From the CEO’S Desk – Decklar H1 2026 Newsletter – 22nd July, 2026

Observer; Managing Director, DTCP & CABOA

Michael, through his company CABOA GmbH, is a senior executive advisor to DTCP’s Growth Equity business with more than 20 years of international experience in venture and growth capital, and private equity. In total, he has been responsible for funds with a volume of up to €750 million, invested in more than 40 start-up companies worldwide, and realized more than 30 successful exits. He supports companies mainly in questions of incorporation, funding, and exit – with a special focus on Europe, the USA, and Israel. He speaks the language of investors, start-ups and large to medium-sized companies and ensures sustainable success with his entrepreneurial thinking and acting.

Prior to his current role, Michael was Managing Director in DTCP’s Europe-based growth capital team and before that, Managing Director at T-Venture where he focused on disruptive wireless, deep-tech, and infrastructure investments. Earlier in his career, he worked as Senior Consultant at Detecon International, as Product Manager of the German fixed network operator o.tel.o Communications, and founded his own company.

Michael holds an M.Sc. in Economics from the University of Wuppertal, Germany.

Member; Chairman, Trivium; Founding CFO, Apigee, Ankeena, Cortina, Stratumone

Meenakshi Singh is a Silicon Valley veteran with more than 30 years of experience in corporate finance, leadership, and management, mergers and acquisitions. She has been through a merger or acquisition 15+ times and has the unique ability to be able to view the exit strategy from both sides of the table. In her role as Decklar’s CFO and Board member, she oversees financial operations of Decklar and its foreign operations.

Meenakshi was the founding CFO of many technology companies including Apigee (NASDAQ: APIC), Cortina Systems, (acquired by Inphi Corporation), Ankeena Networks (acquired by Juniper Networks) and StratumOne, acquired by Cisco Systems and where she was an executive in the Mergers & Acquisitions team.

Member; Principal, Reefknot Investments

Crystal is a Principal at Reefknot Investments, a Venture Capital fund focused on investing in Supply Chain and Logistics technology startups globally.

Crystal brings over 10 years of investing experience executing VC/PE, M&A, JV and Greenfield investments globally across diverse industry sectors, including transportation, logistics, financials and food/natural resources. She was formerly with the global M&A team at Louis Dreyfus Company with a focus on Asia and Middle East / Africa deals. Crystal was also previously with Momentum Ventures, the corporate venture arm of a leading transport operator, overseeing investments and facilitating the adoption of innovative technology and business models within the corporate.

Crystal also serves on the Singapore Venture & Private Capital Association (SVCA) VC Sub-committee.

Member; Director of HeartBeam lnc, Inc. (NASDAQ: BEAT)

George is a distinguished leader in the finance and business community in Silicon Valley and the broader United States, with over 35 years of experience. He has held pivotal roles such as COO, CFO, and CEO at renowned organizations, including Pluribus Networks, Marvell Technology, Chordiant Software, Remedy Corporation, and Aeroprise, Inc. He has navigated an impressive track record of IPOs, substantial M&A deals, and capital-raising ventures, amounting to over $½ billion.

Starting his career as a CPA in the big-four accounting industry followed by subsequent executive roles, George possesses extensive board experience, notably as Chair of the Audit Committees at Bridgelux, Inc., Vendavo, Inc., Saba Software, Inc., GCT Semi, Inc., Rainmaker Systems, Inc., and Montalvo Arts Center. George was also appointed a member of President George Bush’s National Information Technology Advisory Committee. Currently, he serves as a Director of HeartBeam, Inc., a publicly traded medical device company, where he chairs the Audit Committee and is a member of the Compensation Committee.

George’s career highlights include his tenure as CFO for Remedy Corporation, which was recognized as the “#1 Hot Growth Company” in America by Business Week. He has spoken at Forbes magazine’s annual CFO conference, authored multiple articles, and been featured in The Wall Street Journal’s “CFO Journal.” He has delivered guest lectures at prestigious institutions like the University of California at Berkeley, Cambridge University in the UK, and Baylor University.

George holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of California at Berkeley and a Bachelor of Science in Accounting/Business from the University of Southern California.

