703.731.5905
Sterling, VA
Rahul Thakkar
Hands-on: Technology, Leadership, Innovation, Strategy
Resume Summary
Experience
Executive
Technology management (hands-on)
Software architecture, development
Defense sector
Entertainment sector
VP, Technology
Bio
Detailed Resume
Resume Summary
8
10 Citizen
20
10
8
Patents
Feature films
Education
Security clearance TS/SCI (active until Aug ’15)
USA
6 granted, 15 pending
7, including Shrek & Antz
MS CS, Utah State University
BE Comp. Engg. Mumbai University, India
Madison Square Garden
PIXIA Corp
2013 – 2014
o Hire & manage 6 directors, budgets, technology for taking legacy hosting, CMS, streaming & mobile to Cloud
Various growing roles
2003 – 2013
o VP Technology – 4 years, Strategic planning; IP; Cloud; Vertical: Oil & Gas, Seismic, LiDAR, $20m revenue
o Chief Corporate Architect – 4 years, Hands-on IO & HPC SME, 25+ reports, OGC WAMI standard, Inventor
o Chief Architect – 6 years, C/C++ API, Homogenous File System, High volume transactions, PaaS
o Director of Technology – 3 years, Principal programmer on all technologies & products, founded R&D + QA
Research and Development
FX and CG Software Developer
PDI/DreamWorks
Post Perfect Inc.
Ringling College of Art and Design
VMCI, India
1996 – 2002
o Created & deployed long term media and rendering 2D/3D products
o See IMDB: Shrek, Antz, Legend of Bagger Vance, A Simple Wish, Forces of Nature, CyberWorld 3D, etc.
1994 – 1996
o OpenGL & RenderMan – CBS Election ’96, ’94, Letterman Show & UPN News opens, 20+ commercial VFX
Systems Admin.
January 1994 – June 1994
o Network infrastructure, PC, Mac and Amiga labs and student TAs; Master’s thesis
Technical Editor
1990 –1991
o Technical editor, seven books on C – BPB Publications; Taught courses on OS, C/C++ Programming
Hands-on expertise
o Low level knowledge of Windows, Linux, various UNIX; wire-speed IO (SAN, NAS, OSD / HDD, SSD)
o Cloud (SaaS, PaaS, IaaS, and others), SOA, mobile, WiFi, content, media, video, VOD, codecs, HD, streaming,
technologies & frameworks, programming languages, GIS, mapping, ISR, DoD, standards, MISB, NoSql,
Agile, SDLC, film, DVR, HLS, H.264, MPEG, AWS, Google, Azure, IPP, OpenGL, CUDA, Seismic, LiDAR.
o Expert in C, C++, Java; parallel, distributed, network & web services programming, HPC, 2D, 3D, multithreaded
& multi-process programming, IPC.
o Architect of long term software products lasting 5 to 10 years
Other
o Dale Carnegie Leadership Program, 2009 & executive coaching
o Member: OGC, VES, ACM, IEEE, MISB
o Artist, painter, actor, film producer. Fluent in English, Hindi, Marathi and Gujarati
~ o ~
Patents & Publications
rahulthak@gmail.com
703.731.5905
Sterling, VA
Rahul Thakkar
Hands-on: Technology, Leadership, Innovation, Strategy
Resume Summary
Bio
Detailed Resume
Executive Bio
Mr. Thakkar brought over 20 years of experience in product technology, innovation, and research to the Madison
Square Garden Company. As their VP of Technology, he supported the office of the CTO across all of MSG’s
sports, entertainment and media holdings. Mr. Thakkar assembled a new team of hands-on technologists to support
efforts in the renovated Garden, The Forum, Radio City Music Hall, Rockettes, MSG, MSG+, and collaborations
with their premier technology sponsors.
At PIXIA, for 10+ years, he was responsible for the direction, growth and strategy of PIXIA's technology and
intellectual property. He is the inventor of PIXIA's IO framework, and WAMI technologies. He is the co-author of
OGC® WAMI web services and the co-inventor of 6 patents, with 15 pending. Mr. Thakkar was with PIXIA in
various roles since the beginning, reporting to the CEO/CTO in hands-on and hands-off capacities.
At PIXIA, Mr. Thakkar served the dual role of VP of Technology and Chief Corporate Architect. Mr. Thakkar
founded, led and managed Software Development, R&D and QA, steered the architecture towards the future,
managed the IP portfolio, regularly inventing and authoring patents. His team has consistently delivered successful
products, on or ahead of schedule, directly contributing to the revenue.
As the Chief Corporate Architect across their product lines, he advises the CEO, setting and implementing PIXIA’s
vision. In 2009, he introduced PIXIA to the Cloud, re-designed their core and flagship products, and invented
HiPER STARE® and HiPER CloudFS® technologies. Over the 10 years, he transitioned PIXIA from an application
framework to secure Cloud services that perform and scale on various public or defense networks. The decision was
instrumental in PIXIA becoming a cash flow positive startup. He served as a technology executive on all matrix
groups in program management, product management, and technology design. He brought Agile, extreme and peer
programming best practices into PIXIA.
