Leadership

Shane Buckley brings more than 19 years of executive management experience to the Xirrus team, expanding business and markets worldwide. Most recently, Mr. Buckley was the General Manager and Senior Vice President at NETGEAR where he led the growth of NETGEAR’s commercial business unit to 50 percent revenue growth over 2 years, reaching $330 million in 2011 – and played a prime role in growing corporate revenues over 30 percent. Prior to that Mr. Buckley was President & CEO of Rohati Systems, a leader in Cloud-based access management solutions, Chief Operating Officer of Nevis Networks, a leader in secure switching and access control. He has also held the position of Vice President WW Enterprise at Juniper Networks, President International at Peribit Networks, a leader in WAN Optimization and EMEA vice president at 3Com Corp. Mr. Buckley is a graduate of engineering from the Cork Institute of Technology in Ireland.

Dirk Gates brings more than 15 years of executive management experience to Xirrus, as well as a track record of success evolving a high-tech startup into a world class, publicly traded company. Having founded Xircom, Inc. in 1988 on the premise of delivering Ethernet connectivity to mobile computers, he attracted venture funding from Greylock, grew the company to 2,000 employees, achieved revenues of $500M and a market cap in excess of $2B. During his tenure as Chairman and CEO, Mr. Gates led Xircom into the wireless arena through partnerships and acquisitions that positioned the company to deliver mobility solutions based on IEEE 802.11, GPRS and Bluetooth technologies. He subsequently negotiated the sale of Xircom to Intel Corporation in March of 2001.  Mr. Gates holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from California State University at Northridge and an MBA from Pepperdine University.

Prior to co-founding Xirrus in 2004, Steve DeGennaro held the position of vice president, finance and chief financial officer (CFO) at Calix Networks, Inc., a venture-backed telecom equipment company. At Calix he raised $100 million in venture capital funding and guided the company from the development stage through first customer ship and revenue recognition. Prior to Calix, Mr. DeGennaro was senior vice president and CFO at Xircom, Inc., a publicly traded manufacturer of mobile networking products. In that role, he provided leadership, vision and strategic direction for the company during periods of significant growth and change. Additionally, he was responsible for all general and administrative functions of the company, including finance, legal, investor relations, information services, human resources, tax, treasury, and business development. He has also held other management positions at KPMG Peat Marwick. Mr. DeGennaro earned a BBA, Accounting from the University of San Diego and is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA).

Patrick Parker brings more than 20 years’ executive level engineering management experience in technology-driven companies to his position at Xirrus. Before spearheading development of the WLAN Array, Mr. Parker served as chief executive officer (CEO) of Nomadix, Inc., a leading technology supplier to the Wi-Fi public-access market. During his tenure, Nomadix raised more than $16 million in venture funding, while striking key OEM relationships with Agere Systems, Proxim and Rockwell Collins. Prior to Nomadix, Mr. Parker held general manager positions at Zhone Technologies and Xircom, where he led a $400 million business unit.

Steven Wastie brings over 18 years of experience leading global marketing, product management, and business development activities in highly competitive technology markets. Mr. Wastie has held executive positions at several category leading companies including senior vice president of marketing and product management at iPass, where he was responsible for evolving the company¹s corporate strategy and driving the overall marketing and product management activities worldwide. At Juniper Networks, he served as vice president of worldwide enterprise and managed services marketing with the primary responsibilities of managing the Enterprise go-to-market strategy, solutions line management and marketing, vertical segment marketing, and strategic technology alliances and messaging. Mr. Wastie has also served as vice president and general manager at Inktomi, along with marketing and product management positions at Netscape and AT&T Online Services. Steven holds a BA (Honors) in Business Studies and Marketing from London Guildhall University in the UK.

Sam Bass brings to Xirrus over 30 years of experience in the storage/networking industry from leading technology companies. Most recently, he served as executive vice president of operations at Ixia where he was responsible for operations, customer support, IT and facilities worldwide. Sam has also served as co-general manager for the Mobile Communications Division of Intel and senior vice president, worldwide operations for Xircom, providing the vision and leadership for the build out of an international, world-class manufacturing and distribution environment. He has also held senior management/operations positions at Fibermux Corporation, as well as at several other technology-based companies. 

