CertusNet

The team consists of experienced people with successful track records in starting and building businesses with significant multi-disciplinary knowledge and work experience in the networking industry.

• Jason Lu, President and CEO, Founder

  Jason has a successful background in managing projects and developing products in the data and telecommunications industry. Most recently Jason served as CTO and VP of Engineering for RioRey and was responsible for research and development of network security technology and products. Jason was the President and Founder of NetImmune Inc., that was acquired by RioRey. Prior to that, he was responsible for network security, network operations and management in an IP Internet2 organization. Previously he was the founder of AlphaSight Networks and as President and CTO, built a top class management team and raised funds to support his business plan. Prior to that, he held a key technical decision making product line management position for SONET switch development at Corvis Corporation.

  Jason has extensive successful experience as PI in qualifying and securing grants from NIST ATP ($2M), NSF SBIR, MIPS, TEDCO, and Montgomery County TGP. He is an innovative and energetic technology expert and a creator of successful products. He has professional experience and knowledge on IP switch/routers, optical products, ATM products, wireless and satellite systems. In addition he has been actively involved in advanced communications technology research with focus in areas o network protocol/signaling, network security and management and fiber optic systems. He has several papers published on these topics.

  Education:
  Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD. Ph.D. candidate in Electrical Engineering
  University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, Master of Science in Electrical Engineering
  Peking University, Beijing, China, Master of Science in Applied Mathematics
  Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering
  

• Steven Rogers, Chief Operating Officer

  Steven Rogers is a serial entrepreneur focused on assisting founders to set meaningful objectives and establish strategic plans to achieve them. Prior to CertusNet Steve has participated in three start-ups.

  He was a co-founder and COO of Carina Networks. Here he assembled a team that developed and marketed a unique patented network architecture capable of delivering broadband services to the home via the utility power line. He also led negotiations for a joint development agreement with a major utility company. He followed this with the COO role at Alphasight that developed a chip designed to switch packet, cell and TDM traffic with equal efficiency. Alphasight qualified for a $2M NIST ATP grant in 2004. He then joined NetImmune as CEO; a company designing and building an Internet security product. NetImmune was purchased and renamed Riorey in 2006.

  Prior to Carina Networks, Steve held a variety of leadership roles at Nortel Networks including VP and General Manager of Nortel's Metro Optical Division and General Manager of the Wireline Access Division. At the Metro Optical Division he introduced a new product into an existing market and took 25% market share from the incumbents in 3 years. This was achieved through a more compelling value proposition in the eyes of the customers. At the Wireline Access Division Steve managed a team of 700 people with revenues in excess of $1B. During his time at Nortel he built many teams for the specific purpose of bringing innovative new products to market with an associated profitable P&L. He developed a new process for identifying and nurturing new ideas and piloted a new Time-To-Market initiative adopted by Nortel. He worked with a variety of customers as partners in these endeavors both in North America and internationally through assignments in Europe and Asia. In North America he worked closely with all the Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs) at various times to introduce new products. In Europe his team created the first commercial Fiber-To-The-Home product in partnership with British Telecom. In Japan he negotiated a large network contract with NTT. In South Korea he led the team that redesigned the national telephone network.

  He has spoken at conferences and associations on topics such as growth strategies and securing grant funding for small businesses and he assists at the University of Maryland College Park, Johns Hopkins University and George Mason University advising faculty members about commercializing their Intellectual Property.

  Steve graduated from Manchester University, England with a BSc. Hons degree in Physics and Electronics.

• John Qian, VP of Engineering, Founder

  John is a strong engineering leader with more than 18 years experience in developing software for communication and network systems. Most recently he worked at RioRey as Director of Software Engineering and Chief Engineer and previously at NetImmune responsible for development of network security technology and products. Prior to that, he worked at Corvis Corporation USA for 4 years and led a software team in developing the network management and control software/firmware. Prior to that, he developed a Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) for 3rd generation wireless communication system at Coast Communications in New Jersey. He was a principal engineer and an engineering project manager working in Singapore for more than 10 years and successfully developed a Network Management System and various other communication and control software systems.

  Education
  B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from Fudan University (Shanghai, China)
  M.Sc. degree in Computer Science from University of Essex (UK)
  M.Sc. degree in Computer Engineering from New Jersey Institute of Technology (USA)
  

• Jack Hangen, VP of Business Development

  Mr. Hangen is an angel investor focused in the communications and information technology areas. He formed Entec Ventures LLC in 2005, and InterFund Consulting, a due diligence consulting firm, in 2001.

  Mr. Hangen was previously Vice President, Marketing and Product Management for COMSAT Labs, until it was acquired by Viasat Corp. There he directed the development and introduction of their most successful product, an IP-based VSAT. Between 1990 and 1999 he was Vice President and founder of Telogy Networks, where he was involved in satellite, cellular, and Voice-over-IP products. The company's two divisions were acquired by Motorola and Texas Instruments.

  In 1981 Mr. Hangen founded Dama Telecommunications, a data communications service provider in the U.S. that was acquired in 1986 by Data General (now EMC Corp.) Mr. Hangen also worked 10 years at Hughes Network Systems, previously known as M/A-COM, where his last position was Assistant Vice President and General Manager of the satellite communications division. He has written many articles and holds several patents in data networking and distributed computing.

  Education:
  BEE, Catholic University, 1967
  MEE, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 1968
  Ph.D., (dissertation not completed), Catholic University
  Executive Management Study Program, MIT Sloan School of Business, 1981
  Advanced Management courses, Harvard Business School, 1986