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Barry Crist Chief Executive Officer
Krishna Ganugapati VP of Engineering
Laurie Cansler VP of Finance and Operations
Manny Vellon Chief Technology Officer
Steve Young VP of Sales
Barry Crist
Chief Executive Officer
Barry is a seasoned technology executive with 21 years of experience in technology sales and operations. Barry spent significant time at Mercury Interactive, Network Associates (now McAfee), Trusted Information Systems, and Apple Computer. He joined Likewise Software from Mercury Interactive, where Barry led the Application Management business unit for the Americas. Under Barry’s leadership, this business grew from negligible revenue to over $75 million in annual bookings. Prior to Mercury, Barry served as a vice president and sales director at Network Associates (now McAfee), where he turned around several underperforming teams.
Barry started his technology career at Apple Computer where he spent just under nine years. Initially working in information technology (IT) at Apple, he later moved into field sales and then to Asia-Pacific market development helping to drive the company’s explosive growth in these markets.
Krishna Ganugapati
Vice President of Engineering
Krishna has over 15 years of experience in the software industry most of which was at Microsoft Corporation where he served in several product and technology leadership positions. He left Microsoft in 2003 at which time he was architect in the Windows Real-time Communications Group.
As architect in the Office (erstwhile Windows Real-time Communications Group) Real-time Communications Group, Krishna was responsible for technology evaluation and review for real-time communications technologies including and not limited to SIP as a control channel, instant messaging, presence, voice and video over IP for real-time delivery, application sharing and white-boarding. He evangelized a unified SIP endpoint model for all media and application layer data protocols within Microsoft which is the basis for the real-time communications and collaboration platform in Windows Vista.
Prior to that, he was development manager of the wireless product unit in Windows Networking and Communications Group where he conceived and led the development of several wireless technologies in Windows including the wireless 802.1x authentication system, the wireless zero configuration architecture and the native WiFi architecture for software access points. As development manager in the Windows wireless product unit he was responsible for all technology vision, strategy and execution of products. The wireless zero configuration feature was touted as one of the most compelling in Windows XP and spearheaded unprecedented growth for wireless broadband communications.
Prior to that, Krishna led the development effort for a slew of network security technologies including IPSec. He led the joint Microsoft-Cisco development in 1998-2000 to produce the first widespread implementation of the IPSec standard in Windows.
From 1993-1997, Krishna was member of the Windows Distributed Systems Group through the inception and delivery of Active Directory in Windows 2000. Krishna was the principal engineer and inventor of the Active Directory Services Interfaces which continues to be the principal means of accessing the Active Directory.
He holds a BS in Computer Science from the University of Mysore, India and an MS in Computer Science from Virginia Tech.
Krishna's personal blog can be found at kganugapati.wordpress.com
Laurie Cansler
Vice-President of Finance and Operations
Laurie has more than 18 years of experience working in a variety of finance positions in both publicly- and privately-held companies. Prior to joining Likewise Software, Laurie worked for Brueggerman and Johnson Seattle’s premier business valuation consulting firm. Prior to her tenure at Brueggerman and Johnson, Laurie spent over 11 years at AT&T Wireless where she was a Director on the Finance team. As Director of Taxation at AT&T Wireless, she focused on M&A transactions and led various operational and planning initiatives. She came to AT&T via their acquisition of McCaw Cellular where she had been a key member of the team during their period of explosive growth. Prior to McCaw Cellular Laurie was a Senior Consultant at Arthur Andersen LLP.
Laurie received her Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Washington and a Masters in Taxation degree from Golden Gate University. She holds a CPA certificate from the State of Washington.
Manny Vellon
Chief Technology Officer
Manny is a co-founder of Likewise Software and has 24 years of software development and investment experience. Manny began his professional career at Hewlett-Packard before joining Microsoft in 1987. At HP he was a developer for the Personal Software Division, where he worked on embedded terminal software, word processors and database products. Manny was promoted to project manager and began developing graphics software for MS-DOS and Windows.
At Microsoft, Manny first worked as a program manager on the software development kit for Microsoft Windows 1.0 with the mission of facilitating the development of Windows applications. He joined the Developer Tools Group as group program manager and then later moved back to R&D as a development manager. Manny co-founded the Virtual Worlds Group in Microsoft Research to study social interaction, collaborative work and real-time communication on the Internet.
After leaving Microsoft in 1998, Manny started his own consulting business to help startups and venture capital companies with the due-diligence process. Having worked with Northwest Venture Associates on various projects, he joined the company as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence in 2003. Manny earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and computer science from Princeton University.
Steve Young
Vice President of Sales
Steve has over 20 years of technology and software experience with a history of success at companies such as Andersen Consulting, The Vantive Corporation, and Mercury Interactive. Most recently, as a Director at Hewlett-Packard Software, Steve’s team drove over $30 million in revenue.
Prior to joining Likewise Software, Steve worked to provide software solutions to a large number of Fortune 500 customers such as Microsoft, IBM, AT&T, Sun Microsystems, Cendant Corp., Boeing, American Airlines, and Qwest Communications. Steve has a successful track record of exceeding sales quotas and from 2002-2005 he averaged 145% of quota at HP Software.
Steve graduated magna cum laude from the University of Colorado at Boulder and holds a B.S. in Business Administration with majors in Management Information Science and Finance.
