Leadership Team
Srinivasa Kakumanu, Managing Director & CEO
Mr. Srinivasa Kakumanu, commonly known as “KS,” possesses an extensive professional background spanning over 28 years within the Semiconductor industry. His notable accomplishments include the co-founding of First Pass Semiconductors Pvt Ltd, a prominent VLSI design services organization established in December 2010. Throughout his illustrious career, KS has played a key role in leading numerous ASIC tape-outs across the Communication, Networking, Consumer, and Computing sectors.
Under KS’s leadership, First Pass experienced significant growth, evolving into a thriving organization boasting more than 210 employees by FY18. This remarkable journey culminated in the acquisition of First Pass by MosChip in July 2018, all while maintaining a profitable trajectory since inception. Following the acquisition, KS assumed the role of heading the Semiconductor Business Unit at MosChip, steering it to remarkable heights.
Before his tenure at First Pass, KS held the position of General Manager for the VLSI group at Cyient (formerly known as Infotech Enterprises) in India. His career also includes stints with notable organizations such as TTM Inc. in San Jose, US; TTM India (acquired by Infotech in September 2008) Pvt Ltd in Hyderabad, India; Ikanos Communications in Fremont, US; QualCore Logic Ltd in India, and HAL in Hyderabad, among others.
KS maintains his commitment to professional education by actively teaching Digital Design and Physical Design at MosChip Institute of Silicon Systems Pvt Ltd, a training institute he co-founded, which was subsequently acquired by MosChip in July 2018. His international experience includes a seven-year tenure in the United States between 2000 and 2007, where he contributed to TTM Inc. and Ikanos Communications
He holds a B.E degree in E.C.E from the University College of Engineering, Osmania University, Hyderabad, India.
Under KS’s leadership, First Pass experienced significant growth, evolving into a thriving organization boasting more than 210 employees by FY18. This remarkable journey culminated in the acquisition of First Pass by MosChip in July 2018, all while maintaining a profitable trajectory since inception. Following the acquisition, KS assumed the role of heading the Semiconductor Business Unit at MosChip, steering it to remarkable heights.
Before his tenure at First Pass, KS held the position of General Manager for the VLSI group at Cyient (formerly known as Infotech Enterprises) in India. His career also includes stints with notable organizations such as TTM Inc. in San Jose, US; TTM India (acquired by Infotech in September 2008) Pvt Ltd in Hyderabad, India; Ikanos Communications in Fremont, US; QualCore Logic Ltd in India, and HAL in Hyderabad, among others.
KS maintains his commitment to professional education by actively teaching Digital Design and Physical Design at MosChip Institute of Silicon Systems Pvt Ltd, a training institute he co-founded, which was subsequently acquired by MosChip in July 2018. His international experience includes a seven-year tenure in the United States between 2000 and 2007, where he contributed to TTM Inc. and Ikanos Communications
He holds a B.E degree in E.C.E from the University College of Engineering, Osmania University, Hyderabad, India.
Jayaram Susarla, Chief Financial Officer
Mr. Jayaram Susarla is a chartered accountant with around 20+ years of experience in operations, M&A, Budgeting, Strategy, Digital transformation, banking & finance, treasury, Taxation and investor relations, etc.
Currently handling Accounts & Finance l Legal l Administration l Business integration Functions at Moschip Technologies, he plays a key role in designing and implementing Strategy along with senior leadership.
Worked in a senior leadership role in Star India Private Limited, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of 21st Disney, DQ Entertainment (International) Limited. He is also currently perusing an MBA Strategy at the Indian School of Business (ISB) – Batch of 2022.
Currently handling Accounts & Finance l Legal l Administration l Business integration Functions at Moschip Technologies, he plays a key role in designing and implementing Strategy along with senior leadership.
Worked in a senior leadership role in Star India Private Limited, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of 21st Disney, DQ Entertainment (International) Limited. He is also currently perusing an MBA Strategy at the Indian School of Business (ISB) – Batch of 2022.
Rajesh Shah, EVP - Business Development
Rajesh Shah is a serial entrepreneur with more than 30 years of experience in engineering and business development of semiconductors and systems. His strength lies in identifying and unlocking the optimal value for customers in technology products and services.
Prior to Softnautics, Rajesh Shah started Sibridge Technologies, an IP company which was a pioneer in System Verilog based Multi-Methodology capable VIP, which was acquired by large EDA Company. During the same time, Rajesh as CEO had successfully turned-around Strix Systems, a Wireless Mesh company.
Rajesh started his career as an UltraSPARC design engineer at Sun before leading an ASIC at PipeLinks (acquired by Cisco). In 1999, Rajesh joined as a founding employee of Photuris (acquired by Meriton Networks Inc.). After Photuris, Rajesh founded and managed as CEO, Networking ASIC company, Xpedite Communication (successfully acquired by Multilink Technologies, now part of Micro Semi). In 2003, Rajesh joined as founding employee and had managed the IP and System Solutions group for Open-Silicon, one of the fastest growing fabless ASIC companies in the industry.
Rajesh is an active Angel investor and serves as a board member for multiple companies. He is a graduate from University of Texas Austin alumni with a Masters in Electrical Engineering.
Amit Vashi, Senior Vice President
Amit Vashi is an executive with over 30 years of experience in engineering and product management within the semiconductor industry. Amit is a decisive and pragmatic executive known for achieving profitable revenue growth.
Prior to Softnautics, Amit was a Vice President of Marketing at QLogic, a Cavium company. At QLogic, Amit played a key role in increasing the company’s revenue by completing 3 major acquisitions. Amit earned the CEO award for integral contributions to QLogic’s acquisition of strategic Ethernet assets from Broadcom. Under Amit’s leadership, the company’s Fibre Channel HBA revenue share grew from 15% to 57%. Amit played a key role in the company’s success by implementing the right product/pricing strategies and applying focused product marketing efforts. Under Amit’s leadership, the company’s 10GbE server ethernet controller/adapter revenue share grew from 0 to 18%. Amit managed a high organizational efficiency and grew product management and marketing organization from 5 to 60 employees.
Amit started his career as an ASIC Design engineer at NCR and continued the same at HP. After HP, Amit worked at Symbios as well as LSI in a pre-sales organization. In 2001, Amit joined QLogic as a Field Application Engineer. Since then, Amit held several responsibilities namely product management, product marketing, program management as well as strategic planning.
Amit holds a Master Degree in Electrical Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology, USA.
Vishal Patil, Senior VP - Product Engineering
Vishal Patil has more than 20 years of experience in Product Engineering Services with expertise cutting across multiple industry verticals and working on a wide gamut of technologies including Embedded systems, IoT, Cloud computing, Software engineering, and Machine Learning.
Prior to Softnautics, Vishal worked as an Associate Director at eInfochips and responsible for the strategy and roadmap of IoT and AI/ML offerings from Sensors to Cloud for various vertical including Home Automation, Industrial Automation, and Telecom. He helped customers and partners in defining the digital strategy and developing digital transformation roadmaps for the enterprise. He also conceptualization and created Go-to-market strategy plan for new service offerings in IoT/AI/ML technologies.
Vishal started his career as an Embedded Software Developer for Industrial Automation Software development and later took responsibilities that involved Architecting and designing Solutions on verticals including Connected Car, Connected Medical and Home Automation, etc. He has an excellent and consistent track record of repeatedly building global new strategies and teams from scratch and managing the delivery.
He is an Engineering graduate from Pune University and holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from Symbiosis International University.