Management Team

G.L.Pradeep
G.L.Pradeep
Co-founder and Managing Director

Pradeep Grama was instrumental in setting up SPAN in 1993 and nurturing it single-handedly. He brings to the table over 32 years of experience in the IT industry including transnational experience that spans the U.S., Europe and Australia.

Pradeep completed his Masters Degree in Communication Engineering with distinction in 1976 from one of the top universities in the world, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India.

Pradeep believes that SPAN effectively bridges the critical gap in the supply of quality services in the global software market by setting ever higher standards of excellence for itself and constantly enhancing the effectiveness of its services.

Before starting SPAN, Pradeep was with UBICS the software division of the prestigious United Breweries Group. He was instrumental in setting up UBICS software export operation. Prior to that, he was with PSI Data Systems as their Marketing Services Manager, TCS and in the Switching R&D group of a government-run telephone manufacturing company.

Prakash Grama
Prakash Grama
Co-founder and CEO

Prakash Grama has been providing direction and vision to SPAN since co-founding it in 1993. SPAN is a full services IT company servicing Fortune customers and Software vendors in the U.S., Scandinavia and India. It has been ranked among the Top 20 Best IT Places to Work For in India 2 years in a row and among the Top 20 Global R&D Service Providers in India. He was instrumental in selling a majority stake of SPAN to EVRY (formerly EDB ErgoGroup), the largest IT services company in Scandinavia. Prakash has also mentored and angel invested in a couple of startups in India that have subsequently received VC funding.

Prior to SPAN, Prakash worked at Harris Bank, Chicago. Prior to that, Prakash worked at Tata Burroughs and BHEL in India.

Prakash has been profiled on CNBC, Washington Post, Zee Business and Radio City and interviewed for articles in Wall Street Journal, Mint and other media. Prakash is now a Charter Member at TiE Southern California. He has been a past President of the Returned NRI (RNRI) Association.

Prakash has over 25 years of IT experience with 20 years in the U.S. market. He has a MBA from the IIM Calcutta and a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Bangalore.

Pramod Grama
Pramod Grama
Co-founder and Executive Vice President, Engineering

Pramod Grama is the prime technical driver behind the reliable software process at SPAN. He drives all the offshore projects that are executed in India for its American and European customers. Pramod has over 22 years of extensive experience in the IT industry including international experience in Europe.

After his degree in Engineering from IIT Chennai, one of the top schools in India, in 1984, Pramod did his MBA from the elite Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad that was started in collaboration with the Harvard Business School, U.S.A.

Prior to joining SPAN, Pramod worked in large I.T companies such as Wipro and Tata Consultancy Services(TCS) in the Banking and Financial Services domain.

Pramod has been working as the delivery head of SPAN's development center, right from its inception. He has been instrumental in building SPAN's delivery team and evolving SPAN's quality process built on a strong foundation of ISO 9001:2008, ISO/IEC 27001:2005 and CMMI standards and processes. Pramod's strength lies in bringing together and building high performance teams. He directs the technical decisions, and monitors projects from proposal/feasibility to post-implementation. He also works in close communication with SPAN's customers and manages client relationship in accordance with SPAN's Relationship Management (RM) model.

Naganand
Naganand Doraswamy
Executive Vice President and
Co-Founder

Naganand Doraswamy has extensive experience in management and technology. He is a proven entrepreneur and is well networked in the community. He has over 21 years of experience in the industry and has held several leadership roles. He has participated actively in many standard bodies and has been an invited speaker in various panels and conferences such as Network+Interop. He is also an Angel Investor and has invested in 7 very early stage start-ups in various segments.

At SPAN (www.spansystems.com) as a Co-Founder and EVP, Naganand is actively contributing to engineering in R&D and development as well as operations including HR, IT, and operations. In addition co-managing the engineering team, he is also focused on building a business unit in the area on data and wireless networking. He is also actively contributing to the strategy and growth of the company.

Prior to joining SPAN, Naganand was co-founder of Lexar Networks, MA, USA working on an idea of cellular and Wi-Fi convergence. Prior to that, he was the Director of Software at PhotonEx Corporation, MA, USA where he built carrier class software for long haul transmission systems. He was one of the first hire into the company that raised over $160 million in funding.

