Meet The Team!

Dr. Ganesh Sundaram, Founder and
Founder and CEO, Alef Innovations

Dr. Ganesh Sundaram is a leader in wireless technology with over 20 years of rich experience in technology creation, having worked extensively on opportunities globally. As a founder of Alef, he has made several foundational contributions and was recognized in 2019, at the Edge Computing Congress, with the award for the “Biggest Individual Contribution to Edge Computing Development.” Prior to founding Alef, Ganesh was a Distinguished Member of Technical Staff and led multiple secure wireless solutions initiatives at Bell Labs in New Jersey. He has developed several foundational technologies, leading to new standards, products, and deployments and has authored over 50 patents relating to mobile data networking, architecture, security, cryptography, resource and mobility management. Ganesh was named a Bell Labs Fellow in 2012, inducted into the Alcatel-Lucent technical academy in 2009, and is a recipient of two Bell Labs president’s awards. He has a PhD in Mathematics from Purdue University and Master of Science degrees in Applied Mathematics and Mechanical Engineering from Oklahoma State University.

Mr. Steven Spencer, Co-Founder and Chief Financial Officer

Mr. Spencer manages financial strategy and oversees all global financial functions.  To this role, he brings extensive executive experience in the financial and business management of entrepreneurial companies. Prior to the co-founding of Alef, Steve served in numerous executive management positions including CEO at UPOC Networks, leading their merger and integration with Dada, Head of the Mobile Business Unit at Pinnacor Financial Group, successfully creating and implementing a profitable new business segment, and CFO and Business Head at Beezag, implementing a leading-edge advertising monetization business. In addition, Steve served in a variety of technical business leadership positions at Lucent Technologies in network infrastructure, mobile applications, consumer products and corporate development.

His education includes an MBA with highest honors and membership in Beta Gamma Sigma from the NYU Stern School of Business, an MSEE from Cornell University, and a BSEE from Union College.

Mr. Joseph Hammer, Executive Vice President, Business Development

Mr. Hammer is an innovative leader with over 20 years of sales and business development experience in the cloud, telecommunications, and electronics industries. He has managed key customers and partners including Microsoft, Intel, IBM, HPE, Verizon, US Cellular, Vodafone, and AT&T. Prior to joining Alef, Joe directed global alliances at Nokia, successfully launching joint solutions in several areas including Cognitive Analytics, 5G, AR/VR, Sports & Entertainment, Advertising, Edge Computing and IoT.

Joe is a decorated combat veteran and Brigadier General who served over 23 years in the USAF and Connecticut Air National Guard. He has extensive leadership and operations experience commanding hundreds of airmen in deployments all over the world including Afghanistan, Iraq, Ecuador and Italy.

Joe earned an MBA from Yale University and has an Engineering degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Mr. Neel Venkatraman, Chief Business Officer APAC

Mr. Venkatraman is Chief Business Officer, joined Alef in 2014 and is responsible for developing new business models and drive revenue growth working with Enterprises, Digital Media, Content & Gaming providers, Digital Commerce companies and Telecom service providers across Asia Pacific. Neel has more than 17 years of rich executive and senior management experience. From 2011-through 2014 he was Country Leader and VP for Manufacturing and Resources at IBM India. He was General Manager of Sales at IBM India from 2008 through 2011. Prior to 2008, Neel was a Lead Sales Account Manager at IBM, and early in his career worked as a consultant.

Chemical Engineering Degree from IIT Delhi and an MBA from S. P. Jain Institute of Management and Research, Mumbai. He has attended executive management programs at INSEAD School of Business, Singapore and China Europe International Business School, Shanghai.

Mr. Eduardo (Duda) Gouvea Vieira, Head of Brazil

Mr. Vieira has 20+ years in Brazilian tech, general corporate and financial situations. He has focused almost exclusively on tech start-ups over the past 10 years, and founded Bunker, a tech start-up assembler, that has led 4 successful exits in Brazil. Prior to Bunker, Eduardo founded Corcovado Capital, where he led club deals and advised private equity funds. He was director at Microsoft, HP and LNCC joint tech center in Rio de Janeiro. He also managed Internet products at Oi Telcom. Eduardo started his career in Icatu Investment Bank in the early 90s.

BA degree in Economics from Candido Mendes University – Rio de Janeiro.

Mr. Stephan Massalt, Senior Vice President, Service Management Operations

Stephan is responsible for managing the services delivery of EdgeNet. Stephan brings an extensive knowledge on cloud native development, management and operations to Alef.

He has over 20 years of working experience in Telecommunications and ICT. He began his career working for KPN in data network engineering. After that he held positions in sales and management consultancy, general management, product management and business development. In his former role of VP Cloud for Swisscom in Silicon Valley, he managed the cloud innovation lab and was responsible for partner management of companies like Dell Technologies, VMware, Google and various startups. He served on the board of directors for the Cloud Foundry Foundation as a gold member representative for the last 2 years.

Stephan has a bachelor’s degree in computer sciences from the Dutch University of Applied Sciences NHL and post-bachelor’s degree in business management.

Mr. Jeff Tennery, Chief Operating Officer

Jeff Tennery has been named the new Chief Operating Officer for 5G Mobile Technology company AlefEdge.

Prior to joining AlefEdge, Tennery founded leading freelance platform company Moonlighting, which was acquired in January 2021 by CareerGig.  Founded in 2014, and backed by the largest US media companies, the Moonlighting platform supported over 860,000+ freelancers and generated over $50M in annual gig revenues.

Tennery has over 30 years of senior executive leadership roles at Verizon, AT&T and Millennial Media. Prior to founding Moonlighting, Jeff served seven years as the Senior Vice President, Business Development & Global Monetization for mobile advertising leader Millennial Media (acquired by AOL/Verizon Media in 2015). He was responsible for delivering hundreds of millions of dollars annually across 100,000 applications worldwide and played an instrumental role in Millennial Media’s 2012 IPO.

At Verizon, Jeff was the Vice President of National Distribution, responsible for all third party mobile device distribution. In 2001, as the Vice President of Sales & Marketing for TeleCorp PCS, Jeff was a key member of the executive team that facilitated AT&T’s acquisition of the company. In addition, Jeff served as Vice President of Sales & Operations at nTelos, where he played a pivotal role in the company’s 2006 IPO.

Over the past decade, Jeff has achieved great success in the mobile application economy, serving advisory and EIR roles to venture capital firms (Edison Ventures, Sycamore, BlockStart Ventures, University of Virginia Venture Fund), as well as start-up companies in the mobile video (dotPhoto, Meetlete), mCommerce (First Data Corp, Cardagin), mobile location data (x-Mode), mobile gaming (Sonic), blockchain (Blokument) and mobile entertainment & media business (ESPN).