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Management Team

	Christopher Nguyen . twitter . facebook . google . Chief Executive Officer
Christopher came to Bluepulse in early 2008 from Google, where he was the Director of Engineering responsible for the operations of Google Apps (GMail, Calendar, etc). He is a recipient of the Google Founders' Award. Prior to that he was founder and Chief Executive Officer of ACTGent Software, where he delivered five generations of a multi-million dollar real-time trading system, which was acquired by SHB Bank in 2005. He was also the founder and Chief Technology Officer of Agenda-Asia, a 400 strong pan-Asia digital presence agency acquired by WPP in 2008. Earlier, he was a professor at the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, where he helped launch their Computer Engineering program. He has also held technical positions at Xerox, Hewlett Packard and Intel. Christopher holds a bachelor's degree with highest honors in EECS from the University of California, Berkeley and an MS and PhD in EE from Stanford University.

	Diane Zoi . linkedin . facebook . Vice President of Marketing
A veteran in marketing, media and entertainment, Diane has been driving the marketing programs and brand development for bluepulse since she joined the company in May 2006. Diane has more than 10 years of marketing and P&L management experience at some of the world’s leading consumer and technology brands, including Charles Schwab Inc., Amazon.com, and HarperCollins Publishers. At Schwab, Diane managed retention programs for the Active Trader customer segment with online and offline promotions and customer communication programs. Diane then spent 4 years in Marketing and P&L management at Amazon.com where she was a Director in the Books, Music, and Video Group. While living in Sydney, Diane did a variety of marketing and supply chain projects for HarperCollins before joining Bluepulse. Diane has a BA from Colgate University and a MBA from Stanford University.

	Ramana Venkata Rao Gadde . linkedin . Vice President of Engineering, Natural Language
Ramana leads the Speech and Natural Language technology effort at Bluepulse. Prior to Bluepulse, Ramana was the Vice President and Chief Scientist at V-Enable Inc., where he built the voice search technology for the V-Enable 411 service. The technology is now in widespread use on Metro PCS 411. Before joining V-Enable, Ramana was a Senior Researcher at Stanford Research Institute. At SRI, Ramana developed of highly accurate speech recognition systems on government and commercial projects. He led the SRI team that won the DARPA research on Speech in Noisy Environments (SPINE) in 2002. His contributions include novel techniques for acoustic modelling, duration modelling, and noise robustness. Ramana has published over 30 papers in conferences and journals and holds 2 US patents. Prior to SRI, Ramana was an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IITM). Ramana received his Ph.D and M.Tech in Computer Science from Indian Institute of Technology Madras, and the B.Tech in Electronics & Electrical Communications Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur.

	Ray Fergerson . linkedin . Engineering Director, Software Engineering
Ray oversees the software engineering development effort at Bluepulse. Prior to this he led the engineering development of Yahoo's advertising inventory management system, a critical component of Yahoo's $1.5B display advertising business. Previously Ray led the development of the Protégé OODB project at Stanford University for a decade. He shepherded the project from a prototype application used by a handful of colleagues to a de facto worldwide standard knowledge representation tool, with tens of thousands of users and an active developer community. It is used and supported by organizations such as Daimler, DARPA, SAP, Perot Systems, NASA, National Cancer Institute, and the Center for Disease Control. Ray has also held technical positions at Lockheed Martin, Centigram (a telecommunications company), and Rutgers University. Ray holds a BS in Physics with high honors from the Colorado School of Mines and a PhD in Experimental Nuclear Physics from the University of Texas at Austin.

Christopher Nguyen . twitter . facebook . google .

Chief Executive Officer

Christopher came to Bluepulse in early 2008 from Google, where he was the Director of Engineering responsible for the operations of Google Apps (GMail, Calendar, etc). He is a recipient of the Google Founders' Award.

Prior to that he was founder and Chief Executive Officer of ACTGent Software, where he delivered five generations of a multi-million dollar real-time trading system, which was acquired by SHB Bank in 2005. He was also the founder and Chief Technology Officer of Agenda-Asia, a 400 strong pan-Asia digital presence agency acquired by WPP in 2008.

Earlier, he was a professor at the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, where he helped launch their Computer Engineering program. He has also held technical positions at Xerox, Hewlett Packard and Intel. Christopher holds a bachelor's degree with highest honors in EECS from the University of California, Berkeley and an MS and PhD in EE from Stanford University.

Diane Zoi . linkedin . facebook .

Vice President of Marketing

A veteran in marketing, media and entertainment, Diane has been driving the marketing programs and brand development for bluepulse since she joined the company in May 2006.

Diane has more than 10 years of marketing and P&L management experience at some of the world’s leading consumer and technology brands, including Charles Schwab Inc., Amazon.com, and HarperCollins Publishers. At Schwab, Diane managed retention programs for the Active Trader customer segment with online and offline promotions and customer communication programs. Diane then spent 4 years in Marketing and P&L management at Amazon.com where she was a Director in the Books, Music, and Video Group.

While living in Sydney, Diane did a variety of marketing and supply chain projects for HarperCollins before joining Bluepulse. Diane has a BA from Colgate University and a MBA from Stanford University.

Ramana Venkata Rao Gadde . linkedin .

Vice President of Engineering, Natural Language

Ramana leads the Speech and Natural Language technology effort at Bluepulse.

Prior to Bluepulse, Ramana was the Vice President and Chief Scientist at V-Enable Inc., where he built the voice search technology for the V-Enable 411 service. The technology is now in widespread use on Metro PCS 411.

