AHMED MURAD
Mobile: (408) 242-7723
Danville, CA https://www.linkedin.com/in/amurad
mr.ahmed.murad@gmail.com
HIGH
TECHNOLOGY EXECUTIVE
Focused on bringing
new and disruptive products and services to market, driving
product realization
and sales growth to increase market share and profitability
Passionate High
Technology Leader with progressive experience and success
in various leadership and executive
roles, building and leading
world class, global teams of sales, technical and business professionals in an international business
environment,
for the Telecom / IT
& Computer Networking industries. History of initiating and leading development
and direct sales of software,
hardware and solutions
that have triggered millions of
dollars in new business while delivering required bottom line results.
Technically sophisticated and motivated by business challenges with a talent
in creating a vision and execution strategy to drive market share growth and
deliver financial performance. Areas of expertise:
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· Product Management and Marketing
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· IP Networking, SDN & NFV, IoT
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· Business Development
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· Cloud Services, ‘X’aaS, Virtualization, SW Containers
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· Sales ( Sales Engineering, Sales Operations )
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· Wireless 2G/3G, LTE, WIFI
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· Mergers & Acquisitions
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· Network and Cyber-Security
|
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· R&D ( Software, Hardware & Program Management
)
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· SDLC, Agile Development
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PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
INDEPENDENT CONSULTANT
2015 - present
Providing consulting services for the
Computer Networking / Security, Telecom and T&M industries.
Topics
: Go To Market &
PL strategy, market sizing and competitive analysis, emerging technologies and
business ROI, management consulting ( organizational structure,
P&L, pricing analysis, sales models )
GENERAL MANAGER, Networks & Applications -
Spirent Communications 2013 to 2014
Responsibilities: General Management / P&L responsibilities for a Business
Unit focused on delivering
solutions
(HW, SW and Services ) to Telecom / Cloud Service
Providers, Network Equipment Manufacturers and Fortune
1000 Enterprises. Annualized revenue > $200M.
Promoted to lead the turn-around
of the N&A business unit, after multiple quarters of declining revenues.
Reporting to the CEO/EVP, direct responsibilities included: Global Product Line Management, Solutions & Technical Marketing, Software Development / QA and Program
Management, Americas Sales and Technical Services.
·
Outperformed market and industry peers by delivering 13%
revenue growth and returned the business unit to profitability, while
investing in growth and long term strategy.
·
Created a clear business plan, gained buy-in from the
Senior Executive team, communicated breakthrough business objectives to the
team, drove accountability, garnered employee enrollment of the vision and
delivered business results.
·
Refocused strategy on growing market opportunities: Cloud
and Virtualization (SDN & NFV), Enterprise Applications and
CyberSecurity, Wireless Mobility and Carrier WIFI; leading to incremental
revenue streams from new customer segments: Cloud Service Providers and their
eco-system suppliers, Carrier WIFI offload manufacturers.
·
Accomplished over 50% sales growth for wireless mobility
testing solutions and 150% growth for the new virtualized software test
solutions.
·
Increased R&D output and productivity by optimizing
resource allocations between in house, off-shoring and out- sourcing models.
Formalized a Global Program Management office resulting in a more efficient
and predictable execution of roadmaps and better responsiveness to market and
customer dynamics.
·
Introduced multiple industry award winning and first to
market products: Software Testing as a Service with
Avalanche Virtual, Landslide Virtual for NFV Packet
Core testing, world’s first functional 400GB Ethernet
Performance Tester, first to
market Automotive Ethernet Test Solution.
VICE PRESIDENT, Marketing
, Networks & Applications – Spirent
Communications
2013
Responsibilities: Go To Market Strategy & Marketing for
hardware & software solutions and services to Telecomm / IT Service
Providers, NEMs and Fortune 1000 Enterprises.
Reporting to CMO, led team of Market
Segment Managers
and Technical Marketing Engineers focused
on marketing a portfolio
of performance and scale
testing products and services,
as well as driving worldwide sales enablement initiatives, including new
product introductions, strategic customer engagements and competitive
intelligence.
·
Refocused the organization to raise Spirent’s external
visibility and drove industry thought leadership by participating in and
leading industry forums like ETSI NFV, Cloud Ethernet Forum, 400G IETF, Cloud
ONF as well as by leveraging digital marketing tools.
·
Improved alignment with top strategic customers by
institutionalizing cross-functional Customer Execution Teams, leading to
double digit bookings increase at key Service Provider and NEM customers.
·
Increased sales effectiveness by delivering sales
enablement initiatives: competitive, product positioning and messaging
training, regular roadmap updates.
·
Led Spirent’s launch of the industry’s first SDN OpenFlow
Conformance Test Suite, Avalanche NEXT that tests the performance,
scalability and security of application aware network infrastructures,
introduced the industry’s highest web rate and SSL testing solution. These
products and solutions generated several millions of dollars of incremental
revenue streams.
GM (VP) , Product Management, Networks & Applications – Spirent
Communications
2009 to 2013
Responsibilities: Strategy and Product
Line Management of a products
and services portfolio of ~ $230M in annualized revenue.
Reporting
to the CMO, in charge of a team of Product Line Managers
responsible
for developing and maintaining the business
unit’s product
portfolio vision, including development of software, hardware and
services roadmap commitments.