Managing Partner, Anchor Group

Dweep has over 10 years of experience advising or investing into companies across the growth cycle in Industrial IoT, financial services, energy and consumer sectors in US, Europe, and Asia.

He was previously Head of Venture Investments at Momenta Partners, where he led 7 industrial IoT investments. Previously he was Managing Director at Touchstone Ventures, a direct investment firm advising family offices on growth-stage investments, served as Director, Strategy and Business Development for Family Services at UBS Wealth Management, and led a UN financed market entry and financing program in Kenya.

A telecommunications engineer by training, he worked for over 6 years with Lucent and Hughes. He has worked in India, USA, Kenya, and China, and is currently based in Switzerland.

Observer; Director, Qualcomm Ventures

Deepak is a Senior Investment Manager at Qualcomm Ventures focusing on US investments. He is responsible for sourcing, deal execution and portfolio management. He brings 5+ years of investment experience across early to growth stage companies, combining his tech background with his passion for investing.

Before joining Qualcomm Ventures, Deepak was part of the founding team at the GPO Fund, NY based tech-focused investment firm, where he led several enterprise tech investments such as MapAnything (acquired by Salesforce). Prior to this role, he worked at Unilazer Ventures, investing in several successful consumer tech companies such as Lenskart. He has also worked at The Carlyle Group and Soros Fund Management as part of their investment team.

Deepak earned his MBA from Columbia Business School and a Bachelor of Technology in Computer Engineering from VJTI, Mumbai.

Vice President, Sales – EMEA & India

Nitesh Mandal is a logistics transformation leader with more than 15 years of experience driving supply-chain efficiency and digital innovation for global enterprises. At Decklar, he leads sales and account management, helping Global 2000 enterprises implement Decision AI in their supply chains.

Prior to joining Decklar, Nitesh held global leadership roles at Maersk, most recently as Head of Growth, Strategy & Solution Design. He had P&L responsibility for warehousing, logistics, and supply-chain optimization solutions across retail, CPG, technology, and chemical sectors.

Throughout his career, Nitesh has combined strategic leadership with deep domain expertise across transportation and warehousing in India and Europe, bringing a hands-on approach to supply chain transformation.

He holds a Master’s degree in Logistics and Supply Chain Management from Lancaster University, UK, along with CLTD and CSCP certifications from APICS. Outside of work, Nitesh is passionate about cricket and community-building, drawing leadership lessons from sport—teamwork, discipline, and adaptability—that guide his approach to business and people.

Chief Scientist, Vice President, IoT Research & Development 

Pankaj is an inventor with numerous patents across satellite communications, IoT, biomedical devices, and digital signal processing, with a track record of commercializing his inventions into real-world products. At Decklar, he is the Chief Scientist and Vice President of IoT Research and Development, responsible for leading new product innovations, solutions, and IP for a broad range of IoT applications. 

Before Decklar, Pankaj was Founder, Lead Researcher and Chief Technologist at IntelliSys. For more than thirty years, he has focused on developing key technology and IP, then taking it into the market as successful external ventures and partnerships. These included three security products companies sold to Ademco (a division of Honeywell). In addition to Ademco, other key technologies were developed/licensed to Fortune 500 companies like Panametrics (GE & Olympus), Emerging Market Communications (Global Eagle Entertainment) and Aware Inc. Pankaj worked at Panametrics in a variety of leadership and scientific capacities and was critical in making Panametrics #2 in the world. He was the Founder and CTO of Biometrics fingerprint security company that had an IPO. Recently, he was instrumental to two Silicon Valley start-ups, RiskVision and Aceurity, in developing their key technology, solutions, and teams. 

Pankaj holds Masters Electronics Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Massachusetts (USA), a Bachelors degree in Electrical Electronics from Sardar Patel University, India, and is GE Six Sigma for Software. Outside of work, he enjoys the outdoors and cars.

Vice President, Growth & Product Marketing

Premsai Sainathan (Prem) is an engineer-turned growth executive with 15+ years of entrepreneurial and market-building experience in high-tech. At Decklar, he leads the company’s global go-to-market (GTM) strategy, demand generation, and category expansion in Decision Intelligence—spanning brand and communications.

