Umesh Sachdev

Co-founder and CEO

Umesh Sachdev, Co-founder, and CEO of Uniphore, is a modern-day entrepreneur with a passion for technologies that have massive societal impact. Umesh co-founded Uniphore with Ravi Saraogi to bridge the communication gap between man and machine using voice and speech.

Umesh was globally recognized in 2016 as one of the ten ‘Next Generation Leaders’ by Time Magazine. The MIT Tech Review recognized him as one of the ‘Innovators Under 35’. He has been conferred with the title of ‘Innovative Entrepreneur’ by the Ministry of Science and Technology’s Technopreneur Promotion Programme (TePP). Umesh holds patents in Speech Recognition Technologies and Voice Biometrics and is the author of many technical papers.

Umesh is an alumnus of Jaypee Institute of Information Technology, and also a renowned ‘TED Talk’ speaker.

Annie Weckesser

CMO + People

As chief marketing and people officer, Annie leads all aspects of Uniphore’s global marketing and communications, as well as, talent strategy and management. Prior to joining Uniphore, Annie was part of the leadership team at NIO, a next generation car company, leading US communications from startup through IPO. Previously, Annie held various strategic communications and marketing roles for the global technology giant Cisco for nine years. Throughout her career, she has counselled and partnered with some of the world’s most senior corporate and government leaders and their teams.

Ravi Saraogi

Co-founder and President APAC

Ravi, Co-founder & President-APAC, leads Sales, Delivery and Customer Success for Uniphore. His passion for mobile learning applications and technologies found traction when Uniphore was founded. Ravi and Umesh envisioned building solutions that give more power to human speech.

He has vast experience in directing technology teams in initiatives spanning mobile theft security, wireless network development, and mobile learning applications. Ravi is currently an active member of the Mobile Payment Forum of India (MPFI), where he identifies and develops business opportunities in the field of mobile payments. He is known for his excellent analytic skills, dexterity in problem resolution, and proclivity for driving operational excellence. Ravi is an alumnus of Jaypee Institute of Information Technology.

Karen Smith

Chief Revenue Officer

Karen Smith is Chief Revenue Officer at Uniphore. Bringing nearly 25 years of experience to this role, Karen is responsible for scaling the worldwide sales organization to support the company’s growth initiatives.

Prior to Uniphore, Karen served as VP of Worldwide Sales at Directly, Inc. a CX Automation AI platform provider, where she was responsible for rapid growth of enterprise customers. Karen has held positions as VP of Sales/US and Asia at TTech, Head of US Sales at Convergys and VP of Sales at Genesys. Karen has dedicated her career to developing sales teams focused on customer experience, contact center technology and artificial intelligence.

Throughout her career she has mentored rising sales professionals and is an outspoken advocate of women in leadership. Karen currently resides in San Francisco with her husband, Steve.

Mary Ann Bianco

Chief Customer Officer

As Chief Customer Officer, Mary Ann leads all aspects of Customer Experience and Customer Success through the entire customer lifecycle from onboarding and implementation to managed services, renewal and customer advocacy.

Mary Ann is recognized in the industry as a Customer Experience and SaaS service delivery leader with deep experience in building long term C-level customer relationships, and driving Customer Success, Delivery, Support and Partnerships functions. Prior to joining Uniphore, as Vice President of Customer Success for Oracle’s Cloud SaaS applications business she led the transformation from on-prem to cloud SaaS building a high-touch customer success model. Previously, she was part of the leadership team at Siemens.

Mary Ann is passionate about supporting women in the advancement of their career and a champion for Women Diversity & Inclusion Initiatives. She has served on the boards of three non-profit organizations including her current role as Vice Chair for Watermark. She is also a peer mentor at the Bishop Ranch Intelligence Innovation Accelerator, an early stage AI accelerator. She holds a Masters Degree (ED.M) in Education Administration from Boston University and a Bachelor of Science from Slippery Rock University.

Jafar H Syed

Sr. Vice President and Chief Strategy & Growth Officer

As Chief Strategy and Growth officer, Jafar leads all strategic and growth initiatives for Uniphore including partnerships and alliances.

Prior to Uniphore, Jafar led the Global BPO’s CX business at NTT Data. Previously, he led Dell Services’ European and Australian BPO business based in Peterborough, UK. Jafar has over 20 years of experience in CX and Contact Centers. He has held senior leadership positions for companies such as NTT Data, Dell, IBM, GE and VFS. He has led large teams in Sales, Practice, Operations, Vendor Management and Solution Design.

