Crossbeam is led by a world-class management team with a rich history of experience in the security, networking, and telecommunications sectors. Our leaders don’t leverage their experience to do the same things as other vendors. They challenge us to rethink the network.
Mike Ruffolo
President and Chief Executive Officer
Mike Ruffolo brings more than 25 years of experience in global sales and marketing, professional services, operations and information technology management. Prior to Crossbeam, he was chairman, CEO and president of Liquid Machines, a pioneer and leader in the Enterprise Rights Management market. He previously served as chief operating officer of Akamai Technologies, where he drove double-digit revenue growth while dramatically improving financial and operating results. Prior to Akamai, he was the executive vice president of global sales, services and marketing at EMC Corporation, where he drove over $8.5 billion in revenue. Ruffolo also served as president of Document Solutions Group at Xerox Corporation and vice president and chief information officer at NCR Corporation. Ruffolo has been an independent director on both public and private company boards and currently serves on the Board of Directors at Internap Network Services (Nasdaq: INAP) in Atlanta, Georgia. Mike graduated summa cum laude from the University of Dayton, earned an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, and has completed the Advanced Management Programme at the European Institute of International Business (INSEAD).
Tom Sheehan
Chief Financial Officer
Tom Sheehan has more than 25 years of financial and operating experience, with more than 16 of those years as a senior financial executive in the technology industry. Tom joined Crossbeam from Egenera, Inc. where he served as CFO, responsible for all financial, legal, and administrative matters. While at Egenera, he led an IPO effort and raised over $130 million in private equity and $45 million of debt financing. Prior to Egenera, Tom was CFO for The MacGregor Group, Inc. where he raised $32 million in private equity and helped integrate a major acquisition. Tom holds a B.S. in Accounting from Syracuse University and has practiced as a Certified Public Accountant.
Tim Miller
Vice President of WW Sales
Tim Miller brings close to 20 years of sales and operations experience to Crossbeam. Most recently, he was vice president of Crossbeam’s Americas sales organization, which realized double-digit growth over the past year. Previous to Crossbeam, Tim held sales management positions at IBM’s InfoSphere segment (formerly Ascential Software). Prior to IBM as part of Ascential Software, he was area vice president and part of the management team driving revenue from $50 million to $275 million and architecting the sale to IBM for $1.1 billion. Earlier, Tim held various sales and sales management positions both domestically and internationally for Parametric Technology Corporation. Tim began his career at Gartner, Inc., selling technology research and consulting services. He holds a B.S. in Business Administration from Arizona State University.
Jim Freeze
Vice President of Marketing and Business Development
Jim Freeze has more than 20 years of executive management experience in strategic marketing, sales, business development, product management, product marketing, and industry analysis. Jim is responsible for all aspects of Crossbeam’s marketing, including product management and marketing, marketing communications, and public/analyst relations. Prior to Crossbeam, Jim was senior vice president for marketing and alliances at BelAir Networks. While at BelAir, he implemented revised “go to market” plans that resulted in substantial revenue growth and market leadership, moving the company from fifth to first in market share. Also during his tenure, Jim revamped corporate messaging and press efforts, leading to its consistent out-performance of all competitors in media hits and Web traffic growth. Prior to BelAir Networks, he served as chief marketing officer at 3Com and Genuity. Jim began his career at CompuServe in various marketing and business development positions. Jim earned a J.D., magna cum laude, from Capital University Law School, and holds an M.A. in Mathematics and a B.S. in Education from Ohio State University.
Chet Gapinski
Vice President of Product Development
Chet Gapinski has more than 25 years of experience in systems product development, product life cycle management and operations. As Vice President of Product Development,he is responsible for overseeing all aspects of the company’s R&D as well as product strategy. Prior to joining Crossbeam, Chet was vice president of engineering at Millennial Net Inc., responsible for building and leading the engineering team, establishing the product roadmap, and delivering four successful product launches for this emerging wireless mesh networking company. Previously, he was chief operating officer and senior vice president of engineering for Artel Video Systems Inc., where he led both engineering and operations for this optical networking company. In addition, Chet served as vice president of engineering for Media 100 Inc., where he was responsible for product development of current and next generation digital video production systems used for broadcast television and internet video streaming. Chet began his career with GenRad, Inc., a world leader in automated test equipment, holding several executive positions including general manager of a $50M business unit, director of engineering, and director of program management. Chet received his A.B. in Engineering Sciences and a Bachelor of Engineering in Electrical Engineering from Dartmouth College and completed the Program for Management Development at Harvard Business School.
Mike Akerman
Chief Technology Officer
Mike Akerman has more than 20 years of experience in the telecommunications and network security industries. In addition to co-founding Crossbeam more than 10 years ago, he also served as director of advanced technology, where he played a central role in developing the X-Series architecture to address customers’ evolving network security needs. Previously, he was vice president of engineering at security company Intrusic and was director of engineering for Xylan Corporation’s service provider business unit, which he also co-founded. Earlier in his career, Mike held management positions at Bay Networks/Welfleet as well as Prime Computer, where he focused on LAN and WAN routing products in corporate networks of Fortune 1000 companies. Mike holds a B.S. in Mathematics and a M.S. in Applied Physics from University of Latvian in Riga, Latvia.
Tom Nolette
Vice President of Operations and Client Services
Tom Nolette brings over 25 years of business operations experience in the high technology industry. With broad based knowledge in Customer Service and Support, Supply chain management, Global Manufacturing, Quality Systems, Program Management, Information Technology, and Technical Operations, Tom delivers substantial operational excellence in many facets of the enterprise. Previously, Tom was Vice President of Operations for Seranoa Networks, where he was responsible for Customer Support, Quality, and Manufacturing. Prior to that, Tom was Acting Chief Executive Officer and Vice President of Operations of MCK Communications, a publicly traded Telecommunications company. Prior to MCK, Tom served in a number of Executive Management positions for Motorola Incorporated, in five different divisions, over a 20-year span, including; Group Quality Director, Senior Director of Operations, Senior Director of Customer Support, and various other operations roles. Tom holds a BSME from the University of Massachusetts and an MBA Certificate in the Technology Managers Program from Babson College. He is also a past member of the MIT Leaders for Manufacturing committee.
