Management Team
Nitin Bhandari
Chief Executive Officer, Co-Founder
Nitin Bhandari has over a decade of business and technology development expertise in the computer networking, wireless communications and multimedia marketplace. Before co-founding Skyfire, Nitin was a senior management member responsible for the advanced development group at Extreme Networks, an industry-leading pioneer of Gigabit Ethernet systems and technology.At Extreme Networks, Nitin was responsible for the design, product lifecycle and general management of all power supply systems. His efforts resulted in a product line that generated more than $60 million in annual revenue. Nitin earned his B.E. degree in industrial electronics from Bharati Vidyapeeth University in Pune, Maharashtra, India, and earned his M.S. degree in electrical engineering from CalTech in Pasadena, Calif.
Erik Swenson
Chief Technology Officer, Co-Founder
Erik Swenson is the technology visionary and chief architect at Skyfire, with more than 15 years of experience in ASIC development and systems design. Prior to co-founding Skyfire, Erik was the director of ASIC design and an original member of the ASIC design team at Extreme Networks, which developed a succession of chipsets that increased the performance and functionality of the company’s high-speed Ethernet switches.Before Extreme, Erik was as a staff engineer in the advanced development group at National Semiconductor. The holder of six U.S. patents and 20 more pending, Erik holds a B.S. degree in physics from California State Polytechnic University in Pomona, Calif. and an M.S. in computational physics from San Jose State University in San Jose, Calif.
Nirmal Nair
Vice President, Engineering
Nirmal Nair is a veteran of software product development with more than 15 years of technical and managerial experience in a wide range of engineering disciplines, including digital media and application development. Prior to joining the Skyfire executive team, Nirmal was director of engineering for U.S. and European operations at Pinnacle Systems, which was later acquired by Avid Technology.Before that, Nirmal was principal engineer and architect at Sirius Systems Corp., a mechanical CAM visualization firm, and co-founder of Arete Software, a mechanical processes simulation company. He has a B.E. from the National Institute of Technology in Tiruchirapalli, Tamil Nadu, India and an M.S. from Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa.
Raj Singh
Vice President, Business Development
Raj Singh is a mobile industry veteran and blogger with nearly a decade of experience working in all aspects of the mobile industry. As a consultant for Dell Mobile, he helped develop the firm’s global SMS, mobile marketing and WAP strategy. Raj also co-founded Veeker, a mobile video communication service, ToneThis, CNET’s top ringtone creation product, and Otasoft, an LBS Bluetooth couponing service.Raj held product management and strategy roles at Kodak Mobile, Cellmania, MobiTV, PlayPhone, Hungama Mobile and Antenna Software. His personal projects include the Moblexa mobile toolbar, PocketTella mobile file-sharing service and Pubwalk LBS bar-hopping service. Raj earned a B.S. in computer engineering at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.
Adam Sexton
Chief Marketing Officer
Adam Sexton has more than 16 years of experience in marketing and management in the music and technology industries. In 2000, Advertising Age named him one of the Top 100 Marketing Executives in the United States. Prior to Skyfire, Sexton was Chief Marketing Officer at Groove Mobile, the worldwide leader in mobile music, whose customers included Sprint in the US, 3 in the UK, and Bell Mobility in Canada. Groove was acquired by Livewire Mobile, a subsidiary of NMS Communications.Before that, Sexton also held VP positions in Marketing at Macrovision and in Product Management at Arista Records, where he was responsible for the consumer marketing of all Arista pop and rock artists, including Santana, Sarah McLachlan, Dido and Whitney Houston. Sexton has an MBA in Marketing and Management from Columbia Business School and an AB in Government from Harvard College.
Board of Directors
Skyfire is pleased to have the support and backing of major venture capital investors Lightspeed Venture Partners, Matrix Partners, and Trinity Ventures. Their support resulted in Series-A and Series-B rounds of funding of $17.8 million. In addition to Nitin Bhandari and Erik Swenson, the Skyfire board of directors includes:
Larry Orr
General Partner, Trinity Ventures
Larry Orr has been with Trinity Ventures since 1989. Previously, he worked for five years at Hewlett-Packard, where he held a wide range of key marketing and management positions within the company’s Information Network Group. Earlier in his career, Larry worked with New York investment firm Niederhoffer, Cross & Zeckhauser on mergers and acquisitions, and with Bain & Company, a leading management consulting firm.
Jake Seid
Managing Director, Lightspeed Venture Partners
Jake Seid has over seven years of venture capital experience and has helped complete more than 20 investments at Lightspeed across mobile (Rhythm New Media, Icebreaker), Internet (Kosmix, TheFind, TutorVista, StyleHive), systems (Aerohive, Identity Engines), software (Personeta, Sailpoint, Skybox) and components (SiPort, Unity). Jake also co-leads Lightspeed's India initiative and the firm's involvement in the Lightspeed-Gemini Internet Lab. Prior to Lightspeed, Jake was a product line manager for Cisco Systems.
Gordon L. Stitt
Chairman of the Board and Co-Founder, Extreme Networks
Gordon Stitt is chairman of the board of directors at Extreme Networks, a company he co-founded in 1996. Before Extreme, he co-founded Network Peripherals, a manufacturer of high-speed computer network hubs and adapter cards. Gordon is currently a board member at several other privately held companies and is chairman of the Industry Advisory Board for the Computer Engineering Department at Santa Clara University.