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Rajant Corporation

Our Team

MEET THE RAJANT TEAM:

Jul 3, 2020

Leading Our Organizational & Technological Innovation

Rajant’s recognition as a market leader in wireless broadband mesh has been made possible by its forward-thinking team. Meet the management leaders that continue to pioneer Rajant’s pervasive, multi-frequency wireless solutions to meet evolving customer requirements.

Robert J. Schena – Chairman, Chief Executive Officer & Co-founder

In 2001, Robert Schena co-founded Rajant Corporation, the pioneer of Kinetic Mesh™ Networks. Mr. Schena has successfully grown this once small startup in Wayne, Pennsylvania to have a strong international presence in a broad array of markets including military, industrial, transportation, utilities, and telecommunications. Today, Rajant is doing business in over 50 countries with large global partners and has offices across the U.S., including offices in Pennsylvania, Arizona, Kentucky, and Alabama.

In 1999, Robert Schena co-founded Airclic, Inc., a wireless application and scanning company and raised $15 million from a group led by Goldman Sachs and Blue Capital Management. Motorola and Symbol Technologies forged a partnership to acquire Airclic and closed a $287 million financial round as well as the contribution of intellectual property in excess of $162 million. Also in 1999, Mr. Schena participated in the founding of World Wide Packets, a Gigabit Ethernet company.

In 1996, Mr. Schena successfully obtained for his company an FCC license to provide an Open Video System, becoming the first one to do so. In 2004, he was successful in changing U.S. telecommunications regulations, resulting in obtaining the first FCC license for broadband services delivered in the U.S. from a Canadian satellite.

In 1992, Schena founded FutureVision of America (FVA), forging a partnership with Bell Atlantic to commercially launch the first video dial tone and digital TV over television. FVA was successfully sold to Bell Atlantic.Prior to founding FVA, Schena served as the CFO, Treasurer, Vice President of Finance and Vice President of Marketing for Harron Communications.

Mr. Schena was appointed to the State of Pennsylvania’s Ben Franklin Technology Board by Governor Ridge in 2001, reappointed by Governor Rendell in 2004 and 2008, and reappointed by Governor Wolf in 2016. He serves on the Board of the Methodist Home for Children. In late 2010, Mr. Schena was named to Governor Corbett’s Marcellus Shale Transition Team. Mr Schena sits on the Kentucky EPSCoR Board as well as the Morehead State University Foundation Board.

Mr. Schena earned a BA in Business Administration from Temple University and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He has lectured extensively on broadband communications to professional and corporate organizations.

Paul Hellhake – President, Chief Technology Officer & Co-founder

In 1984, Paul Hellhake founded ROI Computer Services, Inc., a technology integration firm which has worked for a prestigious list of clients. Next, he co-founded and was Managing Director of FutureVision of America Corp., which developed and deployed the nation’s first commercial ATM, switched-digital, fiber-to-the-curb network and was sold to Bell Atlantic, Corp. in 1996. Mr. Hellhake also served as Chief Technology Officer of TelQuest Satellite Systems, LLC, a satellite uplink communications company, which was sold to MCI in 1999.

Mr. Hellhake holds a U.S.A patent for his invention of an Interactive Broadband Multimedia System. He has been quoted as an expert in numerous publications including Interactive Week, Discover, Science and he has been interviewed on TV programs such as Nightline, CNN, Walter Cronkite’s Universe and a PBS technology special.

Mr. Hellhake holds a B.S. degree and an M.B.A. degree in Technology Management.

Michael J. Van Rassen – President, Military & Government Markets

Mr. Michael J. Van Rassen graduated from the University of Toledo and was commissioned in the Ordnance Corps in 1985. He earned a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from George Mason University in 1996. He is a combat veteran of Operation Just Cause and Desert Storm.

Mr. Van Rassen has 20 years of Acquisition experience in uniform and as an Army Civilian. Mr. Van Rassen started the C-RAM effort in the summer of 2004 and led that effort until his retirement from Federal Service in 2016. During this tenure, he led acquisition efforts in Command & Control, Missiles, Guns, Radars, and Communications. He is the past recipient of the Army Product Manager of the year, The Superior Civilian Service Award, and 2017 inductee to the Air, Space, Missile Defense Distinguished Civilians Wall of Honor.

Dave Schena – Chief Financial Officer

David Schena is responsible for corporate accounting and financial oversight. As member of the executive management team, Mr. Schena is responsible for the company’s finances, supervising audits, shareholder relations, human resources, implementing financial controls and advising the Board of Directors. As an officer, Mr. Schena is Treasurer and Assistant Secretary.

Previously, Mr. Schena was the VP of Finance for Digital Broadband Applications Corp and responsible for reviving its intellectual property which facilitated the formation of Rajant Corporation. Mr. Schena has extensive experience in network integration and previously specialized in CIO functions for small businesses. This expertise was utilized during Rajant’s startup phase.

Mr. Schena received a BS in Electrical Engineering from Lehigh University and a BA in Business Administration from Temple University.