Prior to PIXIA, Mr. Thakkar worked for PDI/DreamWorks where his research provided for accelerated rendering of
particle effects, display calibration control, media distribution, cuts-only editing, and 3D projection theatre design
and playback. At PDI, he was part of R&D, a cross-studio software development team. Mr. Thakkar was the SME
for media, color, film, and HPC. His film credits include Academy® Award winning Shrek and ANTZ.
As the head of technology, he has regularly engaged C-level executives from various government and private
organizations to better help resolve their ISR challenges. He engages with customers at the VP, EVP, and CxO
levels, authors whitepapers, and presents at conferences. He works closely with BD as a SME. He defines and
manages expectations with Product and Program Managers. He has regularly briefed the founders and the board
through his tenure at PIXIA. Hands-on, Mr. Thakkar uses C, C++ and Java across all OS platforms generating core
IP, solving present day computing problems.
Due to his ability to simplify technology, a background in theatre and art, great presentation skills, and a strong basis
in computer science, Mr. Thakkar has always worked closely with the principals of organizations, be it film
Directors, Producers, founders or C-level executives.
Mr. Thakkar holds a Master’s degree in Computer Science from Utah State University and a Bachelor’s degree in
Computer Engineering from University of Mumbai. He spends his leisure hours with his family. He is an avid
painter, writer and continues to help produce films.
~ o ~
Patents & Publications
rahulthak@gmail.com
2 of 6
703.731.5905
Sterling, VA
Rahul Thakkar
Hands-on: Technology, Leadership, Innovation, Strategy
Resume Summary
Experience
Executive
Technology management (hands-on)
Software architecture, development
Defense sector
Entertainment sector
VP, Technology
VP, Technology & Chief Corporate Architect
Bio
Detailed Resume
Detailed Resume
8
10 Citizen
20
10
8
Patents
Feature films
Madison Square Garden
PIXIA Corp
Security clearance TS/SCI (active until Aug ’15)
USA
6 granted, 15 pending
7
2013 – 2014
o Create a team to support MSG media, sports, entertainment venues, and sponsors
o Transition legacy MSG assets to the Cloud, including hosting, content, streaming video, mobile solutions
2011 – 2013
o Architect of global technology; Strategic technology planning; IP portfolio development; Cloud initiatives
o Hands-on SME on all things IO and HPC, for all storage paradigms (NAS, SAN, OSD)
o Leading 25+ software dev. team in two locations; technology lead on all matrix teams
o Author of OGC® WAMI HTTP best practice, white papers, 6 patents, and 13+ pending patent applications
o Introduced PIXIA to GPU-based systems
o Led research on distributed processing of LiDAR and SEG data for their upstream Oil and Gas practice
Chief Architect
PIXIA Corp
2005 – 2011
o Software architect of all three PIXIA product lines
o Engineered the PIXIA product line into high performance web services on the Cloud
o Designed and architected a general purpose homogenous file system for a PaaS offering
o Invented HiPER STARE® WAMI technology & HTTP specs for high volume transaction processing
o Authored PIXIA’s storage benchmarking software for the DoD for HDD & SSD (PCI/SATA/SAS)
o Added QA team to R&D totaling 10 direct reports
Director of Technology
PIXIA Corp
2003 – 2005
o Designed a scalable distributed engine for ingest and dissemination across all products
o Designed and implemented PIXIA’s core, container technology & HiPER LOOK® product
o Authored PIXIA’s core geo-spatial container file format for all PIXIA products
o Launched, staffed and managed an R&D team of 7 direct reports
Research and Development
PDI/DreamWorks
2000 – 2002
o See IMDB for a list of film credits
o Principal programmer on first and second generation digital dailies with inter-studio control and 3D
o Principal programmer on automatic display calibration, and digital film color correction system
o Led 3D projection system design for Shrek 4D for in-studio and theme park
o Cross studio technology consultant for color, film, 3D and HPC
Research and Development
PDI
1996 – 2000
o High-speed particle renderer for VFX (e.g. dust, fire, clouds, water, ants, crowds, grass)
o Pan-and-scan software with aspect ratio and rate control (direct use on ANTZ for 1:66 to 2:35)
o Control, transfer and interoperability products for DDRs, film recorders and Avid®
o VFX for shoe-to-shoe rescue in ANTZ
o PDI acquired by DreamWorks SKG just prior to the release of Shrek.
3 of 6
Patents & Publications
rahulthak@gmail.com
703.731.5905
Sterling, VA
Rahul Thakkar
Hands-on: Technology, Leadership, Innovation, Strategy
FX and CG Software Developer
Post Perfect Inc.
1994 – 1996
o OpenGL real-time software for special projects using SGI ONYX e.g. CBS election ’96 and ’94
o GL-based VFX for commercials and broadcast graphics e.g. David Letterman Show open, UPN News open
o RenderMan® shaders & tools used across 20+ commercials and broadcast projects
o Network administration of various SGI systems ranging from ONYX to Indigo
Systems Admin.
