Amir Zoufonoun
Chief Executive Officer and Founder
Amir Zoufonoun founded Exalt Communications in 2004 and since then has served as its President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board. Amir has over 30 years of experience in the wireless telecom and networking industry, including 13 years at Western Multiplex where he was the visionary executive champion and wireless business founder responsible for the launch of numerous successful new wireless categories and extensions, and the growth of the company’s installed base to over 150,000 microwave backhaul systems worldwide. Under Amir’s leadership as president and chief operating officer, these market successes led to significant periods of profitable growth, multiple mergers and acquisitions, and a successful IPO. Amir also spent 10 years at Harris and Farinon in various management and engineering positions focused on delivering fixed and portable microwave backhaul systems for voice, data and video transmission. Amir holds a BSEE, a MSEE, and is a SEP graduate of the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.
Gordana Pance
Chief Operating Officer and Founder
Gordana Pance is a co-founder of Exalt and serves as its Chief Operating Officer and a board member of the company. A seasoned executive with extensive operating background, Gordana has over 20 years of experience in the wireless networking industry. Prior to Exalt, Gordana held various management roles at Western Multiplex, Glenayre and Proxim, most recently as senior vice president of engineering and product management leading multiple teams responsible for all products including point-to-point radios, point–to-multipoint, wireless LAN, and WiMAX. Gordana was a key driver behind the development and introduction of multiple generations of highly successful and best-in-class microwave backhaul products. Gordana holds a BSEE degree from the University of Belgrade, and MS and PhD degrees, also in electrical engineering, from the University of Rochester, New York.
Fred Corsentino
Senior Vice President of Sales - The Americas
Fred Corsentino is an accomplished executive with over 30 years of experience with leading high technology companies in the wireless and networking industries. His broad range of management experience includes all aspects of sales, marketing and business development in the enterprise, carrier and service provider markets. Fred’s strong leadership and management skills have led to significant revenue growth and value creation for a number of public and privately held companies including Digital Equipment Corporation, 3Com, US Robotics, Western Multiplex and Meru Networks. As the Executive Vice President of Sales at Western Multiplex, Fred grew the business to a successful IPO, selling microwave backhaul and wireless networking solutions to carriers and enterprise organizations. Prior to Exalt, Fred was the President of Saturn Ventures, a consulting company focused on building revenues for other technology companies. Fred has a BS degree from New York Institute of Technology and an MBA from Columbia University.
John Grabner
Vice President of Engineering
John Grabner has over 25 years of experience in engineering management for telecommunications firms. Prior to Exalt, John headed hardware and software engineering for Cisco’s Wireless Business Unit, a position he accepted following Cisco’s acquisition of Navini Networks. At Navini, as vice president of engineering, he was a key executive contributor to the company’s success from small start up to one of the best WiMAX equipment companies of its time, leading to the company’s successful sale to Cisco in early 2010. Before Navini, he spent 17 years with Nortel Networks where he held a number of technical and engineering management positions. He earned a B.Eng with distinction in computer systems engineering from Carleton University and holds19 patents.
Clive Belfort
Vice President of EMEA Sales
Clive Belfort has more than twenty-five years’ experience in the wireless industry, and he has been involved in growing EMEA business and organizations for several companies focused specifically on wireless backhaul infrastructure. His effective leadership of EMEA sales and support teams, ability to grow profitable and effective sales channels across the region, and skill at increasing revenue on steep growth curves were key contributing factors in a number of successful IPOs. Prior to joining Exalt, Clive was vice president of EMEA sales at Dragonwave where, under his leadership, revenues increased 500% in four years. Before that, he held senior sales management positions at Ceragon Networks, Stratex Networks, and Digital Microwave Corporation. He holds a B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from Birmingham University
Robert Schlaefli
Vice President of Operations
Robert Schlaefli has over 25 years of experience in operations and general management for high technology firms. Prior to Exalt, Robert headed operations for start-ups Teak Technologies and Loea Corporation, a manufacturer of E-Band 70/80GHz point-to-point digital radios. Previously, Robert was the Vice President of Global Operations for Stratex Networks (now Aviat Networks), a leading global supplier of microwave backhaul equipment, and also served as Vice President and General Manager of DMC Stratex Networks NZ Ltd. in Wellington, New Zealand. During his 5 years with Stratex Networks, Robert was responsible for revenue growth from $30M to $200M. Earlier in his career, Robert served as Division President at Signal Technology specializing in the development and manufacture of microwave products serving telecommunications and defense markets. Robert is a graduate of the management program at AEA Institute, Stanford University.
Pamela Valentine
Vice President of Outbound and Channel Marketing
Pamela Valentine has over 25 years of corporate and channel marketing experience with high technology companies from start-ups to global corporations. Prior to Exalt, she was Vice President of Marketing and Customer Support at Firetide, where her efforts were responsible for making Firetide wireless mesh the leading brand in the public safety and security markets. Before Firetide, Pam was responsible for outbound marketing at Proxim Wireless, where she helped reinvent the company’s corporate image, messaging and channel marketing program following its emergence from bankruptcy. She has also held senior management positions with Apple Computer and 3Com Corporation, where her efforts drove the company’s distribution channel revenue from $0 to $42M in one year. As the former CEO of MktFX, a marketing consulting agency, Pam worked with dozens of high-tech clients including Cisco, Sun and IBM to build their reseller channels through innovative messaging, creative programs and imaginative co-marketing partnerships.
Bill McFarland
Vice President of Finance and Controller
Bill McFarland brings over 25 years of experience to Exalt in accounting, tax, treasury and information systems, including design and implementation of global information systems for several multinational high tech companies. Bill has industry experience in hardware systems, wireless communications, semiconductors, consumer electronics and software, and he has held various roles in finance, accounting, and IT management including 12 years at Silicon Graphics. Other companies in Bill's background include S3/SonicBlue, Raychem, E&Y, Proxim and ActivIdentity. Bill holds a BS in Business Administration from the University of Notre Dame, and a JD with emphasis in taxation from Albany Law School, Union University, NY.