Geoff Smith – Executive Vice President, Global Sales & Marketing

Geoff Smith has over 25 years of experience designing, managing, marketing and selling innovative communication solutions. He started his career at AT&T Bell Labs developing high speed modem technologies before landing management roles at Agere Systems and Lucent Technologies where he led the Modem, DSL and Wireless R&D teams to achieve 350 million dollars in revenue in six years.

Mr. Smith continued to excel in his career by holding several senior executive positions at Proxim Wireless. During his tenure, he significantly increased global sales by identifying value-added resellers, integrators, and distributors as well as uncovering end use opportunities.

In 2015, Mr. Smith founded Wave Mobile Solutions, a pioneer in outdoor wireless communications specializing in vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) DSRC (Dedicated Short-Range Communications) radios for autonomous vehicles and served as the Managing Director.

Mr. Smith joined Rajant as Executive Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing in 2017 with a focus on growing Rajant’s V2X sales in IIoT markets and driving the company’s global expansion. He overseas multiple teams to ensure partners and end-user companies understand how the breadth of Rajant solutions can help achieve strategic advantages in their respective markets.

Mr. Smith received a BS in Business Analysis from Miami University.

Peter Lenard – Senior Vice President, Business Development

Peter Lenard has been with the company since its formation in 2002 and has held various roles throughout the years. These include development of the company’s first business plans, program management of over $15 Million in government R&D contracts, management of proposals and other corporate contracts. Mr. Lenard also was responsible for Rajant’s introduction and business development into the Australia open-cut mining sector, achieving extensive penetration and deal capture over a 6 year period. Following that, he has been the lead on Rajant’s business development in the rail transportation sector. He is currently focusing on business development and strategic account management for the company.

Previously, Mr. Lenard was the Vice President of Technology Services at the Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern PA. He was a member of the senior staff and managed a significant team responsible for deal evaluation, university technology transfer and portfolio company development. Previous to that he held technical and program management positions at General Electric and Lockheed Martin Corporation.

Mr. Lenard received a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Tufts University and a Masters in Management Degree from Penn State University.

Gary Anderson – Senior Vice President, Business Development

Gary Anderson’s background includes several high-tech business startups, including the founding of AEI, where he served as President and CEO, and the Director of Sales at Vivato. Selling AEI in 2001, he was subsequently nominated by the Bush Administration to serve as the Assistant Secretary for the Department of Veteran’s Affairs. However, after September 11, 2001, he withdrew his nomination and volunteered to assist the Administration in establishing the Transportation Security Administration and the Department for Homeland Security.

Mr. Anderson directed a large international organization while serving as the U.S. Representative to Australia in support of its Bicentennial, where he acted as the only foreign representative on the Australian Bicentennial Committee. He has been featured on regional television and radio programs, and has published articles on Disaster Recovery Planning, Year 2000 mitigation, Computer Security, VIRUS prevention, detection and elimination, in various business and financial management newspapers, magazines and publications.

Mr. Anderson retired from the United States Navy as a senior naval officer, and graduated with honors from Troy State University with a B.S. in Business Administration. Mr. Anderson was a Distinguished Naval Graduate and Honor man of Officer’s Candidate School.

Diana Logue – Senior Vice President, Finance and Operations

Diana Logue’s responsibilities at Rajant cover a wide range of accounting and operational functions to include strategic planning, reporting, financial analysis, project management, month-end close processes, budgeting, and inventory control. Over the past 15 years, she held a number of positions in the Financial and Accounting arena with increasing levels of responsibility to include human resource and personnel management, end of year auditing over-sight, leasing arrangements and contracts, tax reconciliation and reporting, and training of support staff. Ms. Logue is also an officer of the company and the Corporate Secretary. Prior to her arrival at Rajant, she was the Controller at the Delaware County Chamber of Commerce. Ms. Logue obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Accounting from West Chester University of Pennsylvania.

Marty Lamb – Senior Vice President, Technology Development

Marty Lamb is primarily responsible for software and firmware development for all of Rajant’s products. He is also the designer and implementer of Rajant’s cryptographic architecture and leader of Rajant’s FIPS 140-2 and other cryptographic validation efforts.

Outside of Rajant, Mr. Lamb is the creator and maintainer of several open source software projects as owner of Martian Software, Inc. He was a presenter at the 2004 Spam Conference and his projects have been covered in Jonathan Zdiarski’s book “Ending Spam” and the developer journal JavaMagazin. His NailGun Java application server is included in the JRuby implementation of the Ruby programming language.

Highlights of Mr. Lamb’s work prior to Rajant include providing the full lifecycle of custom software solutions as a Software Architect at ROI Computer Services, Inc., providing network consulting services and developing network topology analysis software as a Member of Technical Staff at Bell Communications Research (Bellcore), and developing hardware and software for services on the nation’s first residential fiber-to-the-curb optic network as a Project Engineer at FutureVision of America.

