About Us

Auraria Networks, Inc. is a company dedicated to providing unique solutions to problems that businesses and other organizations have with content; particularly in an on-line or continuously connected world. We will make products that allow one to realize the full potential of the content that exists in a networked world and profit from it in many ways.

We will be able to say more in a few months, but have to be pretty quiet now. Suffice it to say that the approaches that we are taking to solving problems in this area are very novel. We strive to provide the technology that will make people say:

“How did they do that anyway”?

	About Our Founder

Steve Akers, President, Founder, and CEO of Auraria Networks, has enjoyed a number of technical and business management roles over the last 20 years. Prior to founding Auraria Networks, Mr. Akers served as Chief Technology Officer for the Wireline business unit of Lucent Technologies, focusing on optical, circuit-switching (voice), and data products. While in this role, Mr. Akers worked closely with Bell Laboratories on projects that integrated data, voice, optical, and wireless networking across a common set of IP technologies.

Mr. Akers came to Lucent from Spring Tide Networks, Inc., the company he co-founded in 1998 to design and deliver a platform of intelligent IP Service Switches supporting enhanced data services over IP networks. With his team at Spring Tide, Mr. Akers designed the Spring Tide platform to offer wireless, wireline, and broadband services. Lucent formed an OEM partnership with Spring Tide Networks, Inc. in 1999 and then purchased the company in the summer of 2000.

Prior to his experience at Spring Tide Networks, Inc., Mr. Akers served as Chief Technology Officer at Shiva Corporation, a maker of remote access and virtual private networking equipment. In this role, Mr. Akers was a key architect of remote access server projects as well as carrier-based VPN activities supported through a partnership between Shiva and Nortel Networks.

Prior to this experience, Mr. Akers served as a Project Lead and Architect in the Communications Engineering Group at Stratus Computer, Inc., focusing on various fault-tolerant networking products. Mr. Akers also served in a variety of roles at Hewlett-Packard and Apollo Computer Inc., designing, developing, and bringing to market products in the areas of storage, distributed file systems, and computer security.

Mr. Akers has served as an advisor to the Chairperson of the Computer Science department at Michigan State University. Mr. Akers has also served on boards of early-stage technology companies, advising several venture firms and early-stage companies on matters related to technology and business affairs.

Mr. Akers holds a Master of Science degree in Computer Science from Boston University, a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, and a Bachelor of Science degree from Michigan State University.

	Auraria's Management Team

Jerry Stern, Vice President of Engineering, brings his extensive experience in the high-tech industry to Auraria Networks, where he leads his fourth startup engineering team. Mr. Stern has a long and successful track record of developing high-quality products, specializing in telecommunications, mobile networks, and high-availability systems. Mr. Stern has led multiple startup teams from the early design phase through successful product delivery while helping to achieve two IPOs and two acquisitions.

Prior to joining Auraria Networks, Mr. Stern served as Vice President of Engineering for the Network Services subsidiary of Bytemobile, created through Bytemobile's acquisition of ProQuent Systems. At ProQuent, Mr. Stern served as Vice President of Engineering, leading an engineering team that developed and delivered a multi-service platform for mobile data networks aimed initially at content charging applications.

Prior to his experience at ProQuent, Mr. Stern served as Director of Engineering for the Intelligent Contact Manager (ICM) team within the Cisco Systems Customer Contact Business Unit. Mr. Stern joined Cisco through Cisco's acquisition of GeoTel Communications, for which Mr. Stern served as Director of Engineering. Mr. Stern created the fault-tolerant architecture for the GeoTel Intelligent Call Router and co-authored several patents related to this product.

Prior to GeoTel, Mr. Stern served as Director of Engineering for Stratus Computer, Inc. Mr. Stern was a key member of the initial engineering team that developed the Stratus VOS proprietary operating system. During his career at Stratus, Mr. Stern was responsible for leading and building the Communications Engineering group, managing development of all communications hardware and software products.

Mr. Stern holds both a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Ted Dolan, Corporate Controller, brings a wealth of financial leadership and senior executive experience to Auraria Networks. Mr. Dolan has over 25 years of experience in the high-tech industry, filling key financial roles and managing venture-capital funded companies through all stages of growth. At Auraria Networks, Mr. Dolan is responsible for all Finance, Legal, Facility, and Human Resources functions.

Prior to joining Auraria Networks, Mr. Dolan held executive leadership roles in several private and publicly-held companies, the most recent being Crossbeam Systems, TAZZ Networks, and Spring Tide Networks (acquired by Lucent Technologies). Prior to this experience, Mr. Dolan served as Vice President of Finance at Shiva Corporation and Bytex Corporation, where he played important roles in the revenue growth, profitability growth, and successful IPOs of these two companies.

Mr. Dolan holds both a Master of Business Administration degree and Bachelor of Science degree from Babson College.

Peter Livingstone, Director of Business Development, has over 15 years of experience in sales, business development, and system engineering management, with a focus on software, telecommunications, and security. At Auraria Networks, Mr. Livingstone is responsible for customer and partner development.

Prior to joining Auraria Networks, Mr. Livingstone helped launch a number of innovative companies in the wireless LAN market. Most recently, Mr. Livingstone served as Director of New England Sales for Meru Networks, Inc. Prior to joining Meru Networks, Mr. Livingstone served as Director of Systems Engineering for Colubris Networks and Chantry Networks.

Prior to his experience at Chantry, Mr. Livingstone helped Lucent Technologies integrate the Spring Tide Networks product line into Lucent's IP Centrex business. Mr. Livingstone joined Lucent Technologies through Lucent's acquisition of Spring Tide Networks, where he was a Senior Systems Engineer responsible for launching the Spring Tide product line in Europe and managing customer engagements at the corporate level.

Prior to his experience at Spring Tide Networks, Mr. Livingstone managed systems engineering at Indus River Networks and RAScom, and held a variety of roles at Funk Software, including OEM Sales Manager.

Mr. Livingstone holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science/Electrical Engineering from the University of Maine.

Will Engler, Vice President of Operations and Customer Service, has more than 20 years of networking and telecommunications experience. Mr. Engler has a successful track record of developing and deploying high-technology solutions, as well as building strong customer relationships.

Mr. Engler joined Auraria Networks from Sentito Networks, a maker of VoIP gateway systems. Prior to joining Sentito Networks, Mr. Engler served as Vice President and General Manager for the Access Networks business unit at Lucent Technologies, where he had P&L responsibility for a number of product lines, including Stinger DSLAM, end-to-end IPTV solutions, AnyMedia broadband loop carrier, and associated service delivery software. Mr. Engler delivered state-of-the-art broadband, VoIP, and IPTV systems to network operators worldwide. As General Manager, Mr. Engler consolidated multiple business units while simultaneously growing revenue, achieving profitability targets three years in a row. Mr. Engler also served as Vice President of Business Development at Lucent, where he played a key role in nine acquisitions and multiple partnerships.

Prior to joining Lucent Technologies, Mr. Engler held various positions in engineering, customer service, and product management at Timeplex and Infotron Systems. While in these positions, Mr. Engler focused on networking products and solutions for the financial services market.

Earlier on, Mr. Engler served in the US Army, responsible for field service operations for portions of the worldwide secure voice network for the U.S. Department of Defense.

Mr. Engler holds a Master of Business Administration degree from Baruch College, City University of New York, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from the State University of New York at Binghamton.