Before joining V-Enable, Ramana was a Senior Researcher at Stanford Research Institute. At SRI, Ramana developed of highly accurate speech recognition systems on government and commercial projects. He led the SRI team that won the DARPA research on Speech in Noisy Environments (SPINE) in 2002. His contributions include novel techniques for acoustic modelling, duration modelling, and noise robustness. Ramana has published over 30 papers in conferences and journals and holds 2 US patents.

Prior to SRI, Ramana was an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IITM).

Ramana received his Ph.D and M.Tech in Computer Science from Indian Institute of Technology Madras, and the B.Tech in Electronics & Electrical Communications Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur.

Ray Fergerson . linkedin .

Engineering Director, Software Engineering

Ray oversees the software engineering development effort at Bluepulse. Prior to this he led the engineering development of Yahoo's advertising inventory management system, a critical component of Yahoo's $1.5B display advertising business.

Previously Ray led the development of the Protégé OODB project at Stanford University for a decade. He shepherded the project from a prototype application used by a handful of colleagues to a de facto worldwide standard knowledge representation tool, with tens of thousands of users and an active developer community. It is used and supported by organizations such as Daimler, DARPA, SAP, Perot Systems, NASA, National Cancer Institute, and the Center for Disease Control. Ray has also held technical positions at Lockheed Martin, Centigram (a telecommunications company), and Rutgers University.

Ray holds a BS in Physics with high honors from the Colorado School of Mines and a PhD in Experimental Nuclear Physics from the University of Texas at Austin.

Board of Directors

	Niren Hiro . linkedin . facebook . Vice President of Business Development, Admob
	Niren is responsible for Admob’s strategic partnerships worldwide. He has 17 years of international experience at top Internet, Mobile and Media companies including Yahoo!, CBS Sportsline, MTV Networks, Plus Channel, & BPL Mobile (a France Telecom JV). Prior to AdMob, Niren led the investment & operating strategy for the Yahoo! Mobile Asia business unit and the integration of Yahoo! Japan & Vodafone KK (Softbank Mobile). At the age of 21 Niren founded a highly successful processed foods company in Japan, where he was born & raised. Niren is an angel investor in several promising mobile start-ups on different continents and enjoys being around innovators in the turbulent media & entertainment industries. Niren has a BS in Finance and a MBA, both from Boston University.

	Christopher Nguyen . twitter . facebook . google . Chief Executive Officer
	Christopher came to Bluepulse in early 2008 from Google, where he was the Director of Engineering responsible for the operations of Google Apps (GMail, Calendar, etc). He is a recipient of the Google Founders' Award. Prior to that he was founder and Chief Executive Officer of ACTGent Software, where he delivered five generations of a multi-million dollar real-time trading system, which was acquired by SHB Bank in 2005. He was also the founder and Chief Technology Officer of Agenda-Asia, a 400 strong pan-Asia digital presence agency acquired by WPP in 2008. Earlier, he was a professor at the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, where he helped launch their Computer Engineering program. He has also held technical positions at Xerox, Hewlett Packard and Intel. Christopher holds a bachelor's degree with highest honors in EECS from the University of California, Berkeley and an MS and PhD in EE from Stanford University.

	Eric Ver Ploeg . linkedin . blog . facebook . Managing Director, VantagePoint Venture Partners
	Eric spearheads VantagePoint’s investment activities in the wireless area and leads the Wireless Advisory Council on behalf of the Firm. He joined VantagePoint in 2001, with broad experience as an entrepreneur, senior executive, and research engineer. He Co-Founded AdKnowledge, the first Internet adserving company, which was sold for $193 million. He was also the Founding CEO of Angara, the first hosted website personalization company. Mr. Ver Ploeg (rhymes with "her blue") is a graduate with highest honors of Case Western University (BS Electrical Engineering) and Stanford University (MS and PhD, in Electrical Engineering with an emphasis in Semiconductor Device Physics, and MBA).

Board Observers & Advisors

	Tuoc Luong . linkedin . facebook . Senior Vice President, Search Worldwide, Yahoo
	As Senior Vice President of Worldwide Search, Tuoc Luong oversees all Search Products at Yahoo. Luong was also Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at IAC Search & Media (formerly Ask Jeeves, Inc.), Prior to Ask Jeeves, Luong was general manager for Microsoft's BackOffice, and Hosted Service. He was one of the key executives leading the effort for Microsoft's Software as Services initiative and built the company's first Hosted Knowledge Worker MegaService. Before joining Microsoft, Luong was vice president of research for Baan Company where he was responsible for Baan's future technology architecture. Earlier, as VP of Development at Borland, where he was responsible for the entire Delphi client/server product line. Luong has held management positions with Pyramid Technology, Oracle Corporation and Informix Software. The 18th employee at Informix, Luong was the original author of the company's internationalization technology and one of three original authors of Informix-Turbo, now called Online. Luong holds a Master's in engineering management from Santa Clara University and a Bachelor's in computer science from University of California, Berkeley. Luong is the author of the book, "Internationalization, Developing Software for the Global Market", published in 1995.

	Rick Prostko . linkedin . facebook . Vice President, Vantage Point Venture Partners
	Rick joined VantagePoint in 2007 from Summit Partners, where he was responsible for technology, software, and consumer products opportunities ranging in size from $25 - $300 million. Previously, he worked as an investment banker in the Exclusive Sales Group of UBS Investment Bank’s Los Angeles office. Rick is a graduate of Princeton University (AB).