Hongwen Zhang, Chief Executive Officer
Dr. Zhang co-founded Wedge Networks in 2005. Prior to being appointed President and CEO, Dr. Zhang was Chief Technology Officer at Wedge and was instrumental in developing the high performance architecture that provides the basis behind Wedge’s award-winning security appliance, the BeSecure Web Gateway. He holds a Ph.D in Computer Science from the University of Calgary; a M.Sc in Computer Engineering from the Institute of Computer Technology - Chinese Academy of Sciences (Beijing, PRC), and a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Fudan University (Shanghai, PRC). With more than two decades of high tech leadership experience, Dr. Zhang is a co-inventor and holder of several patents in the area of computing and networking. Prior to establishing Wedge Networks, he was a co-founder of the 24C Group Inc., which pioneered the first digital receipts infrastructure for secure electronic commerce. Dr. Zhang was previously principal of Servidium Inc., now ThoughtWorks Canada Inc., a global leader in agile development methodology.
Husam Kinawi, Chief Scientist
Dr. Kinawi is a co-founder of Wedge Networks and has a Ph.D and Master of Science in Computer Science from the Universities of Calgary, Canada and London, UK. He also co-founded Mpower Technologies Inc., a wireless telecommunications software company, in 1997 and went on to co-found ActiveIq.com (NASDAQ: AIQT), a Boston-based e-Business applications firm, in 1999. Dr. Kinawi is an innovator with more than 17 years of research and development experience working with industry leaders such as Newbridge (Alcatel), Siemens, United Technologies, and Apple in the areas of distributed information systems, embedded applications and wireless Internet solutions. He has been a guest speaker at numerous major conferences, published several research papers and is the holder of multiple patents in the area of mobile and wireless devices.
Werner Gartner, Chief Financial Officer
Mr. Werner Gartner is the Chief Financial Officer for Wedge Networks. Previously, he served as EVP and CFO, as well as being a member of the board of directors of NovAtel, Inc., and has over 20 years executive/board experience with technology based businesses. Mr. Gartner was part of the management team (CFO) that successfully completed NovAtel’s IPO in 1997 on NASDAQ, and subsequently increased the company’s market value from US $50M to US $450M, at which point the company was acquired in a friendly takeover. During his tenure at NovAtel, he helped grow its GPS based technology business from a divisional start-up to a market leader with $120M in revenue, generating operating income of 25% of revenue. He was also involved in numerous M&A transactions, as well as strategic partnerships. He received a B.Sc. from the University of Western Ontario, an MBA from the Schulich School of Business at York University in Toronto and holds a CMA accounting designation.
Joe Haar, VP Sales - Wedge Networks USA
Mr. Haar is a Silicon Valley Sales Professional with a 15+ year record of success pioneering technology start-ups. He has generated over half a billion dollars in revenue for early stage companies. His sales success has led to 3 successful IPO’s and two acquisitions. Many of the companies Mr. Haar launched have exceeded billion dollar valuations. His experience with technology infrastructure includes companies such as Equinix, Jasomi Networks, Exodus Communications, and Internap. He graduated from San Jose State University with a BS in Finance and Economics.
Johnson Wu, GM - Wedge Networks USA
Mr. Wu, who now heads up Wedge’s expansion in the USA, was one of the original engineers of Cisco’s PIX Firewall and was a co-founder of Network Translation, Inc. (acquired b Cisco in 1995). He holds two patents for inventions in the area of network address translation for VoIP and streaming media that are used in PIX. Wu more recently designed and wrote the prototype of the first CPE-less SIP NAT/Firewall traversal device, previously thought to be impossible. The Prototype was later productized by Jasomi Networks as Peerpoint Centrex, the first commercially available Session Border Controller for far end NAT traversal. Prior to Jasomi, Mr. Wu held design and implementation responsibilities for Caw Networks’ award winning WebAvalanche and WebReflector capacity assessment products. Mr. Wu graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of San Francisco, with degrees in Business Administration and Management Information Systems.
Owen Peng, GM - Wedge Networks China
Mr. Peng has over 20 years of experience in software and IT product development, project management and company operations. Prior to taking on the role of General Manager of Wedge’s China operations, Mr. Peng was the Vice President of VanceInfo, one of the largest IT service providers in China, listed on the NYSE. He has worked in a variety of companies in the U.S., Singapore, China and Hong Kong (Xerox and Lenovo, to name a couple) in the roles of CTO, VP of Engineering, VP of Marketing, Chief Engineer, Project Director, and senior engineer, along with being a Vice President and Co-Founder of SureKAM, a leading system integrator and IT services provider in China. Mr. Peng has rich experiences in the IT Industry, with expertise in Telecom BSS, Business Intelligence, Enterprise Software, Printing Systems, Software Testing and Software Engineering, and now spearheads Wedge’s expansion and growth in China. Mr. Peng received his Master’s degree in Artificial Intelligence from the Academy of Automation Research of MMI in 1991, and his B.S. degree in Computer & Automation in 1984 from Xiangtan University.
Hussein Amery, VP Business Development
Dr. Amery is Wedge Networks’ Vice President of Business Development. Dr. Amery has over twenty five years of experience building business in different industries – oil and gas, real estate development, finance and IT. Dr. Amery’s most recent position was the VP Operations for a publically-traded managed Internet services provider (Fatport, a division of Skyboard Media). Prior to that Dr. Amery was a founding director of Ittihad Capital Corp., a boutique finance and leasing corporation. Dr. Amery completed his undergraduate education in Canada and his post-graduate education in California, earning a doctorate in psychology. While not working, Dr. Amery volunteers his time extensively to local and international charitable and non-profit organizations.
Cameron Schaus, Director of Engineering
Mr. Schaus manages the technical support team and R&D activities for the Wedge BeSecure Web Gateway and Reporter products, including content and feature management, and oversees development and release planning, product testing and outsourced QA activities. He has more than 10 years of experience working in the Information Technology industry in IT security services, network infrastructure design, systems development, telecommunication network design, embedded software development and quality assurance. Prior to joining Wedge, Mr. Schaus held key positions with Nortel Networks working on the development of cellular communication infrastructure, which was deployed and supported worldwide. Mr. Schaus holds a B.Sc in Computer Science from the University of Calgary.
Alexes Hushlak, Director of Sales and Marketing
Mr. Hushlak has spent the last 5 years developing and executing Marketing and Sales initiatives for companies in the technology and non-technology sectors. He has worked directly with Rogers Wireless and Microsoft during the launch of the Tablet PC. Mr. Hushlak also worked at Young and Rubicam on the marketing communications and advertising of ATB Financial, Calgary Stampede, Enbridge, and First Calgary Financial. In 2003 Mr. Hushlak founded Calgary Weekly newspaper and grew its distribution network across Canada before selling it in 2007.