Company

Marc Randall is an industry veteran with more than 20 years of experience in high technology. Prior to joining Force10 Networks, Randall served as vice president of engineering at Cisco, where he led the development and extension of the company’s high performance routing platforms, a business that accounted for $2 billion in revenue annually. Under his leadership the Cisco 7500 was recognized as one of the 10 most important products to be developed in Silicon Valley. Randall also led Cisco’s VPN initiative and the development of the 7100 VPN router. Prior to Cisco, he was responsible for software development in the processor products division at Amdahl Corporation.

Karen Blasing has more than 20 years of experience creating and implementing corporate strategy, finance, accounting, and compliance and information systems. Prior to joining Force10, Blasing was senior vice president of finance at Salesforce.com, where she was responsible for worldwide accounting, finance, tax and treasury functions as well as real estate, facilities and procurement. As chief financial officer at Nuance Communications, she was instrumental in negotiating the 2005 merger with ScanSoft. Blasing also served as chief financial officer for Counterpane Internet Security and has held senior finance positions with Informix, Oracle and Syntex Corporation. She holds a B.A. from the University of Montana and an M.B.A. from the University of Washington. She is a member of the Financial Executives Institute and the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs and Executives.

John Ferris is a Silicon Valley veteran with 20 years of experience in financial and operational roles. Prior to joining Force10 Networks, Ferris was corporate controller and chief financial officer at SemiPower Systems with responsibility for all finance, accounting, purchasing, production planning and human resources programs. Ferris also directed finance, accounting, customer service and production planning as division controller at Raychem Corporation. Earlier, he served as a certified public accountant at the auditing firm of Deloitte, Haskins and Sells.

Stephen Garrison has more than 19 years of experience designing strategic marketing programs for the telecommunications and networking industries. Prior to becoming vice president of marketing, Garrison directed the company’s corporate marketing and customer activities. Prior to joining Force10 Networks, Garrison was the senior director of marketing at Riverstone Networks, where he was responsible for building customer programs. Earlier, he served as the director of marketing at Cabletron Systems. Garrison received a B.S. in ceramic science from Alfred University and an M.S. in materials science and engineering from MIT. He also holds four patents and sits on the board of directors for the Ethernet Alliance.

James Hanley brings 20 years of experience developing worldwide sales and channel strategies to Force10 Networks.  As senior vice president of worldwide field operations at NeoScale Systems, Hanley realigned the company’s go-to-market strategy, driving growth via channels, direct sales, inside sales and field marketing.  Prior to NeoScale, he managed the worldwide channel at CA as senior vice president of worldwide partner sales.  Earlier, Hanley held executive roles in sales, field operations and channel development at EMC, including senior leadership positions in London and Hong Kong.  He holds a B.A. in economics with a minor in accounting from Claremont McKenna College.

Loren Hillberg brings more than 22 years of legal and management experience to Force10 Networks.  Most recently, he served as general counsel and general manager for the digital commerce initiative at Macrovision, where he was responsible for driving the adoption of key strategic business objectives.  While serving as senior vice president and general counsel at Macromedia, Mr. Hillberg managed key patent litigation as well as internal and external legal activities.  Earlier, he was general counsel at Micro Focus.  Mr. Hillberg began his career as a corporate attorney with Heller, Ehrman, White & McAuliffe.  He holds a B.A. in economics from Stanford University and a J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law.

Sachi Sambandan has a wealth of engineering experience and has been issued 14 patents for his work. Prior to joining Force10 Networks, Sambandan held various senior management positions with Cisco and Intel. As manager of the ternary cam technology program at Cisco, he developed key technology that was widely adopted in the company’s high performance switches and routers. During his leadership, the group received the company’s prestigious "Pioneer Core Technology Innovation” award. Prior to Cisco, Sambandan worked at Intel, where he was responsible for the external interface section of the Itanium processor. He holds a B.E. from the College of Engineering in Guindy, India, an M.S.E.E. from the University of Maryland and an M.B.A from Santa Clara University.

Bahman Sohrabi brings more than 17 years of internetworking and data communications experience to the Force10 global services organization. Prior to joining Force10, Sohrabi led the worldwide technical support organization at Procket Networks and implemented the company’s service intelligence strategy. Prior to Procket, he served in various technical and leadership roles in Cisco’s customer advocacy organization, where he led the service and support automation teams in the company’s eSupport and NSA programs. Sohrabi holds a B.S.E.E. from Rutgers University.

Eric Tom is an industry veteran with more than 20 years of experience building and managing strategic, channel and distribution partnerships.  Prior to joining Force10, Tom served as CEO at Broadband Interactive TV, where he developed distribution relationships with leading industry vendors and service providers.  He has also held senior management and sales positions at Qwest, Sprint and data center service provider Pihana Pacific.  Tom holds a B.B.A. from the University of Hawaii and an M.B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley.