Tom Ayers is a visionary for Tropos Networks and has successfully established the company as a leader in reliable, high-performance multi-use private networks for the smart grid. He drove the company’s expansion in market focus from smart cities and multi-use municipal networks to position the company in the fast growing smart grid market. Mr. Ayers has a proven track record of providing vision, leadership and success in public sector, enterprise, and global markets with more than 30 years in building high technology companies and delivering advanced solutions to customers.

Mr. Ayers joined Tropos from Blue Coat Systems, where as the vice president of worldwide field operations, he helped lead the company through a significant market transition which resulted in over 3,000 new customers, number-one market share and company profitability. Prior to Blue Coat, he led enterprise and SMB sales organizations for the McAfee Security division of Network Associates. Before that, he held senior management positions with Sequent Computer Systems, Amdahl, and IBM.

Mr. Ayers graduated from The University of Texas at Austin where he received a degree in business administration.

Narasimha Chari was responsible for developing Tropos Networks' core intellectual property, including the design and development of the company's wireless networking and routing protocols. He has performed research, published papers and disclosed patents in a variety of areas of mathematics, physics and wireless networking. Among other honors, Mr. Chari was recognized by MIT Technology Review magazine in 2005 as one of the Top 35 Innovators under the age of 35.

Mr. Chari received a BS in Mathematics and Economics from the California Institute of Technology and an AM in Physics from Harvard University.

John Eichhorn is Tropos Networks' Chief Financial Officer. He brings more than 25 years of experience in building corporate and financial strategies, operations, and management.  Prior to Tropos, Mr. Eichhorn served as CFO for PayCycle which was acquired by Intuit.  He has also served in various financial management roles at Business Objectives, Adobe Systems, Cisco Systems, and Hewlett Packard.

Mr. Eichhorn has a Bachelor of Arts in Political Economy of Industrial Societies from University of California, Berkeley and an MBA in International Management from Thunderbird School of Global Management.

Meet John Eichhorn

Mike Bailey is responsible for managing the engineering, manufacturing, and customer support organizations for Tropos and brings over 25 years of senior leadership and management experience from high tech companies. Mr. Bailey’s engineering and product development experience spans a range of technologies including storage systems, networking systems, audio and video systems, data compression, and complex process control systems. During his career he has held management positions at Eastman Kodak, Corning, Compression Labs, Harmonic, and McData. Mr. Bailey started his career as an Electronic Warfare Officer in the United States Air Force.

Mr. Bailey holds a BSEE from the University of Cincinnati and an MBA from the University of Northern Colorado.

Rob Pilgrim is responsible for corporate business development and strategy for Tropos including worldwide strategic partnerships, alliances, M&A assessment, and technology licensing. In 2008, he spearheaded Tropos’ GridCom initiative, shifting the company’s primary market to smart grid communications. Prior to joining Tropos, Mr. Pilgrim was Director of Product Management and Business Development at Covad Communications, and spent over 10 years in various management roles for companies in the wireless and optical communications space including Sigma Networks, Level 3, and T-Mobile. Rob started his career at Georgia Power Company, an operating unit of the Southern Company.

Mr. Pilgrim holds a bachelors degree in engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology.

Roman Arutyunov is responsible for managing the software engineering, product management, and quality assurance organizations at Tropos Networks. In his role, Roman leads strategy, planning, and execution for all products and solutions at Tropos. Roman joined Tropos in 2002 and contributed to the development of the core intellectual property of the company including wireless routing protocols, meshing technology, and network management software. Prior to Tropos, Roman held engineering and technology leadership positions at Blue Coat Systems and Entera building WAN optimization and security solutions for enterprise and service provider customers.

Mr. Arutyunov holds a BA in Applied Mathematics from University of California, Berkeley and an MBA from UC Berkeley, Haas School of Business.

Cyrus Behroozi is Tropos Networks' Chief Scientist. After joining in 2000, he developed the company's first wireless mesh hardware. More recently he has focused on network performance, developing advanced distributed algorithms for route selection, power and bit rate control, airtime coordination, and channel selection. Mr. Behroozi draws upon his background in experimental physics for insight into electromagnetic propagation and complex systems. At Harvard University, he was part of the research team that slowed light to 38 miles per hour in a Bose-Einstein condensate and subsequently stopped it outright. He co-authored two articles in Nature on this work.

Mr. Behroozi holds a BS in Physics from the California Institute of Technology and an AM in Applied Physics from Harvard University.