Board of Directors

Vishwakumara Kayargadde, Ph.D.

Vishwa is an active technology entrepreneur with over 20 years of industry and research experience. He is one of the co-founders of Saankhya Labs and as CEO he drives the overall company strategy on products, financing, marketing and execution.

Prior to Saankhya he co-founded Smart Yantra technologies in 2001, a high technology product start-up; one of India’s first video streaming IP companies. Smart Yantra was acquired by Genesis Microchip in 2004.

His experience includes product strategy, execution, financing and technology research and development. He has been responsible for building and sustaining highly motivated technology teams at Saankhya and Smart Yantra. Under his leadership, Smart Yantra acquired several international clients. Post acquisition, at Genesis, he built the technology team at Bangalore, reporting to the CTO, where he was responsible for the delivery several key IPs. Prior to founding Smart Yantra, he was at Philips Consumer Electronics where he contributed to the system and software architecture for a new range of analog and digital TVs. Prior to this, his research at Philips Research Labs resulted in the development of computational models for estimation of image quality.

Vishwa was awarded Ph. D. from Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands, for his contribution on computational models for image quality prediction, in 1995. He obtained M.E in ECE from Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore in 1989. Vishwa has co-authored several publications in leading international journals.

Parag Naik

Parag is a serial entrepreneur with over 18 years of industry experience, out of which 9 years have been in high technology startups. At Saankhya he is the CTO and one of key contributors to the Saankhya SDR concept architecture. He drives the overall technology and strategic roadmaps of the company and is directly responsible for the Wireless DSP, DSP firmware, DSP tool and Systems groups. He is also responsible for Product Marketing and Business Development. He is one of the co-founders of the company and is a member of the Board of Directors.

Prior to Saankhya he co-founded Smart Yantra technologies one of India’s first Video IP streaming companies in 2001 and Vayavya Labs India’s first Electronic Design Automation Company in 2006. Both companies are high technology product companies. Smart Yantra was acquired by Genesis Microchip in 2004.

His work experience includes product conception and development, system/software architecture, building and binding strong technical teams and product marketing. He has built strongly motivated technology teams in Saankhya, Vayavya and Smart Yantra .At Vayavya, he is one of key contributors in the definition of a patented Device Driver generator product. This product is first of its kind in the industry and the company’s flagship product. He is currently a member of the Board of Directors and advises Vayavya on technology aspects.

At Smart Yantra he was the CTO and was responsible for the overall technology and product roadmap of the company. He conceived and architected the world’s first Video over Wi-Fi system solution that won several awards. Post acquisition in Genesis ( 2004-2006), he built the DTV demodulation technology team at Bangalore, as part of the CTO office. At Ishoni Networks a Telecom Networking startup he was one of the early members and one of the key architects of the world’s first Gateway on Chip solution. At Philips Research and Consumer Electronics he was instrumental in defining software and system architectures for a range of Analog and Digital TV ICs. He was also one of the founding members of Philips India Design Centre in 1995. From 1992 to 1995 Parag worked as a private contractor to a reputed Indian Defence Organization. Here he designed and developed embedded hardware and software for the indigenous Light Combat Aircraft project. He has 9 (3 issued, 6 pending) US and India patents in the areas of CPU/SDR architecture, Digital Communications, Signal Processing and Hardware-Software Co-design/ Code generators.

He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Engineering from Karnatak University, India.

John Derrick

John Derrick is an industry veteran with vast experience in the high-technology businesses. Mr. Derrick has served public companies as COO, President (MIPS Technologies), executive VP/GM (Parthus Technologies), and divisional GM (Intel). He also led several private companies, Chicory Systems and Conformative systems, to accretive exits. He currently serves on the Board of Saankhya Labs, Ltd., advises multiple investment firms, and advisory roles for other companies through http://www.manage-for-growth.com. His expertise includes communication, rapid business growth, strategic business planning and execution, high-level customer relationship management, and operational excellence.

Hemant Mallapur, Observer

Hemant has over 18 years of industry experience in IC product development and engineering management. He was one of the early members of Sage Inc which went public in 1999 and was later acquired by Genesis Microchip. At Sage, he led the development of company's commercially successful Video Processing chips for Digital TV's & LCD monitors, including the award winning FLI2300. As head of DTV VLSI group at Genesis, he managed the development of the company's first HDTV SoC. Earlier he worked at Synopsys Inc in methodology development and in the consulting group. Prior to that at Paxonet Inc he worked on ICs for PC and Graphics. He was nominated for the EDN ASIA Innovator Award in 2000. He has filed for 2 US patents and co-authored 3 papers in international conferences.

Venkatesh K Patil, Observer

Venkatesh K. Patil is a leading industrialist of North Karnataka region of India. He is the Managing Director of Karnataka Industrial Gases Pvt. Ltd. and Group of companies, who are the major producers of Industrial gases, Medical gases and Gas Mixtures. His industries span across the states of Karnataka and Maharashtra. He is a Managing Committee Member of the prestigious All India Industrial Gases Manufactures Association (AIIGMA).

He has diversified business interests in technology companies. He is a reputed angel investor, having backed technology companies based out of North Karnataka. At Saankhya as a member of the Board he actively advises the Management Team in general management and administration matters. Prior to Saankhya he was a member of the Board at Smart Yantra. He also founded Kernel Technology - an embedded software company