Management Team
Steven Low, Ph.D.
Co-founder, Chairman and acting CEO
Steven Low co-founded FastSoft with Cheng Jin and launched its commercial operation in 2006. Steven currently serves as its Chairman and acting Chief Executive Officer. He is a Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at Caltech. Prior to FastSoft and Caltech, Steven worked on networking research and digital watermarking at AT&T Bell Labs in Murray Hill, NJ, and in the Electrical and Electronic Engineering Department at the University of Melbourne in Australia. He has won several awards for his research, and is on the editorial boards of several networking publications. Steven is an IEEE Fellow and a member of the Networking and Information Technology Technical Advisory Group for the US President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). Steven received a BSEE from Cornell University and a Ph.D. in EE from UC Berkeley.
Cheng Jin, Ph.D.
Co-founder, CTO and VP of Engineering
Cheng Jin leads FastSoft’s product development efforts and serves on its Board of Directors. He brings 11 years of research and development experience in network algorithms, protocols, and product development. Cheng is a co-inventor of FastTCP, and the architect and key developer of FastSoft’s flagship products. Prior to co-founding FastSoft, Cheng served as a post-doctoral researcher at Caltech with Steven Low. Cheng holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science and Engineering and a Masters of Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and a BSEE from Case Western Reserve University.
Hitendra “Sonny” Soni
VP of Worldwide Sales
With more than 20 years of experience in selling networking equipment to enterprise and service providers worldwide, Sonny leads FastSoft’s sales and customer service organizations. Sonny has built and managed direct and indirect (OEM and reseller) sales and customer service organizations for growth companies ranging from inception to $300M in revenue. Sonny was previously Vice President of Sales, Business Development, and Customer Services at Clearmesh Networks and Accelerated Networks. Earlier, he was Director of Business Development and Channel Sales at Xylan (Alcatel) and Connexsys.
Dan Henderson
VP of Marketing
Dan Henderson spearheads FastSoft’s business and marketing strategy. He brings 13 years of technology venture experience to the Company. Prior to FastSoft, Dan co-founded two companies, including i-Vantage, Inc., a global outsourcing firm, where he ran the global teleservices practice. He has also helped a number of start-up and early-stage companies revamp operations, market focus, and business strategy. Before founding his own companies, he designed and analyzed network architectures at strategy consulting firm Mainspring, Inc. Dan also consulted in Deloitte & Touche’s e-Business, Technology and Security practice, where he helped design network architectures for large financial institutions. Dan holds an M.B.A. from the UCLA Anderson School of Management and a B.A. from Oberlin College.
Diego Dugatkin, Ph.D.
VP of Product Management
Diego Dugatkin heads up FastSoft’s product management and business development efforts. Prior to FastSoft, Diego served as Director of Partner Programs at Ixia, where he drove the development, management and execution of the company’s worldwide partnership program. Diego was previously Ixia’s Principal Technologist and managed industry alliances, technology organizations and standards, and developed several patents on modeling and generation of network traffic. He has also held doctoral researcher and engineering positions at Caltech, Schlumberger, and Laser Lab, FIUBA (Buenos Aires). Dugatkin holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering and a diploma in engineering management from California Institute of Technology.
Board of Directors
Steven Low, Ph.D.
Co-founder, Chairman and acting CEO
Steven Low co-founded FastSoft with Cheng Jin and launched its commercial operation in 2006. Steven currently serves as its Chairman and acting Chief Executive Officer (see above for further details).
Cheng Jin, Ph.D.
Co-founder, CTO and VP of Engineering
Cheng Jin leads FastSoft’s product development efforts and serves on its Board of Directors (see above for further details).
Paul L.H. Ouyang
NTI Group
As President and Chief Operating Officer of The NTI Group, Mr. Ouyang oversees sales, finance, technology, client services, marketing, and corporate administration. Mr. Ouyang successfully built several start-up ventures into high growth companies that either went public or were sold to strategic partners. He has been directly involved with over $15 billion of strategic transactions.
Previously, Mr. Ouyang was Chief Executive Officer of Vivendi Universal Net USA (“VUNet USA”), a subsidiary of Vivendi Universal (NYSE: V), and also served as its Director and Chief Operating Officer. As Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of MP3.com, Inc., Mr. Ouyang played a key role in the sale of MP3.com to Vivendi Universal after orchestrating what was, at the time, the largest initial public offering in history for an independent Internet company. Mr. Ouyang has also served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Tickets.com, Inc. and Cheap Tickets Inc.; Managing Director of Corporate Finance at KPMG Peat Marwick LLP; and Vice President in Investment Banking at J.P. Morgan & Co.
Mr. Ouyang is currently a Director of Huntington Hospital in Pasadena, CA, a Director of FastSoft, Inc. and a trustee of the Collis P. and Howard Huntington Memorial Trust. Previously, he was a Director of Southern California Healthcare Systems, SeeUthere.com, and a trustee of the Chandler School. He received his Masters in Business Administration in Finance and a General Electric Fellowship from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and his Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Amherst College.
Heiner Sussner, Ph.D.
Miramar Venture Partners
Heiner Sussner joined Miramar Ventures as a Managing Partner in 2001 after 25 years working with world-class engineers and scientists at IBM Research and in venture-backed technology companies.
He serves on the boards of Azuro, Innovative Micro Technology and Fastsoft, and previously served on the board of Protego Networks, which was acquired by Cisco Systems.
From 1998 until he joined Miramar, Heiner was a Senior Managing Director of H&Q Asia Pacific, a private equity firm with $1.8 billion under management focusing on technology and other investments in Asia and the United States. Heiner began his professional career at the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Physics in Stuttgart and joined IBM Research in San Jose, California in 1980 working on advanced recording technology. In 1986, Heiner became Director of Storage Systems and Technology for IBM Research. In 1992, he joined IBM Europe in Paris as Executive Consultant to the head of marketing for IBM Europe, and was co-founder and Director of IBM Europe’s corporate venture group.
Heiner holds a Ph.D.in Physics from the University of Konstanz and is author of numerous scientific publications and several patents. He was awarded the 1994 IEEE Medal for Engineering Excellence.