Technical Editor
Hands-on expertise
o Low level knowledge of Windows, Linux, various UNIX flavors, various IO platforms (SAN, NAS, OSD)
o Cloud (SaaS, PaaS, IaaS, and others), SOA, mobile, WiFi, content, media, video, VOD, codecs, HD, streaming,
technology frameworks, programming languages, GIS, mapping, ISR, DoD, standards, MISB, NoSql, Agile,
SDLC, film, DVR, HLS, H.264, MPEG, AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, IPP, OpenGL, CUDA.
o C, C++, Java / IPC, parallel, distributed, network and web services programming, HPC, 2D, 3D, data structures,
balanced multi-threaded and multi-process programming, extreme programming, doodling
o Architect of long term software products lasting 5 to 10 years
o Familiar with and proponent of Agile methodology, TOGAF, OpenStack.
Academics
o Executive coaching
o Dale Carnegie Leadership Program, 2009
o Master of Science, Computer Science, Utah State University, 1992-1995
o Bachelor of Engineering, Computer Engineering, University of Mumbai, 1986-1990
o Member: OGC, VES, ACM, IEEE, MISB
Other
o Voice artist and actor (commercials, short films)
o Short story writer, illustrator and painter
o Fluent in English, Hindi, Marathi and Gujarati
~o~
Ringling College of Art and Design
VMCI, India
January 1994 – June 1994
o Supported management of the network infrastructure, PC, Mac and Amiga labs and student TAs
o Attended courses in VFX and wrote Master’s thesis on Animation Technology for artists
1990 –1991
o Technical editor, seven books on C – BPB India and Tech Publications Singapore
o Taught courses on Operating Systems and Advanced C Programming
rahulthak@gmail.com
4 of 6
703.731.5905
Sterling, VA
Rahul Thakkar
Hands-on: Technology, Leadership, Innovation, Strategy
Resume Summary
Bio
Detailed Resume
Patents & Publications
Patents / 6 patents granted / 15 patents pending / As of Jan 2014
Number
US8290346
US8341548
US8411970
US8532397
US8532383
US20130028577
US20120081379 2
US20130076779
US20130170750
US20130330020
US20130322756
US20130325911
13/232,565 3
13/233,706 3
13/774,2904
13/779,390
13/779,275
13/779,303
13/784,726
13/791,822
13/797,997
Title
Large format video archival, storage, and retrieval system and method
Image display system
Determining statistical data for image pixels having a higher bit depth
per band
Method of creating a container file for large format imagery and
organizing data within the container file
Method of processing a viewport within large format imagery
Large format video archival, storage, and retrieval system
Image display system
Image display system
Method and system for storing statistical data of an image
Container file for large format imagery and method of creating the
container file and organizing data within the container file
Method of processing a viewport within large format imagery
Method of inserting an image into a container file
Method and system for encoding and decoding multiple wide area
surveillance area of interest video codestreams
Method of creating a video stream from a plurality of viewports within
large format imagery
Method and system for storing wide area motion imagery frames as
objects on an object storage device
Method and system of storing data
Method and system for retrieving data in a data file
Method and system for requesting information from a server computer
Method and system for providing a federated wide area motion imagery
collection service
Method and system for accessing data by a client from a server
Status
Granted
Granted
Granted
Granted
Granted
Granted 1
Pending
Pending
Pending
Pending
Pending
Pending
Pending
Pending
Pending
Pending
Pending
Pending
Method and system for wide area motion imagery discovery using KML Pending
Pending
Pending
Filed
Sept 2008
Sept 2009
May 2010
Sept 2010
Sept 2010
Sept 2012
Dec 2011
Nov 2012
Feb 2012
Sept 2010
Aug 2013
Aug 2013
Sept 2010
Sept 2010
Aug 2012
Dec 2012
Dec 2012
Dec 2012
Dec 2012
Dec 2012
Mar 2013
1 This application was granted late 2013, and a patent number will be assigned by the USPTO this quarter.
2 Pending patent applications have been published online for reference. Search for publication number in google.com/patents
3 This application will not be published until grant due to the sensitive nature of the content when it was filed
4 Patent applications numbered 11/111,1111 in the list will be published 18 months after their filing date
5 of 6
rahulthak@gmail.com
703.731.5905
Sterling, VA
Rahul Thakkar
Hands-on: Technology, Leadership, Innovation, Strategy
rahulthak@gmail.com
Publications / Jan 2014
Title
OGC Best Practice: WAMI Services: Dissemination Services for Wide
Area Motion Imagery (OGC 12-032r2)
OGC Best Practice: A Primer for Dissemination Services for Wide Area
Motion Imagery (OGC 12-077r1)
PIXIA Container Framework
The “C” Odyssey (Seven book series on advanced C programming)
Publisher
Date
Open Geospatial Consortium Dec 2012
Open Geospatial Consortium Dec 2012
PIXIA Corp
BPB Publications, India
Jan 2012
Jan 1992
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