Prior to Decklar, Prem co-founded Skope Solutions, an IoT-enabled indoor positioning startup known for fully managed solution deployments in supply chain. Earlier in his career, he built mechanical components for the NSF-backed LIGO gravitational wave research program and delivered manufacturing supply chain improvements at Packaging Corporation of America (PCA).

A recognized speaker and published author, Prem has been featured in platforms including Supply Chain Digital, Supply Chain Brain, Modern Materials Handling, CII, BITS, and Global Logistics Show. Describing himself as a “functional marketer,” he excels at developing and executing GTM playbooks that build high performing demand engines and generate multi-million-dollar revenue within months of launching in new markets.

Prem holds a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Florida (USA) and a Bachelor’s from Anna University (India). Outside of work, he mentors founders and emerging leaders on a conscious leadership philosophy rooted in spirituality. He also enjoys practicing martial arts, music, and meditation.

Vice President, Emerging Technologies

Vidya Subramanian is a supply chain technology executive with 25+ years of experience innovating, building, and scaling enterprise platforms. At Decklar, he advances next-generation AI capabilities across the embedded, communications, data, and analytics layers to power the supply chains of the future.

Before Decklar, Vidya was co-founded KeyTone Technologies Inc., an RFID technology company focused on real-time asset monitoring in supply chains with a successful exit. He has held leadership roles at Plexus Technologies Inc., KPMG Consulting, Unisys, and PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC). He holds multiple patents across embedded data collection and signal enrichment, helping enterprises separate noise from actionable operational signals.

Known for cutting through complexity and guiding teams to practical solutions, Vidya is a trusted advisor to customers—bringing clarity, rigor, and creative problem-solving. His incisive and practical perspectives on supply chain transformation have been featured in prominent outlets such as Supply Chain Brain, CSCMP, and ABC News. He was featured among the “Supply Chain Pros to Know” by Supply & Demand Chain Executive.

Vidya holds a Master’s degree in Computer Science from Temple University, USA and dual Bachelor’s degrees in Computer Science and Economics from Calvin College (Michigan), USA. Outside of work, he enjoys golf and has a passion for cooking.

Vice President, Engineering

Shailesh Mangal is a hands-on technology leader with 20+ years of experience designing and scaling enterprise applications and intelligent platforms. At Decklar, he leads the architecture and engineering of the company’s Real-Time Decision AI platform—architecting systems that convert data into reliable, actionable decisions while maintaining performance, scalability, and trust.

Before Decklar, as CTO / VP Engineering at Zephyr (SaaS Quality Management Platform, acquired by SmartBear), he built disciplined, high-output engineering orgs from the ground up—implementing SLOs, CI/CD pipelines, reliability guardrails, and first-principles systems design that drove efficient delivery and a successful exit.

He designs AI-native enterprise systems from first principles: layered, event-driven architectures that integrate real-time streaming ingestion of heterogeneous IoT and telemetry signals, and long-horizon, self-enriching contextual data lakes accumulated from more than 10 years of visibility transactions. These systems include adaptive, multi-modal inference pipelines that enable sub-second autonomous decision orchestration at petabyte scale.

Shailesh holds a Master of Science in Information Technology from the University of Texas, (USA) and a Bachelor of Engineering from MNIT, Jaipur (India). Outside of work, he’s an avid runner and hiker who enjoys exploring new trails, great food, and building things that endure.

Vice President, Finance

Jigna Yagnik is a growth-focused finance leader with 20+ years of experience building strong financial systems for scale-ups. At Decklar, she leads data-driven planning, operational rigor, and governance—building the financial foundation for the company’s AI-driven expansion.

Prior to Decklar, Jigna built the finance and audit practice at Booz & Co, led its M&A, and post-merger integration with PwC. From automating operating metrics and forecasting to driving capital efficiency, she ensured finance acts as a lever for acceleration—not just control. Her strategic initiatives have included expansion in new markets, capital raising, and investor relations.

Throughout her career, Jigna has partnered closely with leadership teams—translating financial strategy into actionable operating plans that drive sustainable growth across geographies and verticals.

She is a CFA, CA and has an MBA in Finance and Strategy from the Indian School of Business (Hyderabad). Outside of work, Jigna mentors finance professionals on moving beyond theoretical models to adaptive, insights-driven finance functions that scale with the business.

