Management Team
David B. Wright
President & CEO
David’s distinguished record in the technology industry includes CEO, Chairman of the Board and executive positions with Legato Systems, Amdahl Corporation and EMC. Most recently David served as the chief executive officer and chairman for Verari Systems – a pioneer in scale out blade based storage. David served as president, chief executive officer, and chairman of the board of LEGATO Systems where he masterminded an acquisition strategy that led to the company’s financially beneficial acquisition by EMC Corporation. Upon acquisition, David became the executive vice president, Office of the CEO, Strategic Alliances and Global Accounts. Before joining LEGATO, David served as president and chief executive officer for Amdahl Corporation and held a variety of staff and management positions at IBM. David serves on the Board of Directors of Verisk Analytic, Inc., SourceForge, and ActivIdentity and is a member of the Executive Committee of the Silicon Valley Manufacturing Group.
David graduated from Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he received a BS in Physics and Mathematics.
Som Sikdar
Founder and CTO
Well known in Silicon Valley as the founder of four venture-funded companies in the networking infrastructure industry, Som Sikdar holds over 20 patents and brings a wealth of network expertise and industry experience to GridIron. Before GridIron, Som was the founder of Shomiti Systems (Finisar), where he pioneered network analysis. He was also the founder of Force10 Networks, the leader in 10 GE networks. Early in his career, Som was a key technology leader at Synoptics, Vitalink, and David Systems.
Som earned an MSEE from Washington State University in Computer Architecture (VLSI) and Compiler Design and a BS in Technology from the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur, India.
Herb Schneider
Founder and Vice President of Engineering
Herb has a successful track record of driving the development of next-generation technology including five generations of custom networking ASICs, two generations of network operating systems (EXTR, EXOS), and three generations of fixed and modular networking platforms. He holds several patents in data networking and security. As founder and VP of engineering at Extreme Networks, he engineered data networking products that generated over $2 billion in revenue and was responsible for the shipment of 20 million Ethernet Ports. At Network Peripherals (FalconStor), he created leading products for the FDDI market and guided the company through its successful IPO. Prior to Network Peripherals, Herb was a key leader in developing network- and storage-related silicon technologies at National Semiconductor.
Herb holds a BSEE from the University of California at Davis.
Prasad Pammidimukkala
Vice President of Product Management and Marketing
Prasad has over 17 years of experience bringing enterprise-class storage and networking products to market. Prior to GridIron, he led product management at Nishan Systems, a pioneer in IP storage technologies. At McData, he was responsible for the company’s core storage network routers and at Brocade, Prasad ran product management for the company’s core routers and extension products. Before entering the data storage industry, Prasad delivered data networking products at 3Com and Ungermann-Bass.
Prasad holds an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, an MS in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a BS in Computer Science from the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University in Hyderabad, India.
Gerald Conboy
Director of Sales and Channels
Gerald is an accomplished executive with over 30 years of sales and general management experience. As Vice President of Worldwide IBM OEM Sales at Network Appliance, Gerald drove hundreds of millions of dollars worth of NetApp business through the IBM OEM channel. While serving as the Vice President and General Manager of Worldwide Technology Sales at Amdahl Corporation, Gerald was accountable for over half a billion dollars in annual revenue. Gerald also developed the leasing business for IBM, Amdahl and Network Appliance.
Gerald earned a BS in Mathematics from Niagara University.
Diptish Datta
Director of Worldwide Support
Diptish has over twenty years of customer service and technology experience. At Data Domain (EMC), he managed the launch of a new Support CRM system. Prior to that he was VP of Services at Orchesys and Kaleidescape. As VP of Service Engineering at NetApp he was responsible for building and enhancing the customer support experience by focusing on automation, product supportability and continuous improvement processes. Diptish’s prior work experience includes Amdahl Corp as an Escalations Engineer and Verdix Corp as a Network Development Engineer.
Diptish holds a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Virginia Tech and a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur, India.