team, obtained more than one dozen patents. Over the past several years, Mr. Baehr has worked as an advisor to the Skolkovo Foundation and is on the panel of reviewers for Computer science related proposal reviews.
Mr. Baehr earned a BA in Biochemistry and Natural Sciences from Fordham University.
Andrew Jackson
CEO, Talos Investments Limited
Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson
Andrew Jackson, Ph.D. has more than 20 years’ experience within artificial intelligence and data analytics. Most recently was the CEO of a leading artificial intelligence company within the Middle East.
Wide experience in organically growing commercial businesses to scale and identifying acquisition opportunities for inorganic growth.
Prior experience within research commercialization within a network of top EU Universities, partnering with multinational technology leaders.
Academic background in ubiquitous computing, software engineering and machine learning.
Eoin O’Connor
President & CEO, GridGain Systems
Eoin O’Connor
Eoin O’Connor
Eoin O’Connor serves as GridGain’s president and CEO and is leading the company’s efforts to drive continued rapid growth, broaden the customer base, and enhance its distributed in-memory computing product offerings. Eoin joined GridGain in 2016 as chief financial officer and was appointed to his current position in 2022. In his previous roles at GridGain, he was responsible for finance & accounting, sales operations, legal, human resources, corporate compliance and IT.
Prior to joining GridGain, Eoin was an executive at a number of public companies, including Oracle and Siebel. He began his career at KPMG, specializing in initial public offerings and audits of hi-tech public companies. He then spent many years in leadership roles across both finance and operations. More recently, at ON24 and Space Time Insight, he was instrumental in managing fast revenue growth in a very short time span. Eoin has facilitated multiple venture capital funding transactions for GridGain and other growth-stage companies.
Eoin holds a Bachelor of Commerce from University College Cork, Ireland, and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants. He is an avid golfer and enjoys attending concerts.
Nikita Ivanov
Founder & CTO, GridGain Systems
Nikita Ivanov
Nikita Ivanov
Nikita Ivanov is founder and CTO of GridGain Systems, started in 2007 and funded by RTP Ventures and Almaz Capital. Nikita provides the vision and leadership at GridGain to develop the world’s top in-memory computing platform, now used by thousands of organizations around the globe to power business-critical systems and enable digital transformation initiatives.
Nikita has over 20 years of experience in software application development, building HPC and middleware platforms, and contributing to the efforts of other startups and notable companies including Adaptec, Visa and BEA Systems. Nikita was one of the pioneers in using Java technology for server side middleware development while working for one of Europe’s largest system integrators in 1996.
He is an active member of Java middleware community, contributor to the Java specification, and holds a Master’s degree in Electro Mechanics from the Baltic State Technical University, Saint Petersburg, Russia.
Sundi Sundaresh
President & CEO, Cinarra Systems, Inc.
Sundi Sundaresh
Sundi Sundaresh
Sundi Sundaresh is currently the President & CEO of Cinarra Systems, Inc., a private, Softbank Corp/venture-funded startup focused on enabling location-based campaigns and measurement for marketeers while monetizing data for telco carriers. A former president, CEO and board member of Adaptec, Sundi brings a wealth of industry experience to GridGain Systems.
Sundi has more than 20 years of experience in managing high-growth companies in the tech industry. Before becoming a board member of GridGain, SandForce (sold to LSI) and Sureline Systems, Sundi was the president and CEO of Adaptec, Inc [Nasdaq: ADPT, sold to PMC-Sierra]. During the course of his career, Sundi has also led multiple startups as President & CEO, including Xangati, Inc. (IT Operations Analytics, sold to Virtual Instruments), Candera Inc. (the industry’s first network storage controller) and Jetstream Communications (market-leading voice over broadband solution). During a previous tenure at Adaptec, Sundi served in a number of positions, including corporate Vice-President and General Manager for the Personal I/O division and corporate Vice President of worldwide marketing. He has also held various positions at Hewlett-Packard and National Semiconductor.
Mr. Sundaresh holds a
Bachelor of
Technology degree in
Electrical
Engineering from the
Indian Institute of
Technology, Madras,
a Master of
Engineering degree
in Electrical
Engineering from
Cornell University,
and an MBA from The
Wharton School at
the University of
Pennsylvania.
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