Executive team

Sequans' management team has expertise in nearly every technical discipline relevant to the development of WiMAX technology, and the founding team has years of experience working together developing other advanced technologies.

	Dr. Georges Karam President and chief executive officer Before founding Sequans Communications, Georges Karam was vice president of cable access for Juniper Networks, running the cable engineering and marketing departments and managing the cable sales launch in EMEA. He joined Juniper Networks when the company acquired Pacific Broadband Communications (PBC), where he was vice president of engineering and general manager for Europe. At PBC he was the first key executive to join the company and was instrumental to success. Georges has served in a variety of senior management positions at Alcatel, SAGEM and Philips. He is a senior member of IEEE, has authored numerous technical and scientific papers, and holds several patents in digital communications.
	Bertrand Debray Vice president, engineering Before joining Sequans, Bertrand Debray was director of hardware and ASIC development in the cable product division at Juniper Networks. He joined Juniper Networks after the company acquired Pacific Broadband Communications, where he played the same role and was instrumental in building the cable product and team. Bertrand has held technical and management positions at Alcatel. He has 15 years’ experience in large project development covering all access technologies, including wireless, satellite, and cable.
	Ashok Dhuna Vice president, RF engineering Ashok Dhuna was CTO and the founder of Synad, a start-up acquired by ST Microelectronics in 2003. Ashok has more than 16 years of experience in managing and building design teams to deliver complex RF, analog, and mixed chips within the wireless data communications industry. More recently, as CTO of Synad, he successfully built a multi-disciplinary design team to develop a triple-mode 802.11a/b/g wireless LAN chipset in CMOS technology. Prior to Synad, Ashok held a variety of technical management positions at Hitachi, Rockwell Semiconductors, and Racal Research.
	Bernard Aboussouan Vice president, marketing and business development Prior to joining Sequans Communications, Bernard Aboussouan was vice president of marketing and business development for BeamReach Networks, a developer of broadband wireless access systems based on OFDMA and adaptive antenna systems. Bernard joined BeamReach Networks from Harris Corporation, where he was executive director for the broadband wireless access business unit and director of product management for the Microwave Communications Division. Bernard started his career at Nortel Networks where he held senior technical and marketing positions in access and enterprise networks.
	Michael Class Vice president, sales Michael Class has over 21 years of experience in the semiconductor industry, most recently with Exar where he led the sales team as vice president of worldwide sales. Prior to Exar, Michael was a sales executive at IC Works, Inc. and area sales manager for the Western U.S. and Canada. Earlier in his career, he held sales management positions at Intel Corporation and VLSI.
	Deborah Choate Chief financial officer Deborah Choate joined Sequans in 2007, before which she was chief financial officer at Esmertec AG and Wavecom SA and vice president of finance at Platinum Equity. Earlier in her career, she was an audit partner with Ernst & Young. Deborah has 23 years of experience in management, finance and accounting, including over 10 years working with technology companies, in particular communications hardware, software, and services.
	Eddy Tang Vice president, manufacturing operations Before joining Sequans, Eddy Tang was with STATSChipPAC Ltd, a NASDAQ and SGX (Singapore Exchange) listed provider of outsource assembly and test services, where he was senior manager in the company’s corporate strategy organization. He was responsible for assessing the future needs of the outsourcing industry and making strategic recommendations to upper management. Before STATSChipPAC, Eddy held various management positions at Singapore Technologies Assembly and Test Services, including as director of marketing in outsource assembly and test services. He started his career in 1982 as a sales engineer at Jebson Company, Siemens Division in Hong Kong. In 1984, he joined Fairchild Semiconductor’s manufacturing operations in Singapore. He brings with him more than 20 years of experience in the semiconductor industry.
	Dr. Hikmet Sari Chief scientist Hikmet Sari is a world-renowned expert in digital communications. He has published over 170 journal and conference papers, holds over 20 patents, and has been a guest speaker at events in Europe, North America, the Asia Pacific region, and Latin America. He is an IEEE Fellow and a distinguished lecturer of the IEEE Communications Society and has received the André Blondel Medal and the prestigious Edwin H. Armstrong Award. He has been the editor of several international journals and was technical program chair of the 2004 IEEE International Conference on Communications. Prior to joining Sequans, Hikmet held scientific and key management positions at Philips, SAGEM, Alcatel, Pacific Broadband Communications, and Juniper Networks. He is a professor and head of the Telecommunications Department at SUPELEC in France.