MANAGEMENT

The Tropos Networks team is led by a seasoned group of executives and engineers from Blue Coat Systems, Motorola, Network Associates, and Extreme Networks.

Tom Ayers
President and Chief Executive Officer

With more than 30 years of successful leadership in building high technology companies and delivering advanced solutions to customers, Mr. Ayers drives the continued global expansion of Tropos Networks while building its position as the leading provider of multi-purpose, wireless municipal and industrial applications. Tom has a consistent, proven track record of vision, leadership, and success in public sector, enterprise, and global markets.

Mr. Ayers joins Tropos from Blue Coat Systems, where as the vice president of worldwide field operations, he helped lead the company through a significant market transition which resulted in over 3,000 new customers, number-one market share and company profitability. Prior to Blue Coat, he led enterprise and SMB sales organizations for the McAfee Security division of Network Associates. Before that, he improved revenue growth and profitability at Sequent Computer Systems. He also served as vice president of sales for Amdahl’s worldwide professional services and multi-vendor maintenance organizations, growing the business more than fourfold. Additionally, Mr. Ayers has more than 13 years of extensive management experience and training from IBM.

He graduated from The University of Texas at Austin where he received a degree in business administration.

Mike Bailey
Vice President of Operations

Mike Bailey brings over 25 years of product development, manufacturing and operations experience to Tropos Networks. Previously, Mr. Bailey served as Vice President of Operations for Nishan Systems, where he expanded operations and customer support to accommodate a ten times growth in sales in an eighteen month period. Before Nishan, Mr. Bailey served as Vice President of Operations of Lantern Communications. Previously, Mr. Bailey was Vice President of Operations for DiviCom, directing operations and customer service from initial product development through $200 million in annual revenue. Earlier, Mr. Bailey held managerial positions at Compression Labs and Eastman Kodak Company.

He holds a BSEE from the University of Cincinnati and an MBA from the University of Northern Colorado.

Steve Lowe
Vice President of Sales

Steve Lowe is Tropos Networks’ Vice President of Territory and Channel Sales. He has over twenty years of engineering, product management and sales experience with computer-aided dispatch, records management, wireless mobile applications and message switch technologies. Prior to Tropos, Mr. Lowe was Vice President of Business Development for Printrak, a Motorola Company, where he directed domestic and international business development, marketing, contracting and consulting. He was responsible for sales and implementation of computer-aided dispatch and records management systems for over 400 domestic and international public safety agencies including New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Nashville, Miami-Dade and Jacksonville. A member of the executive staff at SCC Communications, Mr. Lowe was involved in the IPO of SCC, selling the Public Safety Division of SCC to Printrak, and the eventual sale of Printrak to Motorola.

Mr. Lowe holds a BS in Computer Science and a BA in Business from Chico State University.

Donald Scott
Chief Financial Officer

Don Scott is Tropos Networks' Chief Financial Officer. He brings more than 30 years of experience in building company and financial operations and management, most recently consulting with various small to mid-size high-tech enterprise ventures, such as cPacket Networks, Sensitronics, PointAD Network, Mycelia Networks, and ICFX-TV.  He has helped advise and guide many companies through all phases of corporate life, including: start-up, seed round funding, later stage funding, and M&A activity.  Previously Mr. Scott served as the President and CEO of EMU Systems, a wholly owned music and audio subsidiary of Creative Labs.  Prior to that, while at Xerox, he held senior financial and operational management positions.

Mr. Scott has a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and Economics and an MBA in Finance from University of Rochester, New York.

Rob Pilgrim
Vice President of Business and Corporate Development

Rob Pilgrim is Vice President of Business and Corporate Development at Tropos Networks.  He is responsible for investigating and driving strategic relationships with various technology, application, and infrastructure companies to grow the wireless mesh market ecosystem.  Working with over 100 industry leading companies since joining Tropos in 2005, he has helped architect business and technology solutions to create new ways of delivering wireless data and applications to customers.  Prior to joining Tropos, Mr. Pilgrim was Director of Product Marketing and Business Development at Covad Communications, and spent over 10 years in various business and technical roles for companies in the wireless and optical communications space.  Rob started his career as a marketing engineer for Georgia Power Company, an operating unit of the Southern Company.

Mr. Pilgrim holds a bachelors degree in mechanical engineering from Georgia Tech.

Narasimha Chari
Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer

Narasimha Chari was responsible for developing Tropos Networks' core intellectual property, including the design and development of the company's wireless networking and routing protocols. Currently, he focuses on system and product architecture, product planning and participates in the company's advanced development efforts.  Among other honors, Mr. Chari was recognized by MIT Technology Review magazine in 2005 as one of the Top 35 Innovators under the age of 35. Prior to founding Tropos, Mr. Chari was a research scientist at Harvard University where he was recognized as a top lecturer and received the White Prize for excellence in teaching. He has performed research, published papers and disclosed patents in a variety of areas of mathematics, physics and wireless networking.

Mr. Chari holds a BS in Mathematics and Economics from the California Institute of Technology and an AM in Physics from Harvard University.

Cyrus Behroozi
Chief Scientist

Cyrus Behroozi is Tropos Networks' Chief Scientist. After joining in 2000, he developed the company's first wireless mesh hardware. More recently he has focused on network performance, developing advanced distributed algorithms for route selection, power and bit rate control, airtime coordination, and channel selection. Mr. Behroozi draws upon his background in experimental physics for insight into electromagnetic propagation and complex systems. At Harvard University, he was part of the research team that slowed light to 38 miles per hour in a Bose-Einstein condensate and subsequently stopped it outright. He co-authored two articles in Nature on this work.

Mr. Behroozi holds a BS in Physics from the California Institute of Technology and an AM in Applied Physics from Harvard University.