Prior to PhotonEx, he was a Consulting Engineer at Nortel Networks in Billerica, MA. He was one of the architects and a technical lead for Nortel’s core router. Prior to that, he worked on next generation network architectures and protocol in Bay Networks Architecture Labs and made significant contributions to various products at Bay Networks. Prior to joining Bay Networks, as an architect and technical lead for TCP/IP stack and IP Security at FTP Software, Inc. he and developed the industry’s first client IP Security solution.

Naganand is a published author. He co-authored a book on IPSecurity titled “IPSec: The new security standard for the Internet, Intranets, and Virtual Private Networks,” published by Prentice Hall. As an active participant in IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) he chaired several “Birds Of a Feather” forums (BOF’s) and working groups. He has been awarded 2 patents and 6 patents are pending in the area of networking and security. He has 11 technical publications published in journals and conferences, has given numerous workshops at the Networld+Interop, and has been on various technical panels.

Naganand is the presently the president of TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) Bangalore chapter. He is an active angel investor and a member of Indian Angel Network with angel investment in 8 companies. Naganand served on the boards of SPAN Infotech India, Aylus Networks India Pvt Ltd (www.aylus.com) and Basil India (www.basilcom.biz) and in presently on the board of ScienceAdda (www.scienceadda.com).

Naganand has a M.S. in Computer Science from Virginia Polytechnic and State University. He got his B.S. in Computer Science from Bangalore University, India.

Naveen Bannur
Naveen Bannur
Sr. Vice President, Presales and Marketing

Naveen has about 20 years of Sales, Corporate, Marketing and Product Management experience that he uses to steer SPAN in business development. Naveen is working to drive SPAN in retaining and fostering its corporate identity and is also responsible for new product/service offerings from SPAN. Naveen is responsible for identifying new markets and segments that can benefit from SPAN's strengths.

Prior to SPAN, Naveen served in various roles for over 9 years with SONATA Software including Direct Sales, Product Management and International Sales. Prior to that Naveen was with Datapro Information Technology, managing key accounts. Naveen brings several years of International experience working in USA and European Markets. He has spent significant time helping clients realize the benefits of outsourcing.

Naveen has a Masters in Management Studies from Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani.

Rajnish Mohan
Rajnish Mohan
Sr. Vice President and Center Director, SPAN Chandigarh

Rajnish Mohan (Raj) is Sr. Vice President and Center Director at SPAN Chandigarh. Raj has over 20 years of experience in IT Delivery, Operations and Sales and Client Relationship Management. His experience spans both the technical and business sides of the industry. Prior to this Raj was with TCS for over 17 years and had held various roles, including Sales, Large Account Management and Strategy & Planning. Raj brings in over a decade of working experience in the US, UK and European Markets.

Raj has a Bachelor’s degree in Technology from IIT Kanpur. He lives in Chandigarh with his wife and two sons. His hobbies include reading books, following global markets, following and analyzing cricket.

Jawahar Ramanathan
Jawahar Ramanathan
CFO

Jawahar Ramanathan alias Ram brings about 20 plus years of experience with him in the fields of corporate finance and accounts, budgeting, reporting, taxation, auditing, legal compliance, SOX, fund management, MIS, ERP and system implementations.

In addition to the entire gamut of finance, accounts, audits and taxation functions Ram is taking care of reporting, consolidation and merger aspects of SPAN operations.

Ram is a Fellow member of Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and Post graduate in Financial Management. He has overseas and indigenous experience in controlling and enhancing financial processes and reviewing financial data for facilitating strategic financial growth of organizations.

During his carrier Ram has got demonstrated excellence in implementing ERP applications like SAP and in handling IFRS and XBRL. Also experienced in handling a wide spectrum of activities in Treasury, direct and indirect taxation, STPI and SEZ.

Ram is an active participant of various seminars and other programmes initiated by Institute of Chartered Accountants of India [ICAI] and actively participating in academics as measure of continuous learning. He also worked as a visiting faculty and Board of Studies member to some of the reputed management institutes and colleges.

Before SPAN Ram was with Siemens as AGM.


Mission

  • We at SPAN will endeavor to deliver greater value by being innovative, following optimal processes and focusing on continual improvement in our execution