Management

Pravin Kothari, Founder and CEO

Pravin Kothari has over 20 years of experience successfully bringing new products to market in information security, cloud computing, compliance, enterprise software, and large-scale software infrastructure. Pravin founded CipherCloud in 2010. Prior to founding CipherCloud, Pravin was Founder, CTO, and Interim-CEO of Agiliance, a leading Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) software company. Previously, he was Co-founder and VP Engineering of ArcSight, a leading security company, where he led product development for five years from inception to market dominance. ArcSight was recently acquired by HP for $1.5 billion. Prior to ArcSight, Pravin Kothari was Co-founder and Chief Architect at Impresse Corporation. He has also held technical leadership positions at Verity, Attachmate, and Tata Consultancy Services.

Pravin holds an MS degree in Computer Science from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay. He is a Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA), Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), and Charter Member of TiE, a global organization dedicated to the advancement of entrepreneurship.

Dev Ghoshal, Senior Vice President, Field Operations

Debashis (Dev) Ghoshal brings over 20 years of experience in technology, business, and management consulting to the CipherCloud executive team. As the SVP of Field Operations, he is responsible for the sales, marketing, alliances, and services functions within CipherCloud. Dev began his career at McKinsey & Company, a global strategic consulting company serving Fortune 100 customers. He then joined i2 Technologies, where he served for six years as Vice President, Europe and SVP of Global Solution Delivery and Business Development. In these roles, he was instrumental in the company’s growth from $50 million in annual revenue to over $1 billion. He then joined Sun Microsystems as a Vice President, where he ran Asia-Pacific services, and later as Vice President of Sun’s Global Software Practice. Dev has also served as General Manager of Microsoft's Global Services Division, SVP of Services at Saba Software, and COO and Board Advisor at Agiliance.

Dev Ghoshal has a BS degree from IIT, Kanpur, an MS degree from Texas A&M, and an MBA from the Wharton School of Business.

Varun Badhwar, Vice President, Product Strategy & Business Development

As a key member of the executive team, Varun Badhwar is responsible for product strategy, product marketing, evangelism, and sales enablement. Prior to joining CipherCloud, Varun was responsible for ensuring the security of the Force.com ecosystem at Salesforce.com, which included over 1,500 applications from partners across the globe. Prior to Salesforce.com, he was a Consultant within the Risk Advisory Services group at KPMG, where he was responsible for conducting organizational risk assessments with a focus on delivering solutions that enabled prominent Fortune 500 Clients to manage IT security and privacy, operational risks, and alignment with overall business strategy.

Varun Badhwar holds a BS degree in Computer Science from the University of Southern California. He is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) and Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA). 

Mike Kochanik, Vice President, Worldwide Sales

Mike Kochanik is responsible for global sales strategy and revenue generation at CipherCloud. Mike brings to CipherCloud a distinguished 20-year track record in enterprise sales, SaaS, and cloud computing, building companies, defining markets, and creating value for shareholders. Prior to joining CipherCloud, Mike was a founding business team member at CollabNet, where he started the company’s Cloud Computing and Virtualization practice and brought to market the industry’s first Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) offering for Software Build and Test. Prior to that, he was a key contributor in growing two early stage firms to successful liquidity events, IKOS Systems and Geodesic Systems. Mike started his career in technology with Lockheed Martin Corporation, where he worked on the Trident Missile programs and FAA programs. 

Mike Kochanik holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree from Stevens Institute of Technology and an MBA from Seton Hall University.

Allen Pogorzelski, Sr. Director of Marketing

Allen Pogorzelski has over 15 years of experience in marketing and sales at rapidly growing enterprise software companies. As a key member of the executive team, Allen serves as the head of marketing at CipherCloud. Prior to joining CipherCloud, he was Vice President of Marketing at Selectica (NASDAQ: SLTC), where he was responsible for all aspects of the company’s marketing strategy. Before that, he served as a Director of Marketing at DemandTec, where he led product marketing for the company's retail price optimization, promotion management, and deal management solutions. Previously, Allen Pogorzelski was Director of Marketing at Emptoris, a leading supply management software company, where he led the company's demand generation strategies. He was also Director of Marketing at diCarta, a contract management solutions pioneer that was acquired by Emptoris. At diCarta, he was responsible for demand generation, product marketing, PR, and analyst relations. Allen also held marketing and sales leadership roles in CRM and business intelligence at Siebel, Oracle, and IRI Software.

Allen Pogorzelski earned a BS degree in Marketing and Finance from the University of Virginia and an MBA from the Darden School of Commerce.

Technology Leadership

Dr. Debabrata Dash, Ph.D., Chief Scientist & Architect

Dr. Debabrata Dash has been involved with CipherCloud since the founding of the company - initially in a technology advisory capacity and then joining full-time as the Chief Scientist and Architect to define the technical vision and architecture, design new technologies to solve complex technical problems, and collaborate with academia and industry forums such as the CSA. He brings with him a combination of core academic research capability and a wealth of experience in building innovative internet-scale systems. He is the author of more than 25 technical papers and patents on Network Security, Database Management, and Cloud Computing. Before joining CipherCloud, Debabrata was a Distinguished Technologist in Hewlett-Packard’s Enterprise Security/ArcSight division. At HP, he led their technical effort to provide real-time analytic capabilities on their enterprise security management platform. Prior to that, he was a key architect in early days of ArcSight, where he built their market leading technologies in event correlation, event management, and analytics. Debabrata started his career at Sun Microsystems, and worked with researchers at IBM’s Almaden Research Center, AT&T Labs, and Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (Lausanne).

Dr. Dash holds a B. Tech. degree in Computer Science & Engineering from IIT, and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University.

Dr. Malakondayya Gorantla, Cryptography Architect

As a Cryptography Architect, Dr. Malakondayya Gorantla is responsible for continuous innovation in our core technology and secure implementation of cryptographic protocols. He has authored more than 20 research papers and patents on Cryptograhic Protocols, Electronic Heath Record Security, Privacy in Social Networks, Data Masking and Secure Software Licensing. Prior to joining CipherCloud, Malakondayya was a Senior Researcher at Infosys Labs, where he was responsible for leading the research activities in the area of Security and Data Privacy and contributing to their IP portfolio. His research areas include Authenticated Key Exchange, Secure Group Communication, Key Management, Identity-based Cryptography, Attribute-based Cryptography and Cryptography for the Cloud. 

After completing BS in Computer Science and MS in Information Security with specialization in Banking Technology, Malakondayya earned his Ph.D. in Cryptographic Protocols from Queensland University of Technology(QUT) in Australia. He was a recipient of the QUT 2010 Outstanding Doctoral Thesis award.