Management Team
Jim Curtin – Founder, President and CEO
Jim has been on the forefront of change in the computer industry over most of his 26 year career. At Digital Equipment Corporation, Jim was involved in one of the first PC roll outs and introduction of PC-based tools in the organization. He then moved on to Open Systems with the Open Software Foundation and as Managing Director of Asia Pacific promoted the benefits of distributed computing ahead of the internet. With the advent of the internet, Jim turned to network security management and policy enforcement as a co-founder and CEO of DASCOM, Inc. DASCOM, Inc. was acquired by IBM in 1999 and Jim served as VP of Security. In 2000, Jim turned to combining the benefits of Open Source and Linux to the problem of desktop management in what has now become known as VDI. Jim co-founded Virtual Bridges in 2006 to take this vision to the next level in bringing VDI to the Cloud. Jim is a graduate of Harvard University and Digital’s Financial Development Program.
Tom Francese – Executive Vice President
As executive vice president at Virtual Bridges, Tom is responsible for worldwide market development. He brings more than three decades of experience in technology and sales roles. Previously Tom held multiple roles at Novell Corporation including executive vice president of worldwide sales and president of Europe, Middle East, and Africa, based in London. Prior to joining Novell, Tom spent thirty years with IBM, rising to vice president of software group sales for Europe, Middle East and Africa. Tom received his MBA in finance from the University of Denver and a BA in pre-law from the University of St. Thomas, Houston. He has also served as a Captain in the United States Marine Corps.
Leo Reiter – Co-founder, CTO
Leo Reiter is Virtual Bridges’ Chief Technology Officer. An experienced technologist, Leo guides the architecture, development and technical sales teams. His approach to product development considers customer needs, industry trends and visionary direction. Prior to Virtual Bridges, Leo was a senior architect at GTE (now Verizon) where he led various infrastructure software teams delivering innovative solutions using large scale enterprise technologies. Leo also spent several years as a consultant in the telecommunications industry in diverse roles involving design, development, and Software Configuration Management.
Jikku Venkat – VP of Development, Support and Services
Jikku has over 20 years of experience in the IT industry bringing leading-edge technology concepts to market. His areas of expertise are in Cloud Computing, Data Center Virtualization, thin clients, Grid and High-Performance Computing. Prior to Virtual Bridges, Jikku was CTO & Co-Founder of United Devices, a company that delivered Grid and Cloud computing software to Global 2000 customers. During his tenure from 2000 through 2008, he built the development team from scratch, delivered 5 generations of software products, and evangelized the technology with customers, partners, investors, press and analysts. Prior to United Devices, Dr. Venkat was at Dell Computer working on Technology Strategy for the office of the CTO. Prior to that he spent 7 years at IBM where he was involved in bringing several leading technology concepts to market including low-cost supercomputer systems, PowerPC systems (with Apple), and low-cost, thin client personal computers.
Jim Clark, Ph.D. – VP and Managing Director, Asia Pacific Operations
As vice president and managing director of Asia Pacific operations, Jim is responsible for expanding Virtual Bridges presence abroad. A passionate entrepreneur and information communications technology professional, Jim has a proven track record leading high-growth technology companies within the Asia Pacific region. Prior to Virtual Bridges, Jim was Chairman of DASCOM, Inc, a network security management and policy enforcement company that was acquired by IBM in 1999. Jim has also held senior roles within prestigious organizations including Los Alamos National Laboratory, Bell Laboratories, and major technology firms such as IBM, Digital Equipment Corporation, SCO Inc. and Control Data Corporation. He’s a frequent author as well as a recipient of numerous awards including the National Science Foundation Fellowship and Los Alamos National Laboratory Scholar. Jim holds a PhD from the University of New Mexico and University of California’s Los Alamos National Laboratory and a master’s of science in applied mathematics from the University of Idaho.
Dan Perlman – Co-founder, VP of Business Development
Dan has over 30 years experience in business development, marketing and technology with emerging-growth startups. Prior to Virtual Bridges, Dan was VP of Marketing and Business Development and co-Founder for RoverLive, a content security startup. Prior to that, Dan was VP of Marketing at DASCOM, Inc., a network security startup. As a member of the core leadership team at Dascom, Inc, he was responsible for marketing and business development. After Dascom, Inc. was sold to IBM, Dan was responsible for analyst relations at Tivoli. Prior to this, Dan served as VP of Marketing and VP of IT for The Registry/Renaissance Intl, a pioneering contract outsourcing firm. Dan has a BA in Social Sciences from University of Maryland.