Jafar has lived and worked in the US, UK, Dubai, Philippines, China and India. He is an ardent lover of history and spends much of his spare time reading and traveling.

Ashwin Chalapathy

MD, India and Sr. Vice President – Services, JAPAC

Ashwin Chalapathy leads Uniphore India Operations as Managing Director and JAPAC Services as Senior Vice President.

With over 24 years of experience, Ashwin brings deep knowledge and expertise in Software Product Development (Product Management and Engineering), Business development, Delivery & Managed Services.

Prior to Uniphore, Ashwin multi-tasked as SVP, Global Delivery & Managed Services and Head of Counter Fraud Analytics LOB at Mobileum Pvt. Ltd., where he undertook the objective to drive excellence in delivery & MS execution and scale the CFA business. Ashwin has also been associated with Subex Ltd and Siemens Public Communications Networks Ltd.

Outside of work, Ashwin prioritizes spending time with his family & friends, enjoys reading and watching sports. Ashwin is also learning to be a better photographer and wants to learn a musical instrument (but hasn’t gotten around to it yet).

Samith Ramachandran

Sr. Vice President and Head of Products & Technology

Samith Ramachandran is responsible for overall Product & Technology Strategy and Execution at Uniphore, including Product Management, Product Engineering, Core Tech R&D and Product Operations.

Samith comes with over 22 years of rich and diverse experience in Software Product Engineering and Service Delivery. Prior to Uniphore, his has worked with Siemens (now Nokia Solutions), Subex and Flytxt primarily in Software Product Engineering roles.

Samith holds a degree in Computer Science & Engineering from the University of Kerala. Bred in Telecoms Tech, Big Data Analytics and ML, he found his passion for Conversational AI and Speech Tech at Uniphore. He is also an avid foodie and gourmet at heart and loves to explore-cook-eat-write world cuisine.

Satyabodh Varkur

Vice President – Delivery

Satya is responsible for Delivery and Operations for Uniphore. Satya leads a team of Speech Engineers, Business Analysts and Delivery Professionals.

He has 20+ years of professional experience in Program Management, Delivery Management, IT Ops and Pre-Sales support. During his earlier stints with Oracle and Infosys, Satya played a significant role in building and scaling global delivery teams across geographies.

Nothing excites Satya more than when a client expresses its satisfaction over a well-executed project. The constant desire to improve and the ultimate need to meet client expectations in delivery is what drives him and his teams.

Stuart Ferguson

Vice President - Sales (North America)

Stuart Ferguson leads North America sales at Uniphore. With over 25 years of sales experience, Stuart is an expert in enterprise customers conduct and commerce.

Most recently, Stuart worked with Directly software, a San Francisco based startup, selling an AI technology platform. As part of the founding sales organization, he lead the sales growth of the company and added customer logos of Microsoft, Samsung, SAP, and Intuit to mention a few. Stuart’s prior experience has spanned the Customer Experience space taking on sales roles at Cisco, Avaya, and Genesys.

Outside of work, Stuart prioritizes spending time with his family & friends, and enjoys traveling, entertaining, and snow skiing.

Siddharth Hosangadi

Vice President – Sales (India)

Siddharth Hosangadi leads India sales at Uniphore. His focus is to grow the India business and establish world class customer-facing processes at Uniphore.

Prior to joining Uniphore, Siddharth founded GoPush Consulting, a Sales Consulting, Training and Partnering Services company. He is an accomplished Business Leader with over 20 years of Sales and Sales leadership experience. Previously, he was with Oracle India as the Country Head for their India ERP Business and with SAP India for nearly a decade in various sales and leadership roles. Siddharth has also worked with Satyam and Ness Global Services.

Siddharth holds an MBA degree from Mumbai University and B.E in Chemical Engineering from UDCT. He lectures on Bhagavad Gita and practical spirituality in his spare time.

Subhash Kothuru

Vice President – Product Management

Subhash is responsible for Product Management at Uniphore. He is a technology executive with 20+ years experience in developing and executing business and product strategy; building scalable global teams; developing and optimizing organizational processes and infrastructure. Prior to Uniphore, Subhash led product management for the mid-market contact center and Workforce Optimization portfolio at Avaya; was part of the core management team at KnoahSoft, Inc. leading it from a bootstrap startup to a profitable entity and a successful acquisition by Avaya.

Subhash has an MBA from University of Michigan – Stephen M. Ross School of Business, a Masters in Information Systems and Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering. Subhash enjoys the outdoors and loves to cook in his free time

Michael Sodano

Vice President – Delivery & Operations, North America

As Vice President, Delivery & Operations for North America, Michael leads a talented team of consultants to provide customers with the seamless implementation of Uniphore’s product suite.

Michael is recognized leader in the Contact Center and Customer Experience industry with experience assisting his clients across strategy, operations, and technology as it pertains to delivering world-class customer experience. Prior to joining Uniphore, as Vice President of Customer Experience for PPT Solutions, Michael helped transform the customer experience at a major Fortune 500 credit processor to better compete with their rivals while also reducing the cost per interaction. Previously, he has served in customer experience leadership roles at TeleTech, Deloitte and Apple.

As a former Marine officer, Michael is passionate about supporting veterans and active duty military personnel. He volunteers his time with several Veteran Organizations in the Bay Area and nationally. He holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Boston University.

Umesh Sachdev

Co-founder and CEO

Umesh Sachdev, Co-founder, and CEO of Uniphore, is a modern-day entrepreneur with a passion for technologies that have massive societal impact. Umesh co-founded Uniphore with Ravi Saraogi to bridge the communication gap between man and machine using voice and speech.

Umesh was globally recognized in 2016 as one of the ten ‘Next Generation Leaders’ by Time Magazine. The MIT Tech Review recognized him as one of the ‘Innovators Under 35’. He has been conferred with the title of ‘Innovative Entrepreneur’ by the Ministry of Science and Technology’s Technopreneur Promotion Programme (TePP). Umesh holds patents in Speech Recognition Technologies and Voice Biometrics and is the author of many technical papers.

Umesh is an alumnus of Jaypee Institute of Information Technology, and also a renowned ‘TED Talk’ speaker.

Baskar Subramaniam

Board Member

Baskar Subramanian is an industry veteran with over 25 years of thought leadership in Unified Communications, Customer Interaction Management and Collaboration technologies.

Subramaniam is the Founder of Servion Global Solutions Limited, a global end-to-end consulting led specialist in proactive customer experience in 1992. The company pioneered voice automation and computer telephony technologies for many enterprises in India, Middle East, Asia Pacific and the United States. At Servion, he helped build a strategic relationship with Avaya and Cisco, delivering value to all stakeholders involved. He is also the Founder and Board Member in Green Quotient Systems, a technology venture in the Cloud Computing, DevOps and Mobility space.

Subramaniam holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from REC-Trichy, and a Master’s degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Texas.

Ranjith Menon

Board Member

Ranjith Menon is Executive Director at Chiratae Ventures India Advisors. He has been in the industry since 2000 and in the venture investment advisory since 2007.

Prior to Chiratae Ventures, Ranjith worked with Cyient (earlier Infotech Enterprises), India’s premier Design Engineering and GIS Company. As Manager-Marketing he played a key role in conceptualizing and launching new service offerings for the Aerospace vertical, which is one of the largest offshore Aerospace practices out of India. Earlier in his career, Ranjith has served as a stress test engineer at Infotech Enterprises and also gained shop floor experience at Bharat Earth Movers Limited, India’s largest earth moving equipment manufacturers.

Ranjith is a Charter Member of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE). He holds a Bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering from Bangalore University and an MBA from the Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai.

Ravi Saraogi

Co-founder and President APAC

Ravi, Co-founder & President-APAC, leads Sales, Delivery and Customer Success for Uniphore. His passion for mobile learning applications and technologies found traction when Uniphore was founded. Ravi and Umesh envisioned building solutions that give more power to human speech.

He has vast experience in directing technology teams in initiatives spanning mobile theft security, wireless network development, and mobile learning applications. Ravi is currently an active member of the Mobile Payment Forum of India (MPFI), where he identifies and develops business opportunities in the field of mobile payments. He is known for his excellent analytic skills, dexterity in problem resolution, and proclivity for driving operational excellence. Ravi is an alumnus of Jaypee Institute of Information Technology.

Sumant Mandal

Board Member

Sumant is Managing Director and co-founder of LA-based March Capital Partners, in addition to being co-founder of two leading technology incubators in the San Francisco Bay Area; The Hive, focused on AI and Blockchain driven companies, and The Fabric, focused on cloud, IoT and network infrastructure companies. He has been part of incubating more than 25 companies. Sumant leads investments in Cloud Computing, IoT, AI/ML, and Network Infrastructure as well as companies supporting the Indian market. He currently serves on the boards of numerous market-leading companies, including Astound, BillDesk, The Rubicon Project, CarTrade, IoTium, KMesh, SparkCognition, Decision Engines, and Xage Security.

In his nearly two decades of venture capital, Sumant has generated multiple meaningful exits in companies he has either incubated or been the first institutional investor. His exits include Velocloud Networks (acquired by VMWare), Perspica Systems (acquired by Cisco), The Rubicon Project (NYSE: RUBI), Kosei (acquired by Pinterest), Appcito (acquired by A10 Networks), Deep Forest Media (acquired by Rakuten), Kazeon Systems (acquired by EMC), Mimosa Systems (acquired by Iron Mountain), Ankeena Networks (acquired by Juniper), Cetas (acquired by VMware), and Apture (acquired by Google).

In 2000, Sumant joined Clearstone Venture Partners, where he went on to become a Managing Director four years later. Prior to Clearstone, Sumant spent more than eight years as an entrepreneur, starting companies in both India and the United States.

Sumant has an M.B.A. from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University, and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Michigan State University. He is a Charter Member of TiE.

Pradeep Tagare

Board Member

Pradeep M. Tagare serves as Vice President of Corporate Venture Capital at National Grid Partners. Prior to that, He served as an Investment Director and Director at Intel Capital. Mr. Tagare joined Intel Capital in 2003 and moved to Intel Capital India in 2007. He focused on technology investments in South Asia particularly India. He spent over 15 years in Silicon Valley, in technology and product marketing roles at startups like Inference, BroadVision, Inc., Healthon, and as an entrepreneur starting Yopa.

Mr. Tagare was instrumental in deploying Healtheon’s first consumer healthcare portal, which was chosen as Yahoo’s exclusive Health Channel. He was employed at Intel Corporation, where he was responsible for data management software technologies for the Pentium processor. Mr. Tagare serves as a Board Observer for Intrasoft, Global Talent Track, Grameen Intel Social Business, Hungama.com, One97 Communications, and What’s On India. He served as a Director of WSO2, Inc. since July 25, 2006 and served as its Board Observer. He served as a Board Observer of Zend Technologies, Inc. His general interest include technology companies in South Asia. He is a Kauffman Fellow. Mr. Tagare holds an M.S.E.E. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 1989 to 1991 and a B.E. in Electrical Engineering from VJTI University of Bombay, India from 1985 to 1989.

Pankaj Patel

Board Member

Pankaj Patel was Executive Vice President and Chief Development Officer at Cisco Systems, Inc. where he reported to the CEO as the Engineering head of the company’s $38 billion product and solution portfolio. He drove the business and technology strategy across Cisco’s Routing, Switching, Wireless, Security, Mobility, Video, Collaboration, Data Center and Cloud offerings delivered by a global team of over 26,000 engineers.

Mr. Patel is a proven results-oriented and seasoned technology leader with 25+ years of experience developing highly scalable products and services by building and leading large, high-performance global engineering organizations, setting clear vision, directing strategy and delivering against goals. He is passionate about translating strategy to execution, and delivering the best experience for the customer.

Mr. Patel retired from Cisco in October of 2016 and now serves on the Board of Directors of several startups. He is focused on incubating, investing, and advising startups with their strategy, product development, and go-to-market as well as helping them scale. Patel is also a mentor and sponsor to numerous employees throughout the industry.

Sumit Jain

Observer

Sumit is Senior Partner at Sistema Asia Capital (SA Cap) Advisory based out of Bangalore and advises SA Cap investments in the space of enterprise software, healthcare, education, AI/data analytics, AR/VR, IOT and consumer tech.

Sumit brings nearly 15 years of operational, advisory and investment experience to his role. Prior to SA Cap Advisory Sumit served on the boards of 15+ portfolio companies as primary board member or observer including AI startups such as Edge Networks, Embibe and Vernacular.ai. While at Kalaari, he played a key role in sourcing and executing 7 investments across 2 funds and supported 3 exits from the portfolio. Earlier, while at HSBC, Sumit advised multiple clients on cross-border and domestic M&As and JVs and was associated with capital markets and leveraged buyout transactions in his role as an Associate with the Investment Banking division. He started his career at BG Group India as a Business Analyst and worked across group companies in telecom, E&P and gas distribution.

Sumit holds an engineering degree from IIT Kharagpur and an MBA from IIM Calcutta.