Cary Kosher brings over 20 years of sales experience, creating and capitalizing on market opportunities in the wireless networking industry. Prior to joining Xirrus, he served as VP of Sales for Aerohive Networks, where he developed a go-to-market strategy that aligned sales, marketing and partner development. At Aerohive, Cary contributed to bookings growth from $1 million to $25 million per quarter and developed the Aerohive Partner Program.  Cary began his executive career at WatchGuard Technologies, where he doubled the number of customers and revenue per customer, resulting in a $3 billion valuation. Shortly after, at Cisco (Airespace), Cary was responsible for $128 million in sales, and 95 percent year-over-year growth. Besides his tenure at WatchGuard and Cisco, Cary has held senior-level positions at Atrato Networks, Napera Networks, and Polivec. Cary holds a BA in Communication from the University of Washington.

John Hudson brings more than 30 years of both domestic and international Human Resources experience. John has held senior management positions in multiple industries including, senior vice president of human resources and chief administrative officer at Alliance Gaming, vice president of human resources at Xircom, executive director of human resources at Amgen, director of HR and human resource planning at Syntex Pharmaceuticals, managing director of international human resources at Applied materials, and director of organization and management development at Sun Oil Company. He has experience in all phases of organizational growth from start-ups to multi-national conglomerates. John has owned his own company, specializing in organization development consulting and coaching. He is also the author of a highly publicized book entitled "Choosing The Right Path".

Dirk Gates brings more than 15 years of executive management experience to Xirrus, as well as a track record of success evolving a high-tech startup into a world class, publicly traded company. Having founded Xircom, Inc. in 1988 on the premise of delivering Ethernet connectivity to mobile computers, he attracted venture funding from Greylock, grew the company to 2,000 employees, achieved revenues of $500M and a market cap in excess of $2B. During his tenure as Chairman and CEO, Mr. Gates led Xircom into the wireless arena through partnerships and acquisitions that positioned the company to deliver mobility solutions based on IEEE 802.11, GPRS and Bluetooth technologies. He subsequently negotiated the sale of Xircom to Intel Corporation in March of 2001.  Mr. Gates holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from California State University at Northridge and an MBA from Pepperdine University.

Shane Buckley brings more than 19 years of executive management experience to the Xirrus team, expanding business and markets worldwide. Most recently, Mr. Buckley was the General Manager and Senior Vice President at NETGEAR where he led the growth of NETGEAR’s commercial business unit to 50 percent revenue growth over 2 years, reaching $330 million in 2011 – and played a prime role in growing corporate revenues over 30 percent. Prior to that Mr. Buckley was President & CEO of Rohati Systems, a leader in Cloud-based access management solutions, Chief Operating Officer of Nevis Networks, a leader in secure switching and access control. He has also held the position of Vice President WW Enterprise at Juniper Networks, President International at Peribit Networks, a leader in WAN Optimization and EMEA vice president at 3Com Corp. Mr. Buckley is a graduate of engineering from the Cork Institute of Technology in Ireland.

Bruce Edwards formerly served as the executive chairman of Powerwave Technologies, Inc., a leading supplier of antenna systems, base station subsystems and coverage solutions to the wireless communications industry. He served as Powerwave's CEO from 1996 until 2005, and on the board of directors from 1996 through 2007. Before joining Powerwave, Mr. Edwards served eleven years at AST Research, Inc, as the company’s executive vice president, CFO and director. He has also served in senior financial positions with AMDAX Corporation, a manufacturer of RF modems, and with Arthur Andersen and Co.

Mr. Edwards is currently a member of the board of directors of Semtech Corporation, Emulex Corporation and SouthWest Water Company.

Steve Krausz has over 25 years of venture capital experience, having joined US Venture Partners in 1985. Mr. Krausz plays a leadership role in both USVP and the venture capital community. He served for four years on the National Venture Capital Association board of directors, was treasurer and on the executive committee.