Overall product life cycle management and P&L ownership. Other
responsibilities included: concept testing of new products, OEM product
management, defect prioritization, discounting policies and procedures, post
sales customer issues escalations, managing licensing agreements.
·
Expanded solutions portfolio with innovative software,
hardware and cloud based solutions that established Spirent as #1 or #2
market share leader in the respective segments.
·
Launched innovative pricing models: annuity, subscription
based, software as a service to protect margins and capture new revenue
streams.
·
Led pre-acquisition technical due diligence for Mu
Dynamics and post-acquisition integration efforts for Mu Dynamics and
Fanfare.
·
Launched company’s first cloud based web architecture and
security validation solution ( Blitz.io ) and first Enterprise / IT
focused test and validation solutions (Axon).
·
Piloted and implemented Agile program management and
development practices to improve execution and better alignment with customer
requirements.
·
Established third party partnerships and reselling
agreements, resulting in multimillion dollar new revenue streams.
·
Brought to market numerous industry award winning products
and solutions : First to market software only solutions like Spirent
TestCenter Virtual, Industry’s first SDN Test Solution for High Speed
Ethernet Networks, 2011 Best of Interop Japan for mx40/100G Ethernet Test
System, 2011 NGN Leadership Award for advancing NGN Services and Technologies,
Test & Measurement World’s 2011 Best in Test Award, Best of Interop 2010
for Avalanche Virtual.
GM (VP), Multimedia Applications & Security – Spirent
Communications
2007 to 2009
Responsibilities: General Management / P&L responsibilities for a product
& services portfolio of annualized revenues of +$90M
Reporting
to the President & CEO, charged with running of a newly formed business
unit to improve business performance and customer alignment. Held global P&L management responsibility for a
product and solutions portfolio focused on Applications & CyberSecurity, Service
Provider Mobility, Voice/IMS and Test
Automation solutions. Direct reports
included global R&D, Product
Management, Product
and Technical Marketing.
·
Delivered double digit sales growth for emerging product
lines.
·
Optimized investment portfolio and balanced R&D budget
to accomplish profitable growth ( ROS > 20%).
·
Established the first offshore R&D center in Beijing,
China resulting in increased engineering execution capability
and improved feature velocity and time to market.
·
Introduced numerous processes & tools to help improve
bookings and financial performance: Segment and Product Line Performance,
Contribution Margin Analysis, Price Erosion and Margin Prediction Tools,
Sales Forecasting, Product Execution KPIs, Quality and Customer Service KPIs.
MANAGER then SENIOR DIRECTOR,
Global Sales Engineering,
Spirent Comms
2004 to 2007
Reporting to the
Worldwide VP of Sales, led a Sales Engineering
team comprised of experts in different technologies including Carrier
Mobility and Voice, Switching and Routing , Web / Enterprise Applications and
CyberSecurity Testing, Test Automation. Spearheaded efficiency and effectiveness
initiatives for the global Sales Engineering organization.
·
Established standard best practices and procedures for customer POCs
and evaluations, including process
to
manage and optimize
demo equipment to minimize capital
expenditures.
·
In collaboration with Marketing, developed
and delivered technology, product
and competitive training curriculum
for Sales Managers and Sales Engineers.
·
Introduced internal collaboration forums (Spirent TechTalks ) to improve knowledge and expertise sharing
between different functional groups, which led to improved customer responsiveness and
satisfaction.
·
Consistently exceeded sales
targets and reached
President’s Club 2 of 4 years.
SENIOR then
PRINCIPAL SYSTEMS ENGINEER - Netcom ( acquired by Spirent )
2000 to 2004
Technical pre
and post sales responsibilities for accounts in the
Silicon Valley area. Responsible
for technical bids and proposals, strategic customer product
demos and evaluations. Technologies covered: Ethernet, Routing, Switching, VOIP/IMS, Video, Applications and
CyberSecurity. Expert level
support for
Web / Enterprise Applications &
CyberSecurity ( Firewall,
Load Balancer, IPS, IDS, etc. ) customer vertical space.
PRIOR EXPERIENCE
SR.
SYSTEMS ENGINEER & TECHNICAL PROJECT DIRECTOR, Glenayre - Canada Design and System
Integration of
global communications systems worldwide.
Deployed nationwide systems for major carriers
in Morocco, China, Taiwan, UAE, Chile.
Designed and delivered underground
(subway) communications systems in Singapore and Beijing MTRs.
Onsite ( 1 year ) Technical Project Director for Chunghwa Telecom Nationwide
Communications System – Taiwan
SYSTEMS ENGINEER, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Design and maintenance of professional antenna systems for Radio and TV broadcast stations. Developed software in LAbWindows/C++ for
creating and integrating
complex RF test and measurement tools.
CTO, Radiotel Design, installation, public launch and operation of first
public paging and 2 way trunked radio system in Romania.
EDUCATION
Masters in Electrical Engineering
from Polytechnical
Institute –Cluj, Romania
Management Skills in Advanced Technologies Program-
Simon Fraser University
-Vancouver, Canada
Additional Training: Cisco ICRC, ACRC, CND; CISSP, CEH, AWS
Certified Solutions Architect Associate,
Miller Heinman Solutions Sales, Agile,
Theory of Constraints Management, Porter 5 Forces Strategy
Languages : French, Romanian, Hungarian