Mr. Lamb holds a B.S. in Computer Engineering from Lehigh University and an M.B.A. in New Ventures and Entrepreneurship from Penn State University.

Don Gilbreath – Vice President, Systems

As Vice President of Systems for Rajant Corporation, Don Gilbreath focuses his 30+ years of product development, engineering project management, and specialized technical sales on extreme industrial IoT opportunities for Rajant’s industrial wireless communications technology. Mr. Gilbreath’s specialty in video, sensor, and computer-based products makes him a sought-after resource for such research organizations as DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) and the Pennsylvania Drone Association. Much of Mr. Gilbreath’s work is documented on the Rajant Systems YouTube channel. There you will find international recognition for Mr. Gilbreath’s collaboration with UK’s Team Tao and their quest for the $7M Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE to autonomously map the seafloor. Collectively in 2019, Team Tao was awarded the first-ever $200K “Moonshot Award” for their innovative approach using autonomous swarm system technology.

Before Rajant, Mr. Gilbreath provided specialized R&D expertise to General Electric, Johnson Controls, TCI, Standard & Poor’s, and Commodore International. He developed and launched, or licensed over 30 computer-based products, including musical instruments, multimedia players, internet access devices, set-top boxes, and IP video and sensor systems. Mr. Gilbreath has broad experience in directing international engineering teams, vendor negotiations, licensing, patents, offshore manufacturing, and the launching of innovative products to world markets. He holds and has worked on many patented products worldwide. His board memberships include serving as ComCam International – Chairman/CTO (1998-2015) and VisCorp – Director/CTO (1994-1997).

Jon Lederman – Vice President, Artificial Intelligence

As Vice President of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Jon Lederman offers over 20 years of experience to his position driving AI-focused applications and capabilities for Rajant’s Kinetic Mesh partners and end customers to enhance their productivity further using machine learning (ML). Mr. Lederman is a tech entrepreneur, scientist, and engineer. Mr. Lederman is the founder of New York-based Spinor, developing AI technology for creating conversational voice experiences for enterprise and consumer applications. Before Spinor, he co-founded, conceptualized, and built the core technology for San Francisco-based audio technology startup SonicCloud that has received recognition and acclaim from Apple, Google, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Hospital, and others.

Having started his education with a B.A. from Harvard University, Mr. Lederman has conducted doctoral work in physics at the University of California Los Angeles, and masters work in electrical engineering at Columbia University and Stanford University. He conducted doctoral research in physics at Brookhaven National Lab in muon physics under his advisor Dr. David Cline (UCLA), and the development of a muon collider supported by the U.S. Department of Energy Muon Accelerator Program (“MAP”). He holds multiple patents and patents pending, including various inventions relating to deep learning as well as hearing enhancement inventions.

Adriana Falco – Vice President, Global Marketing

As Vice President for Global Marketing, Adriana Falco is responsible for Rajant’s global marketing and brand initiatives, vision, strategy, and execution in addition to creating lead gen tactics and building key relationships. A content marketing guru, she joined Rajant bringing more than two decades of marketing and management experience with expertise in brand development, digital marketing, and team leadership.

Prior to Rajant, Ms. Falco was principal of her own marketing firm—providing marketing, communications, and business development strategies that built brand awareness, established market dominance, and strengthened the competitive edge for B2B and B2C companies, including wireless solutions companies. She also held several marketing and leadership roles with progressively greater management responsibilities for leading media outlets and several tech companies providing solutions to the healthcare industry. A brand builder, storyteller and forward thinker, she is known as an out-of-the-box thinker who has successfully built marketing infrastructures from the ground up, launched new products and markets, and shaped new sources of revenue streams.

Ms. Falco earned a Master of Science degree from Drexel University, a bachelor’s degree from Villanova University, and post graduate certificates from Cornell University, Seton Hall University, and Penn State University. She also hails from a family legacy of gifted image makers— advertising execs, PR chiefs, creative directors, artists, writers, musicians, storytellers, and filmmakers.

Charles ONeill – Vice President and General Counsel

Charles ONeill is responsible for the development and management of Rajant’s intellectual property portfolio, including patents, trademarks and licensing. Mr. ONeill also oversees the crafting and negotiation of worldwide distributor and reseller agreements, as well as other transactional matters. He is responsible for the institution of and management of Export Administration Regulations compliance programs, and upholding compliance for FCC, EAR, ITAR, CE, RoHS and other matters.

Prior to Rajant, Mr. ONeill was principal at Law Offices of Charles ONeill, where he ran a statewide litigation practice concentrating in professional liability, criminal defense and business litigation with emphasis on risk reduction, contract coordination/management and general counsel function for educational institution and corporate clients.

Mr. ONeill received a BS from Cornell University, and a Doctor of Law (JD) doctorate degree from Widener University School of Law. He also received a Master of Laws (LLM) in Legal Advocacy from Temple University’s James E. Beasley School of Law.

Source: https://rajant.com/about/our-team/

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Our Team

MEET THE RAJANT TEAM: