|
Mr. Sam Mathan
Former President & CEO, Amber
Networks
The Hyderabadi
Trailblazer
|
|
 |
Hyderabad,April'04: Sam
Mathan worked with industry leaders before becoming Vice
President of Ascend Communication. Under his leadership, Ascend
emerged as a dominant supplier of switching accessories and
later merged with Lucent Technologies. Thereafter he joined
Amber Networks as CEO. At Amber he oversaw the creation of the
first fault-tolerant routing platform tailored for high-speed IP
networking. Recognising the value of the technology, Nokia
bought over Amber for $421 million in July 2001. Sam has an MS
from North Carolina State University and an MBA from Southern
Methodist University. |
Born in Hyderabad, Mathan came to the US in 1970 with two
bachelor's degrees under his belt from Osmania University, and
secured a Master's in electronics from North Carolina State
University and an MBA from Southern Methodist, Dallas, Texas.
After 15 years of professional experience, Mathan co-founded a
company in Dallas in 1987, engaged in the remote transfer of
images. The company failed to make a mark, even though the
concept was interesting, mainly because the communication
infrastructure at the time was not capable of handling the
bandwidth.
Mathan migrated to California in 1990 to work with Pacific Bell,
where he acquired hands-on experience of American
telecommunication companies. There he directed the product
management and marketing team responsible for PacBell's first
series of network integration products and services.
The real challenge, however, came four years later, when Mathan
left Pacific Bell to join Ascend Communications, valued at $24
billion and later acquired by Lucent Technologies. Mathan helped
the company establish itself as a dominant supplier of dial
access, frame and cell switching equipment to RBOCS, IXC and the
emerging carriers. This assignment carried him deep into network
servers and he left Ascend on 2 January 2000, to join Amber
Networks.
Mathan is fascinated by speeds. A car enthusiast, has SL 55
Mercedes, S 500 Mercedes, CLK 430 Mercedes and a Moderna 360
Spyder Ferrari in his stable. Married to Shanti, the couple has a son
Satish, a doctor, and daughter Sareena, studying at the
University of Tennessee. Mathan and Shanti are avid collectors of
Indian art.
Mathan's Hyderabadi roots are still intact. He is very close to
his brothers who stay in Hyderabad. He is actively involved in
many charity works including helping an Artificial Limb Centre in
Hyderabad which enjoys his full patronage. |
Maju Kuriakose
Reachout's News Bureau
-April' 2004
More Newsmakers...
|
