Leadership Team

Albert serves as Chief Marketing Officer for Sibros responsible for customer facing thought leadership, PR, communications, events and digital initiatives. Albert brings over 20 years experience from the enterprise technology arena, previously holding marketing leadership roles at IBM, KPIT and at various venture backed startups. Albert holds a Bachelors of Speech in Corporate Communications from the University of Texas at Austin. 

Chris Kettmann serves as Chief of Staff for Sibros, where he works in the Office of the CEO and is responsible for cross-departmental enablement to ensure all teams are properly aligned with company goals. Chris has a background in the family entertainment industry where he worked in franchise growth and operational excellence. He brings his multi-dimensional talent and 12+ years of operations experience to Sibros to help collaborate with the executive team members to determine and prioritize business strategies.

Christophe Soudier is VP of Program Management and responsible for customer success in the implementation of Sibros software and firmware products. Before Sibros, he was at Loft Orbital doing Low Earth Orbit satellites. Prior to that he worked at Zoox, managing the development aspect of their prototype fleet, at Nio in their autonomy department and OTA solutions, and at Tesla managing software releases. Christophe also worked for Continental/Ballard Power Systems on electric drives for fuel cell cars with Ford and Daimler. He has an MBA from the University of Michigan and a Master in Power Electronics from ENSEEIHT. 

Debra Kurth is Chief Legal Officer for Sibros, responsible for developing and leading legal strategy to promote and protect company interests, as well as partnering with cross-functional stakeholders to execute key initiatives. She has over 20 years of combined law firm, in-house and professional services experience as a trusted advisor in the areas of commercial and corporate transactions, compliance, intellectual property, and employment matters. Debra holds a Juris Doctor from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts in English from Pennsylvania State University. She resides in Manhattan Beach with her husband and son.

Erik Mekelburg is the Chief Revenue Officer at Sibros, where he leads revenue operations and strategic growth initiatives. Joining Sibros in May 2024, Erik brings a distinguished 14-year career at SAP, having served in various leadership roles, including Regional Vice President and Vice President of Sales. He began his career in software development and consulting at TechniData, an SAP AG company, where he specialized in sustainability software and complex global supply chain technology transformations. Erik holds a Ph.D. in Quantitative Finance from the University of Denver and brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the Sibros team and its automotive industry customers.

Hemant Sikaria is CEO of Sibros responsible for overall strategy, people, stakeholder and customer outcomes. Before Sibros, Hemant was an early engineer at Tesla where he helped build its well known OTA and software management systems, later serving as technical lead for Tesla’s Body and Chassis Firmware division. After Tesla, Hemant co-founded Sibros with the mission to connect and manage all software and data between vehicles, networks and the cloud to help OEMs deliver new safety, security and feature upgrades, both remotely and at scale. Hemant earned his Bachelor and Master degrees with honors in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University and resides in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife and two daughters.

Indrasanan Krishnan serves as Vice President of Product Delivery and is responsible for spearheading global delivery, customer success, and product maturity. He has over 20 years of IT experience ranging from product strategies to roadmaps, sales enablement, delivery, and customer success, and has catered to various industries including automotive, aerospace, entertainment, and life sciences, among others. Before Sibros, Indrasanan served as VP of Customer Success at Apporchid, steering and building a customer success team to help with delivery, product maturity, and co-innovation. He started his career as an engineer in high-tech manufacturing, before moving to the IT consulting space. Indrasanan also worked with KPIT, Birlasoft, HCL Technologies, and Intelligence Consulting. He holds a Bachelor's in Business Administration and a Master's in Computer Applications and has lectured in colleges on topics such as organizational dynamics and information technology. Indrasanan resides in Morrisville, NC, USA, with his wife, daughter, and son.

