Management Team
Founded by a trio of seasoned executives and led by Dirk Gates, Xirrus brings together a management team with a successful track record of developing enterprise-class mobility and wireless products.
Dirk I. Gates
Chief Executive Officer and Founder
Mr. 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, and 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 Corp. 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.
Steven F. DeGennaro
Chief Financial Officer and Founder
Prior to co-founding Xirrus in 2004, Mr. DeGennaro held the position of Vice President, Finance and Chief Financial Officer 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.
Before joining Calix in 2001, Mr. DeGennaro was Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer 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. Prior to Xircom, he held management positions at KPMG Peat Marwick. Mr. DeGennaro earned a BBA, Accounting from the University of San Diego and is a Certified public Accountant.
Patrick Parker
Chief Development Officer and Founder
Mr. 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 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. These relationships helped fuel the Nomadix's revenue growth and fourth place ranking on Deloitte & Touche’s “Technology Fast 50”, a listing of Los Angeles’ fastest-growing technology companies. Prior to Nomadix, Mr. Parker held General Manager positions at Zhone Technologies and Xircom, where he led a $400 million business unit.
Kirk Mathews
Chief Technologist
Mr. Mathews’ track record includes co-founding Xircom, Inc. in 1988, helping to attract venture capital and leading Xircom through its Initial public Offering (IPO). As Chairman of the Board until 1995, he played a key role in product development, manufacturing and sales. Prior to co-founding Xircom, Mr. Mathews was founder, Chairman and CEO of Pertron, Inc., a leading developer of industrial controllers. Pertron was listed among Inc. Magazine’s 500 fastest-growing companies four years in a row and was acquired by Square D in 1987. He also held key engineering positions at Amtech, and RCA Corp. Mr. Mathews holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from New Mexico State University.
Alan Amrod
Vice President, Sales and Marketing
Alan Amrod joined Xirrus July 2006 as Vice President of Marketing and was promoted to run both Sales and Marketing December 2006. He brings over 20 years of experience in engineering, sales, service, marketing, and most recently served as Vice President of Marketing for Ixia where he was instrumental in driving Ixia to a global leadership position in IP Performance Testing. Prior to Ixia, Mr. Amrod was the Vice President of Enterprise Marketing at Alcatel. Before becoming Vice President at Alcatel, Alan worked at Alcatel as Director of Field Marketing; and before the acquisition of Xylan Networks by Alcatel, he was Sales Director for Healthcare, Education, and State Government sectors. Earlier in his career, Mr. Amrod worked at General Electric Medical Systems, where he was involved in the early development of Picture Archive Communications Systems (PACS), and was instrumental in the creation of the networking products and services business unit. Before his tenure with General Electric, he was a Criminal Intelligence Specialist with the U.S. Coast Guard, and also served a tour with the U.S. Navy assigned to Special Operations for the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations. Mr. Amrod has a B.S. from the State University of New York at Albany.
Sam Bass
Vice President, Operations
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 in a career spanning 30 years.