Meet the experienced executives and investors behind Elastio.
Naj is the CEO and Founder of Elastio. He is a serial entrepreneur with over 25 years of experience forming and building high-growth, venture-backed, software technology companies including Precise/SRM (acquired by Veritas), AppAssure (acquired by Dell) and Cloudistics (acquired by Fungible).
In his prior company AppAssure, a leading data protection company, Naj led the company as it grew revenue from zero to a $50 million run rate in four years, resulting in the company earning the crown of fastest growing backup company worldwide by Inc. Magazine.
Naj received his Bachelor of Computer Science from the University of Maryland and he lives in The Plains Virginia. Naj enjoys investing in startups, playing polo with his family and racing cars competitively in his spare time.
Adam is the CTO and Founder of Elastio. He has over 25 years of experience as a software engineer, architect, and engineering leader. His professional career began at the age of 16 when he began working in the nascent field of web development, and spanned a wide range of startup and enterprise companies in the subsequent years.
After a stint leading a team of Iraqi programmers on a US government contract in Baghdad (where the term “under fire” had a more literal meaning), he joined AppAssure Software as a founding member of the engineering organization. At AppAssure he built the engineering team from three people to a peak of 160 spread across two continents, and developed the product from an initial prototype through to the successful product which was acquired by Dell in 2012. Adam continued to shepherd the AppAssure product at Dell as part of the Dell Software Group, which later was spun out to Quest Software where he remained until leaving to start Elastio.
He lived in Kyiv, Ukraine until the Russian invasion of that country forced him to flee to Tbilisi, Georgia. He looks forward to returning to a free Ukraine in the near future.
Todd has over 25 years of experience high-growth, venture-backed, category-leading software companies, including AppAssure, Cloudistics, and Consul Risk Management. As COO and co-founder of AppAssure, he grew the company’s revenue from zero to a $50 million run rate in four years, resulting in the company earning the crown of fastest growing backup company worldwide by Inc. Magazine. He also has led enterprise sales organizations at industry powerhouses such as Veritas, Symantec, and Dell.
Todd received his Bachelor of Science in Marketing from Virginia Tech and received an M.S. in Information Management from Marymount University. Todd lives in Northern Virginia with his family and enjoys motorsports, and is trying to take up golf.
Srinidhi has more than two decades of experience architecting and building virtualization platforms, advanced networks, high-performance computing environments, scalable file systems, and storage subsystems. His illustrious career includes being Founder and CTO of Cloudistics, Founder and CTO of AppAssure (acquired by Dell), founder and CTO of Librato (acquired by SolarWinds), and the founder and chief architect of SilverDraft Supercomputing. He also served as VP and General Manager of the Data Protection business at Dell after the acquisition of AppAssure.
Srinidhi is the architect of System X supercomputer at Virginia Tech (built-in collaboration with Apple) – ranked # 3 in the world in 2003. He received the NSF Career Award for Internet-scale network modeling and was honored by MIT Technology Review as one of the top 100 (TR100) young innovators transforming technology. He was also named by HPCWire as one of the top researchers in the field of supercomputing. Srinidhi received his Doctorate in Computer Science from Stony Brook, specializing in computer networks.
James is a Cyber Security Expert and entrepreneur with experience securing, designing, deploying, and maintaining large-scale, mission-critical applications and networks. James leads teams through multiple FedRAMP, NIST, ISO, PCI, and HITRUST compliance audits, and he has helped numerous companies formulate strategies for compliance and infrastructure scalability. His previous leadership roles span from CISO to VP Network Operations & Engineering to CTO and VP of Operations, at companies as diverse as GE, Epoch Internet, NETtel, SecureNet, Transaction Network Services, AuthX, Certify Global, SecureG, Cyber Defense Media Group, and OnePay.
Gerry Sengendo boasts a distinguished career in the technology industry, marked by impactful leadership roles and a series of successful exits. At Dynatrace, his contributions played an instrumental role in the company’s growth and eventual success. Similarly, at OPNET, Gerry’s leadership was paramount to the company’s accomplishments. Most notably, he recently spearheaded the IBM Nationals team, focusing on Turbonomic, a significant acquisition by IBM, further underscoring his knack for guiding ventures to fruitful outcomes. As he transitions into his new role as the Vice President of Global Sales at Elastio, Gerry’s vast experience and proven track record make him poised to drive the company to new heights.
Since 2013, Ben served as the CEO of Turbonomic, an application resource management company that was acquired by IBM for $2 billion. After the turnaround, Turbonomic appeared six times on the Inc5000 list of Fastest Growing Private companies.
Previously, Ben served as Co-Managing Partner of Bain Capital Ventures where he founded and built the technology and infrastructure investing practice appearing six times on Forbes’ Midas list of the World’s top investors. Previous positions included SVP at Veritas Software Corporation; and COO and CFO of Precise Software Solutions, Ltd.; and Partner at Allied Capital.
During his public service, Ben served US Treasury under Secretaries Lloyd Bentsen and Robert Rubin for which he was awarded the Exceptional Service award. Ben holds a B.A. in government from Harvard College and a MBA from Harvard Business School. He also attended and serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of Middlesex School.
Sounil Yu is the CISO and Head of Research at JupiterOne. He created the Cyber Defense Matrix and the DIE Triad, which are reshaping approaches to cybersecurity. He’s a Board Member of the FAIR Institute; is a visiting fellow at GMU Scalia Law School’s National Security Institute; guest lectures at Carnegie Mellon; and advises many startups. Sounil previously served as the CISO-in-Residence at YL Ventures and Chief Security Scientist at Bank of America. Before BofA, he helped improve information security at several Fortune 100 companies and Federal Government agencies. Sounil has over 20 granted patents and was recognized as one of the most influential people in security in 2020 by Security Magazine, Influencer of the Year in 2021 by SC Awards, a 2021 Top 10 CISO by Black Unicorn Awards, and for Lifetime Achievement in 2022 by the SANS Institute. He has an MS in Electrical Engineering from Virginia Tech and a BS in Electrical Engineering and a BA in Economics from Duke University.
Anthony Marquardt is a general manager leading Slalom’s Global Industry organization and serves as the Media and Communications (M&C) industry lead. Anthony has more than 20 years of experience in strategic and operational planning, as well as leading transformational organization and customer projects for major communication and media organizations. His expertise spans advertising, broadcasting, home entertainment, over-the-top, wireless, and cable. He is a trusted advisor to senior technology executives whose goal is to transform their organization and customer experience.