Kris Smeds is CTO at Sibros where he oversees firmware, engineering, and technology development for the company's Deep Connected Vehicle platform used by leading OEMs and mobility brands. Kristofer was an early firmware engineer at Tesla, before moving to Zoox, where he was the lead software developer for the vehicle gateway controller for autonomous controls, and later served as Senior Manager of Firmware.  Kris earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Mechatronics from the University of British Colombia and resides in the Bay Area with his wife and son.

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Mahesh Venugopala serves as Senior Director of Security at Sibros where he is repsonsible for stewarding cybersecurity practices, methods and frameworks across the company's suite of cloud-based and embedded software products. Prior to joining Sibros, Mahesh was responsible for security at Autonomic (a subsidiary of Ford), a SaaS data platform managing billions of connected vehicle signals and events per day. Mahesh has over 20 years of experirence across roles in product security, security architecture, cryptography, key management, encryption in transit and rest, cloud security, secure software development life cycle (SDLC), and secure DevOps.

Mayank Sikaria is President and Co-Founder at Sibros where he is responsible for overall product, business and customer strategy. Prior to co-founding Sibros, Mayank worked at Faraday Future where he incorporated state-of-the-art practices in the vehicle development and validation phases. Mayank holds three patents, as well as Functional Safety (ISO 26262) certification and a bachelor’s degree in Computer and Electrical Engineering from the University of California, Davis.

Preet is VP of Firmware at Sibros, leading a team responsible for software abstractions, design patterns and overall software architecture of the Sibros Deep Connected Platform. Before Sibros, Preet was the core developer for the Tesla Energy Gateway where he helped establish a large part of the energy firmware team through talent acquisition and mentorship. He architected features such as firmware updates to hundreds of ECUs within 3 minutes and built high quality firmware that was backed by thousands of automated tests. Preet holds both Bachelors and Masters degrees in Computer Engineering from San Jose State University, where he has also serves as a lecturer of Embedded Systems courses. Preet is also a Member of the ASAM Technical Steering Committee.

Russ Caso is Vice President of Sales at Sibros, where he leads sales operations and strategic business development. Joining Sibros in January 2022, Russ brings a wealth of experience from a distinguished career in the Aerospace & Defense industry that includes time serving in the United States Navy. Prior to Sibros, in addition to being a Chief of Staff and National Security Advisor on Capitol Hill, he also led business development activities at KPIT and Birlasoft, serving numerous clients in the automotive and aerospace sectors for over seven years. Russ also worked as a consultant for NASA, bringing a blend of experience from both the private sector and federal government. His background provides a deep understanding of complex customer program requirements, budget processes, and value-based solutions. This diverse expertise enables him to effectively address the needs of Sibros’ clients in the automotive and defense industry, driving growth and innovation.

Shivalik serves as VP of Sales and Strategic Alliances with a focus on Asia Pacific and European markets. Prior to Sibros, Shivalik served as Executive Director and Board Member for MapmyIndia - a leading automotive navigation solution backed by Walmart, Qualcomm and Zenrin, where he helped scale the business partnering with major automotive clients including BMW, JLR, Mahindra, Hyundai, Tata and others.

Steve Schwinke is Vice President of Customer Engagement at Sibros, working closely with OEMs and Tier One suppliers to accelerate their connected vehicle solutions. Prior to joining Sibros, Steve spent 2 years at Tech Mahindra as Global Head of Connected Vehicles and 22 years as an Executive at General Motors/OnStar where he was an original member of the OnStar team, developing and launching numerous industry first connected vehicle products and services. Steve serves on the Executive Board of Directors for the Telecommunications Industry Association, has been awarded 34 patents (for telecommunications, telematics and navigation) and holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan and a Masters of Science in Wireless Communication Systems from Santa Clara University.

Xiaojian serves as Chief Digital Officer, responsible for executing the vision and strategy around all Sibros’ cloud, software and infrastructure initiatives. Before Sibros, Xiaojian was Head of Product Engineering for autonomous delivery company Nuro. Prior to Nuro, he was the first container team engineer at Uber, eventually taking on the role of Engineering Manager, leading the team responsible for building Uber’s critical workload infrastructure.