Sam Mathan - Chairman and CEO

Mr. Mathan serves as Matisse's Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer. Most recently as President and CEO of Amber Networks, he developed the company into the leader in fault tolerant routing, resulting in the sale of Amber to Nokia for $421M in July of 2001.

Previously, as Senior Vice President of Telco Marketing & Sales, Mr. Mathan helped establish Ascend Communications as the dominant supplier of dial access, frame and cell switching equipment. Subsequent to the acquisition of Ascend by Lucent Technologies he steered the merger of the two sales forces and served as senior vice president, Telco marketing and sales of the resulting Lucent Technologies Internetworking Systems division. Prior to Ascend, he directed the product management and marketing team responsible for Pacific Bell’s first series of network integration products and services.

Mr. Mathan has a B.Sc. and B.E. from Osmania University, Hyderabad, India, a MSEE from North Carolina State University, and a MBA from Southern Methodist University. Born in Hyderabad, India, Sam moved to the USA in 1970.

Claude Hamou - Founder, President and COO

With over 20 years of experience in various management roles, Mr. Hamou brings a wealth of experience from a variety of backgrounds. In addition to having founded Matisse, Mr. Hamou is currently responsible for all engineering and operational activities for the company. Previously, Mr. Hamou was Executive VP and General Manager of Terayon Communications' Data Cable Division. Prior to Terayon, he was VP of Engineering and Operation at Apache Systems and Director of Engineering with Adaptec.

Mr. Hamou holds a BSc. from the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel, and MS in Management from Santa Clara University, California.

Jerry Lovatt - Vice President Finance

Mr. Lovatt oversees finance, human relations and information technology functions for Matisse Networks.

Mr. Lovatt, a California Certified Public Accountant (CPA), has over 17 years of experience in Finance. His career has centered on high technology companies, including software, EDA, ERM, telecommunication and other. His career includes growing start ups internationally to take them into the IPO process. Most recently he served as Corporate Controller at Sylantro Systems Corporation, a telecommunications software provider. Mr. Lovatt’s experience also includes management positions at various Silicon Valley CPA firms with clients including Apple Computer, Exodus Communications, Macrovision, Travel Zoo and others.

Mr. Lovatt launched his career at the international CPA firm of KPMG, LLP. He holds a Master of Science degree in Taxation and a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from San Jose State University.

Prabhat Mishra - Vice President of Engineering

Prabhat Mishra brings over 20 years of engineering management experience developing and bringing to market networking and computer systems products. Mr. Mishra was most recently Senior Vice President of Engineering with Nevis Networks. Previous positions have included Vice President of Engineering at Caspian Networks and Vice President of Engineering at Alteon WebSystems (acquired by Nortel Networks). Mr. Mishra also held senior management positions at Sun Microsystems where he was responsible for the development of the SPARCstation product line.

He holds an MSEE from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, and a BSEE, IIT Kanpur, India.

Shigeru Ota - Vice President of Asia Pacific Sales

Shigeru Ota’s experience spans over 38 years of sales and marketing in the Asia Pacific region. Previous to joining Matisse, Mr. Ota served as Vice President of Asia Pacific for CacheFlow (IPO and now known as Blue Coat Systems), President of Japan KK for Ascend Communications (now Alcatel-Lucent) and in various VP Sales and Marketing roles for Ungerman-Bass. Prior to joining Ungerman-Bass, Mr. Ota held various sales management roles with IBM Japan over a period of almost 20 years.

Mr. Ota holds a B.S. from Waseda University, Tokyo.

Doug Stewart - Vice President North America & EMEA Sales

Mr. Stewart has over 26 years experience selling optical transport and Layer 2/3 equipment into the enterprise and global service provider markets. As Vice President of North America and EMEA Sales, Mr. Stewart oversees the regional sales forces and reseller relationships. Prior to joining Matisse, Mr. Stewart served as Vice President of Worldwide Sales at Mintera Corporation, a manufacturer of 40 Gigabit DWDM optical solutions. Previous to Mintera, Mr. Stewart was Vice President of Worldwide Sales at TiMetra Networks, a manufacturer of multi-service edge routers acquired by Alcatel-Lucent, and Vice President of Sales at Amber Networks (acquired by Nokia). He was also AVP of Sales at Ascend Communications and AVP of Sales at Newbridge Networks, both of which are now part of Alcatel-Lucent.

Mr. Stewart holds a B.A. in Economics from Hobart College, an M.B.A. from the Rochester Institute of Technology and an M.S. in Telecommunications from George Washington University.