John T. Chambers

Chief Guru

John Chambers founded JC2 Ventures to help disruptive startups from around the world innovate and scale. Chambers believes in the development of startup nations and hence, invests in companies across categories and geographies leading to market transitions. Airware, Aspire Food Group, Dedrone, OpenGov, Pindrop, Privoro, Sprinklr, and Uniphore are a few such examples. He also serves on the Board of Directors for Airware, OpenGov, Pindrop, and Sprinklr.

Prior to founding JC2 Ventures, Chambers was CEO, Chairman and Executive Chairman at Cisco Systems.

In addition to investing in and mentoring startups, he is focused on promoting entrepreneurship, gender equality, and accelerating overall new business creation around the world. Additionally, his role as the Chairman of the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF) allows him to work closely with business and government leaders in both countries to create meaningful opportunities that have the power to change the lives of citizens.

Aegis Graham Bell Awards

Winner in “Innovation in Data Science” category for “auMina^TM” at the 9th edition of Aegis Graham Bell Award 2019

Express IT Awards

Awarded the best product company in the Analytics Solutions category for 2018 at the 6th edition of Express IT Awards

Gartner

• Gartner names Uniphore as an Interaction Analytics vendor – Customer Service and CRM App Software in APAC in “The Gartner CRM Vendor Guide, 2018” (Analyst: Nadine LeBlanc et al, Published: 31 May 2018).
• Gartner names Uniphore as a Fast-growing digital service technology providers in its report titled “Market Trends: Customer Experience, Trust and Retention Define Opportunities for Customer Management Digital Services” (Analyst: TJ Singh, Published: 19 June 2018).
• Gartner names Uniphore as a Sample Vendor in its report titled “Hype Cycle for Contact Center Infrastructure, 2018” (Analyst: Drew Kraus, Published: 8 August 2018).
• Gartner names Uniphore as a Sample Vendor in its report titled “Hype Cycle for Data Science and Machine Learning, 2018”. (Analysts: Peter Krensky, Jim Hare, Published: 23 July 2018).
• Gartner names Uniphore as a Sample Vendor in its report titled “Hype Cycle for CRM Customer Service and Customer Engagement, 2018”. (Analyst: Olive Huang, Published: 25 July 2018).
• Gartner recognizes Uniphore as a vendor for Interaction Analysis – Customer Service in the Asia/Pacific – The Gartner CRM Vendor Guide, 2017
• Gartner report titled Predicts 2017: CRM Customer Service and Support (published Nov, 2016) mentions Uniphore as a regional vendor capable of supporting regional Indian languages
• Gartner selects Uniphore as a Cool Vendor for Human-Machine Interface (2013)

Forrester

Forrester recognizes Uniphore as a “growth stage” vendor in its report titled “New Tech: AI-Fueled Speech Analytics Solutions, Q2 2018”

Lumenlab

Winner of Collab – MetLife’s inaugural corporate – startup engagement program (2017)

Deloitte

Deloitte recognizes Uniphore as Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacific (2013)

Deloitte recognizes Uniphore as Technology Fast 50 India (2014)

Deloitte recognizes Uniphore as Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacific (2014)

Deloitte recognizes Uniphore as Technology Fast 50 India (2015)

Deloitte recognizes Uniphore as Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacific (2015)

Frost & Sullivan

Frost & Sullivan names Uniphore as the Entrepreneurial Company of the Year for its Speech-based Enterprise Mobility Solutions (2012)

Asia-Pacific Customer Contact Solution Customer Value Leadership Award (2018)

IDG Ventures

Uniphore receives the Pride of India Awards by IDG Ventures (2015)

Nasscom

AI Game Changer Awards (2018)

League of 10 – NASSCOM Emerge 50 Awards (2017)

NASSCOM and Frost & Sullivan featured Uniphore’s VoiceNet in Indian Enterprise Software Product Excellence Matrix – On Accelerated Growth Path (2014)

League of 10 – NASSCOM Emerge 50 Awards (2013)

London & Partners

London & Partners recognizes Uniphore amongst India’s Top 20 Emerging Global Companies (2016)

Red Herring

Red Herring short-lists Uniphore for its Top 100 Asia Award(2012)

CII Connect

Umesh Sachdev, Founder & CEO, received the “Exemplary Application of IT Award” at the CII CONNECT 2014 Awards

EmTech India

Umesh Sachdev, CEO & Co-Founder, recognized with India Edition of MIT Technology Review’s ‘Innovators Under 35’ (2016)

The Smart CEO Startup50

Best Enterprise Tech Startup of the Year by The Smart CEO – Startup50 awards (2016)

RIM

Research in Motion highlights Uniphore as one of India’s top Enterprise Mobility Vendors (2012)