Automotive software company with a mission to accelerate automotive innovation

Born and raised in Houston, Texas, Jeff has had a distinguished career in Silicon Valley leading innovation teams at multiple startups that went on to be recognized and acquired by Cisco, Brocade, and others. His efforts resulted in the creation of products and solutions that were central in driving various transformations in the IT data center. He has pioneered new technologies as an engineer and as a co-founding CEO. Having been in the middle of disruption in finance, media, and cloud industries, Jeff identified the digital transformation of the automotive industry. The key to unlocking the digital automobile is in advanced infrastructure based on the modern software-defined data center itself. In 2018, Jeff and Yu Fang co-founded Sonatus with the vision to simplify and accelerate the digital transformation of the automobile.

Jeff earned his BSEE in Computer Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and his MSEE in Computer Engineering from Stanford.

A seasoned entrepreneur, technologist, and executive, Yu brings over 20 years of experience leading high-performance teams and building cutting-edge technologies and products for the data center, eCommerce, and automotive markets. Before founding Sonatus, as Head of Mobile Engineering, Yu led a team that built AI-based software on mobile platforms to improve the driving safety of commercial fleets. Before that, as SVP of Engineering at Tanjarine and CTO at Cardfree, Yu led the development of a mobile and cloud-based eCommerce platform serving tens of thousands of stores and tens of millions of customers. Previously at Nuova (acquired by Cisco) and Sanera (acquired by Brocade), Yu led the development of multiple innovative, high-performance, highly scalable, and robust server, storage, and networking systems. Earlier, Yu was a lead designer of multiple modules in one of the industry’s first multi-core microprocessors at Sun Microsystems.

Yu holds a BS in Applied Physics from Tsinghua University, an MS in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Rochester, and an MBA from Haas School of Business, University of California Berkeley.

An experienced technology and marketing leader, John brings his background from startups and established companies to Sonatus. He worked for 14 years at Arm, most recently leading Automotive Partnerships for North America where he engaged OEMs, Tier-1s, and others to deploy Arm-based solutions into automotive applications, including autonomous vehicles. His team was integral to launching the SOAFEE industry initiative for software-defined vehicles of which Sonatus is a member. Earlier he served as VP and Chief of Staff to the CEO and led a group responsible for competitive strategy. For three years, he was VP of Corporate Marketing where he led centralized outbound marketing, spanning marketing campaigns, press, events, web, digital marketing, ecosystem programs, and working closely with investor relations. Prior to Arm, John had an 11-year tenure at microprocessor startup Transmeta where he held several senior roles spanning business development, marketing, and customer success, among others.

John earned his B.S. in Computer Engineering from Carnegie-Mellon University and an M.S. and Ph.D., both in Electrical Engineering, from Stanford University.

Mahesh Karanth brings over 30 years of financial expertise to Sonatus, having held leadership roles in both multinational public and private companies. He has a distinguished track record in financial leadership, particularly in IPOs, M&A, fundraising, investor relations, business planning, and compliance.

At Sonatus, Mahesh oversees the Finance, Legal, and Human Resources teams. Before joining Sonatus, Mahesh served as CFO of Rockley Photonics, where he successfully took the company public in 2021. His extensive experience includes senior leadership positions at Achronix, Enlighted, InvenSense, Telsima, Hewlett Packard, and Compaq. He also served as a partner at Ernst & Young.

Mahesh holds both bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Bangalore University and is a certified public accountant (CPA), chartered accountant (FCA), and company secretary (ACS).

Marco has over 25 years of experience as an engineering executive of many leading technology companies. Prior to Sonatus, Marco was the Chief Architect, VP of Engineering and Operations at Join Digital, with responsibility for the Network-as-a-Service and their core data pipeline. He was SVP/CTO at Riverbed, where he drove the technology vision for the company including establishing a SaaS focus for all future products. Previously he was also co-founder, CTO, and VP of Engineering at Embrane, later acquired by Cisco, which improved efficiency in delivering infrastructure services in virtualized environments.

Marco earned his M.S. degree in Computer Engineering from the Politecnico di Torino, in Turin, Italy.

Wallie joined Sonatus in October 2019 with a wealth of experience in go-to-market strategy, technical sales management, and pre-sales engineering acquired during his successful tenures with 3PAR/HP, F5 Networks, and Diamanti. Over his career across diverse technology categories, he has achieved an exceptional track record of building successful teams of account executives, sales engineers, and solutions architects. Wallie is adept at supporting sales teams to navigate complex organizations, develop targeted strategies, close deals, and acquire new clients. At Sonatus, Wallie is charged with managing front-line customer engagements to build advocacy for our software-defined vehicle solutions and expand our leading OEM customer base.

Wallie earned a BA in Physics from Colby College and an MS in Financial Engineering from Polytechnic University.

A seasoned and top-producing Silicon Valley sales leader in several technology categories, Kathleen joined Sonatus in December 2019 to head Business Development strategy and execution. She leverages her exceptional successes in market expansion, new account development, business retention, and growth strategies with several leading technology companies, SanDisk and Texas Instruments among them, to strategically expand Sonatus’ network of distinguished technology partners. In 2021, Kathleen was honored by the Silicon Valley Business Journal with its Women of Influence award for her outstanding professional and personal accomplishments and contributions.

Kathleen earned a BS in Commerce and Marketing from Santa Clara University.

Alison joined Sonatus in June 2019 with a wealth of experience in senior engineering management. She began her career building and leading development test teams, and expanded on this foundation to become exceptionally adept at managing and finding solutions for complex, high visibility customer-facing issues at Cisco and, most recently, Ciena. Alison’s laudable track record of successful releases over her career is supported by her expertise in engineering process, project management, quality metrics, product life cycle management, and budget planning. At Sonatus, she applies all these skills and more while wearing many hats to ensure that our commitment to a nimble and customer-focused partnership experience holds strong.

Alison earned a BS in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University.

Ksenia is an experienced HR leader with a deep expertise in AI and a proven track record across multiple industries, including tech, media, finance, and consulting. She has worked with both public and private organizations, as well as VC-backed companies. She most recently served as Head of People and Operations at kea.ai (Palo Alto) and Head of People at Chatfuel (San Francisco), both pioneers in the AI sector. Previously, Ksenia held senior HR roles at Mindshare, a global media services company, and Beagle, a recruitment firm.

She holds a Master’s in Linguistics from Volgograd State Pedagogical University.