General Counsel

With extensive experience providing legal and business guidance to technology, cloud, software and service companies in outside and in-house positions, Frank I. Hoppe serves as Decklar’s General Counsel. He is responsible for all aspects of Decklar’s expanding global legal endeavors. Before Decklar, Frank served as Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Kaseya; President and founding member of Hoppe General Counsel Services; Vice President and Assistant General Counsel at West Corporation, and Vice President of Corporate Development at uRoam, Inc. which was acquired by F5 Networks, Inc. He also previously worked as associate counsel at the law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich and Rosati, and the law firm Krieg, Keller, Sloan, Reilley & Roman. 

In addition to his J.D. from UC Berkeley Boalt Hall School of Law, he received his B.A., with distinction, as an Echols Scholar from the University of Virginia where he served as Chairman of the University’s student-run Judiciary Committee. 

Vice President, Operations

Pratik Soni is a global operations and supply-chain executive with 20+ years of experience leading SaaS scale-ups and building technology-driven systems for global enterprises. At Decklar, he is responsible for worldwide operations, vendor management, and customer delivery.

Prior to joining Decklar, Pratik was founder & CEO of Omnichain Solutions, a venture-backed SaaS company focused on mid-market supply chain management platforms. Earlier, he held leadership roles at Apple, Beats by Dre, I.am.+, and 20th Century Fox, where he drove large-scale operations, supply-chain transformation, and global hardware and distribution strategy.

A recognized thought leader in operations and supply-chain innovation, Pratik has authored more than fifty published articles across leading publications such as FreightWaves and Supply & Demand Chain Executive. He also serves as Chair of the Location Data Standards Group at BITA (FreightWaves), which published the industry’s first interoperability protocol for blockchain-based supply-chain networks.

Pratik holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Information Systems and Global Supply Chain and Operations, along with advanced certifications in Lean Six Sigma, CSCP, and CPIM. Outside of work, he is passionate about motorsports and enjoys exploring the outdoors with family.

Vice President, Sales—Americas

Dave Ferretti is an enterprise technology sales leader with 25+ years of experience helping Global 2000 companies adopt and scale disruptive technologies. At Decklar, he leads sales and account management.

Dave began his career at Xerox and later built and led sales organizations for five startups that were later acquired. These include TidalScale, (acquired by Hewlett Packard Enterprise), Diablo Technologies (acquired by Rambus), and Skyera (acquired by Western Digital). Prior to sales, he worked in software and systems engineering across satellite communications and medical imaging, gaining deep experience in end-to-end hardware and software integration.

Throughout his career, Dave has helped tech startups commercialize breakthrough technology into proven enterprise value. His consultative approach and technical fluency help enterprises translate innovation into measurable business outcomes.

He holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Information Systems and Business Administration from the University of Colorado, Boulder (USA). Outside of work, Dave is a certified professional ski instructor. Coaching and mentoring leaders from diverse professions reinforces his belief in confidence, precision, and continuous learning as the foundations of leadership.

Chairman & Chief Executive Officer

Sanjay Sharma is a seasoned technology entrepreneur with more than 25 years of experience building and scaling deep-tech B2B companies from ground up. As CEO of Decklar, he leads the company’s vision, worldwide business growth, increasing its value, and advancing a new era in supply chain Decision Intelligence.

Prior to Decklar, he co-founded and led KeyTone Technologies and Plexus Technologies—both with successful exits. He’s worked in multiple technology roles at NASA, EMC, and Schlumberger. Sanjay holds many patents and has published papers in journals like IEEE, ISCA, and South Dakota Academy of Science.

Sanjay is a familiar voice at prestigious global platforms including Mobile World Congress, TiE, Global Digital Forum, LogiPharma, Red Hat Summit, International Smart Logistics & Supply Chain Conference, and DHL IoT Day. His leadership style centers on continuously retooling and upskilling teams—both internally and across customer organizations—to keep pace with fast-changing technology landscapes.

Sanjay holds a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from South Dakota State University (USA) and a Bachelor’s from the University of Mumbai (India). Outside of work, he coaches cricket and mentors young professionals, reflecting a leadership style built on long-term thinking and collective growth.