Geoffry Gilton – VP of Service Provider Business Strategy
Geoff has more than 15 years of experience in the ICT managed services industry bringing leading-edge technology concepts to market. His expertise spans data center services, cloud computing, data center virtualization and managed IT services. Geoff is responsible for Virtual Bridges’ service provider strategy and business development. Previously, Geoff was vice president at Devonshire Investors, a Fidelity Investments Company. Geoff led the strategy and product portfolio for COLT Managed Services business, in London, providing leadership for the COLT Managed Services portfolio across COLT European infrastructure. Prior to working at COLT, Geoff led the development of KVH’s Managed IT Services business in Tokyo, Japan. Geoff hold an MBA in entrepreneurship and international business form Babson College as well as a MS in telecommunications and a BA in psychology from the University of Colorado, Boulder.
Denise Court – VP of Marketing
As vice president of marketing, Denise has overall responsibility for the company’s corporate and product marketing, communications, analyst relations, events and branding. Her successful efforts in developing purpose-driven campaigns have raised the visibility of VDI Gen2 and elevated Virtual Bridges’ position in the industry. Denise brings more than 18 years of experience to Virtual Bridges. She most recently served as vice president of outbound marketing at Hyper9, an enterprise virtualization management leader, where she led marketing activities including positioning, branding, messaging, segmentation, sales enablement, and PR and analyst relations. She has also held senior management roles at itzbig, Collective Technologies (acquired by MTI), Pervasive Software (Nasdaq: PVSW) and Motive, Inc. (acquired by Alcatel-Lucent), OpenConnect Systems Inc. and JBA International. Denise holds a Liberal Arts degree from Elmhurst College.
Peter Poulin – VP of Sales
As vice president of sales, Peter is responsible for driving revenue growth through new customer acquisition and expanding deployments within the company’s current customer base. He brings more than 25 years of hardware, software, and services industry experience to Virtual Bridges. After spending 13 years at Compaq in a variety of sales, marketing and general management roles, Peter turned his focus to emerging and mid-market companies, helping them drive growth and improve profitability. Most recently, he served as executive vice-president of marketing and business development for Hoover’s, where he helped architect a turnaround for this $100 million SaaS business. Prior to Hoover’s, Peter had P&L responsibility for the North American division of APC (a data center infrastructure provider). He has also served as a sales, marketing and business development executive for startups including Works (acquired by Bank of America), NetBotz (acquired by APC) and Segway. Peter holds a BS degree in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University.
Iser Cukierman – Chief Financial Officer
As Chief Financial Officer, Iser is responsible for leading finance and accounting and providing strategic and operational leadership as a member of the executive leadership team. He has over 20 years of experience leading multi-million dollar organizations as well as early-stage and emerging growth companies. Most recently, Iser served as CFO at Fiserv where he was responsible for developing and implementing the company’s strategic plan related to revenues, profitability and growth. Before joining Fiserv, Iser served as CFO of Strategic Forecasting, a geopolitical analysis and professional services company and was an associate with VirtualCFO, a consulting firm providing strategic and tactical financial consulting and support services. He has also held roles at Softbank, Accenture and Ernst & Young. Iser has a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Texas in Austin and is a Certified Public Accountant.
Edward Hubbard – VP of Product Management and Alliances
Edward brings over twenty years of experience to his position as VP of Product Management and Alliances. Prior to Virtual Bridges, Edward was with Citrix Systems where he led the Microsoft and EcoSystem Strategic Alliance teams. Before that, he was the Founder and CEO of United Devices, a company that delivered Grid and Cloud computing software to Global 2000 customers. Edward also held various engineering, marketing, business development and management positions at Dell, Intel and Microsoft. He is a published author, holds more than fifteen issued patents and is the author of more than 20 patent applications. He has spoken at numerous industry conferences and events, and has also appeared on a number of radio and television programs including broadcast segments on CNBC, CNN, NBC, ABC and TechTV. Edward holds degrees in Computer Engineering and Information Systems, and earned an MBA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
