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.
Chet Gapinski
Vice President of Product Development
“Our focus is to inspire customer confidence, by creating proven, innovative solutions that are responsive to customer needs.”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.
Peter Doggart
Senior Director, Product Management
Peter Doggart (@peterdoggart) brings more than 15 years of Product and Marketing Management experience in the Networking and Security markets. Peter joined Crossbeam from 3Com where he served as Senior Director for the $350M Enterprise LAN & WAN business, responsible for the Division’s Product Management and Marketing. Earlier in his career, Peter helped develop and launch several groundbreaking Ethernet, Power over Ethernet and Security products with 3Com. Peter holds two patents and a first class honors Bachelor of Science degree in Electronic, Electrical Engineering from Loughborough University in the UK and a PostGraduate Professional Diploma from the Chartered Institute of Marketing.
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.