Prior to joining USVP, Mr. Krausz had eight years of operating experience with NASA Ames, BTI Computers, Direct Inc. and Daisy Systems, where he built the strong network and experience base that he brings to his portfolio companies. He served on the boards of directors of EPIC Design Technologies, Elantec, Microlinear, Checkpoint Software, Verity, Harmonic Lightwaves, Photon Dynamics; all USVP investments that became successful public companies. Currently he is on the Boards of multiple USVP investments including, Force10 Networks, Guidewire, Imperva, Occam Networks (OCNW), Threatmetrix, Trusteer and Xirrus.

Mr. Krausz holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University and an M.B.A. from Stanford Business School, where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar.

Mr. Marquardt is a co-founder of August Capital and his commitment to entrepreneurs and their market vision is reflected by his long-standing board relationships. Mr. Marquardt has served on more than 25 boards of directors during his 20-year venture capital career including Microsoft, Sun, Seagate, Adaptec and Grand Junction Networks (acquired by Cisco).

Prior to August Capital, Mr. Marquardt was a co-founder of Technology Venture Investors (TVI) in 1980, where he was involved in four highly successful funds that invested in more than 100 start-up and emerging growth companies. Among these early investments was Microsoft, where TVI was the sole investor and where Mr. Marquardt has been on the board of directors since 1981.

Mr. Marquardt received a BSME from Columbia University and an MBA from Stanford University. He also completed coursework for an MSEE at Stanford University.

Khaled Nasr joined InterWest's IT group in 2005, focusing on investments in the communications, enterprise and data center infrastructure sectors, including systems, software and semiconductors. Nasr is a board member of Exalt Communications, Gear6, InVisage Technologies, NexPlanar and Xirrus.

Prior to joining InterWest, Nasr invested in information technology companies for Alta Partners, including investments in Synad (acquired by ST Microelectronics), Netli (acquired by Akamai), Celetronix (acquired by Jabil) and Occam Networks (OCNW). Prior to that, Nasr spent 16 years with start-ups in the networking and telecommunications industries. He was president and chief executive officer of FlowWise Networks and general manager and vice president at Ipsilon. Prior to Ipsilon, Nasr served as chief operating officer at Advanced Computer Communications (ACC), and as vice president of marketing and services with Premisys Communications. From 1987 to 1992, Nasr served as vice president of network services with Newbridge Networks.

Nasr received his B.A. and M.A. in mathematics and social and political sciences from Cambridge University.

Mr. Schroeder is a highly regarded Silicon Valley CEO, and brings to Xirrus more than two decades of experience driving operational excellence at companies of all sizes, as well as being a respected and seasoned technologist.

As the former CEO of Diamond Multimedia Systems (makers of the Rio MP3 player) and president and vice-chairman of Conner Peripherals, Inc., Mr. Schroeder has taken several companies from start-up through IPO and also led large, successful public companies. At Conner Peripherals, he was a key member of the team credited with growing the company from zero revenue to in excess of $2 billion, and orchestrating a highly successful IPO.

Mr. Schroeder holds an MBA with High Distinction from Harvard Business School, as well as an MSEE and BSEE from Marquette University.  

Since co-founding Canaan in 1987, Eric Young has helped launch a multitude of market-leading companies from inception to IPO or acquisition. He was an early investor in Copper Mountain Networks (CMTN), whose technology led the 1990's DSL wave in North America; ONI Systems, the leader in the revolutionary merging of the metro area voice and data communication that is the basis of Ciena's current offerings (acquired by Ciena); and Kalpana, which introduced the concept of a multi-port Ethernet switch (acquired by Cisco Systems). Eric also generated numerous positive outcomes from his investments in high-performance companies such as Argon Networks, Capstone Turbine, Diffusion Software, Frame Technology, International Network Services, International Packaging Assembly, Spectrian and Visigenic Software.

Eric earned a BS in mechanical engineering from Cornell University and a MBA from Northwestern University.