Leadership
KEVIN KEEFE
Advisory Board Member
Grain Management is a Private Equity firm that invests exclusively in the telecommunications market segment including both Service Provider companies as well as supporting technology.
As an operating Partner, Kevin advises portfolio companies in technology and operations to improve overall operating margin and company valuation.
In addition, he supports the identification and due-diligence for new target companies including onboarding of acquired companies.
Prior to Grain, Kevin was the Senior Vice President and Segment Leader of CommScope’s Broadband Networks business. He led the sector in development and delivery of CommScope’s end-to-end product portfolio of CCAP, PON, Video Systems, HFC access technologies, and fiber, coaxial and copper connectivity solutions serving the telco and cable provider broadband market. In addition, he was responsible for CommScope’s combined services and support organization which provided world-wide technical support and services for Telco and Cable operators as well as Direct to Consumer.
Kevin joined CommScope through its acquisition of ARRIS, where he served as Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Video and Telco Gateway business under the Customer Premise Equipment division. He assumed the role following ARRIS’s acquisition of Motorola Mobility’s Home business in 2013, where he was Vice President & Regional General Manager for Motorola Mobility Asia Pacific. In this position, he was responsible for all sales, marketing and support activities for Motorola’s Home products portfolio across the Asia Pacific region. Other roles within Motorola included Vice President of Product Management for Motorola’s Access Networks Solutions business which included Fiber-to-the-Premises (FTTP), Cable Modem Termination System (CMTS) and Hybrid Fiber Coax (HFC) solutions; General Manager of the DOCSIS CPE business and Vice President of Marketing for the Digital Video Infrastructure business.
Kevin holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Massachusetts and spent his early career as a Nuclear Engineering Officer in the US Navy Submarine force. He earned his MBA from Monmouth University and held various engineering leadership and program management positions in General Electric and Martin Marietta prior to joining General Instruments/Motorola.
TOM McLAUGHLIN
Tom McLaughlin is the President and CEO of Advanced Media Technologies, a premier value added distributor focused on Independent Telecom providers across North and South America.
Mr. McLaughlin joined AMT in February of 2022 from CommScope. Most recently, he served as SVP of Global Service Provider Sales. Mr. McLaughlin joined CommScope in 2019 through its acquisition of Arris. At the time he was Senior Vice President and General Manager of Global Professional Services, directing the company’s exchange of technological and business expertise with the world’s leading service providers. Prior to that, Mr. McLaughlin led EMEAI (Europe, Middle East, Africa, and India) sales and North American sales as Senior Vice President for three and four years, respectively. He held various sales leadership roles in North America since joining the company in 1994 (as General Instrument) in addition to running EMEA Sales from 2000 to 2002.
Mr. McLaughlin holds a Bachelor’s degree in both German and Chemical Engineering from the University of Rhode Island.
KIRAN GADI
CEO
A 30-year industry professional, with about 28 years of combined experience with CommScope (+Motorola, GOOGLE & ARRIS), worked on various technology products since 1992-93. A post- graduate from IIT-Mumbai and was seed team member in setting up Motorola’s Product Design Center & Manufacturing Operations in 1990 playing various roles. Thereafter instrumental in leading mobile devices Multimedia software programs & VOIP Products and later moved onto leadership role in setting up Broadband R&D Operations in India, Japan, Russia and China.
MANJU JOSEPH
VP Products and Solutions
An accomplished leader with 22 years of industry experience in Telecom domain. She has extensively worked in Broadband and Digital Video domains with companies like Indian Telephones, Motorola, Google, Arris and CommScope over last two decades. Her bachelor’s degree in engineering with initial years of experience in Satellite Communication devices enabled her put an edge on embedded skills. Forayed herself as a leader driving various platforms and solutions with special focus on Software Quality Assurance engineering efforts for broadband and video CPE devices in DOCSIS, xDSL, Wi-Fi 6/6E/7, GPON and 5G/LTE domains.
Manju began her career as development engineer on Embedded Solutions, with a special focus on Satellite Communication systems and leading the development efforts for Agilent Logical Analyzers. In 2006, she joined Motorola and upskilled herself into Digital Video domain. Manju played a key role in defining and designing an architecture for a scalable CI/CD framework using various tools such as Candela, Spirent tools and voice traffic generators. Her proficiency in Agile methodologies with Scrum Master certifications and DevOps helped a highly sustainable and technologically driven operations.
Manju was instrumental in establishing a cohesive working style and environment among geographically distributed teams across APAC, Australasia and Americas regions. She passionately works on Corporate Initiatives such as Girl Child Education, Employee Engagement & Development Programs.
VINU NEELAKANDHAN
VP Engineering and Operations
A seasoned professional with 30 years of industry experience, with more than 18 years of experience from Motorola, Google, ARRIS and CommScope. He holds a Masters degree in Computer Applications and has worked in various Telecom technologies including Video and Broadband solutions. He has worked for more than 8 years with Hewlett Packard in various geographical locations holding diversified roles and responsibilities in NMS domain. In addition, Vinu brings vast experience in the Software QA function of CPE device technologies and Video Edge platforms. From his vast experience of 30 years in telecom industry, he has also excelled in Operations Management for growth driven Product Software Operations.
With primary engineering responsibilities, he was instrumental in streamlining the delivery operations for India site. He played leadership role in setting up operational governance across geographically distributed teams. Vinu also led the International Trade Compliance team, responsible for the import of $50M+ into India for the engineering operations.
Vinu has the propensity as a leader driving seamless operations and optimizing efforts across multi-sited Offshore teams. A well endorsed leader with agility, adaptability to changing circumstances and process orientation for operational efficiency and with a passion for organizational efficiency and effectiveness.
SUNDEEP AGARWAL
CFO
Sundeep continuous focus on evangelizing transformation & finance outlook, checking & assessing the value drivers and developing business analytics (key strategies) help to facilitate decision-making and in deploying profitability model. His understanding of complex business and regulatory structure of India and practical approach to meet the expectation of the business without compromising on the governance requirement has made him a significant contributor to the board of directors of the corporate entities.
Sundeep is a fellow member of the Institute of Chartered Accountant of India (ICAI) and a post graduate diploma in management (PGDM) from International Management Institute (IMI), New Delhi specializing in Finance & Operations.