Executive Team

Mike Aquino

President and Chief Executive Officer

Mike has had a successful and distinguished career in the telecommunications and information technology industry with over 30 years of experience.  Mike joined Overture from Ciena Corporation, where he held a number of executive positions, including Senior VP of Global Field Operations, General Manager of Global Government Solutions, and VP of Americas. During Mike’s tenure at Ciena, the company’s annual revenue grew from approximately $400 Million in 2002 to more than $1.7 Billion in 2011.  He also assisted Ciena with the integration of multiple acquisitions, including World Wide Packets and Nortel’s Metro Ethernet Networks business. Prior to Ciena, Mike held leadership positions at ONI Systems (acquired by Ciena), Bay Networks (acquired by Nortel Networks), and IBM Corporation.

Arthur Bergens

Chief Financial Officer

Arthur has more than 24 years of experience in a wide range of financial leadership positions. Prior to Overture, Arthur was the CFO/COO at Centice Corporation, a developer of pharmaceutical verification products. Before Centice, Arthur was CFO for Unitive, Inc., a leader in advanced wafer packaging solutions for the semiconductor industry, which was acquired by Amkor Technology. Arthur began his career at Ernst and Young and rose through the ranks of other private and public companies in various technology industries. In 2009, he was named a Top CFO by Business Leader Media and he received the Triangle Business Journal’s “2011 CFO of the Year” award. Arthur holds a MBA from Campbell University and a BS in accounting from the University of New Orleans. Arthur is a licensed certified public accountant in both Louisiana and North Carolina.

Prayson Pate

Chief Technologist

Prayson co-founded Overture and brings more than 24 years of experience developing software and hardware for networking products to the Company. He began his career in 1983 at FiberLAN, moved to Bell Northern Research (Nortel) and joined Larscom in 1992. He has extensive hardware/software design and management experience, and served as Director of Engineering at Larscom before co-founding Overture. Prayson is active in standards bodies such as the MEF and IETF, and he was chosen to be the co-editor of the pseudowire emulation edge-to-edge (PWE3) requirements and architecture documents (RFCs 3916 and 3985). Prayson holds a BS in electrical engineering and computer science from Duke University and an MS in electrical and computer engineering from North Carolina State University. He holds nine patents.

Vijay Raman

Vice President, Product Management and Marketing

Vijay serves as Vice President of Product Management and Marketing for Overture. In addition, Vijay works closely with the CEO on driving Overture's strategic partnerships and business development activities. Prior to the merge of Hatteras with Overture, Vijay was Vice President of Marketing and Product Line Management for Hatteras. Earlier, he worked at Aruba Wireless Networks where he was Head of Technical Marketing and Training Development. Vijay is a networking industry veteran with over 15 years of experience working for premier equipment vendors that led the market in technology innovation such as Aruba Wireless Networks (Nasdaq; ARUN), FORE Systems (acquired by Marconi) & Avici Systems (Nasdaq: AVCI) and carriers such as Sprint Corporation in a variety of leadership roles in Product Management, Technical Marketing, Field Marketing, Systems Engineering & Technical Business Development.

He holds a BS-Honors degree in Electrical Engineering from NC State University and has completed post-graduate studies at the Harvard Business School.

Chris Swan

Senior Vice President, Global Sales and Service

Chris has over 24 years of experience as a senior executive in the global information and telecommunications technology industry.  Chris joins Overture from Narus Corporation where he held the position of Senior Vice-President of Sales, Marketing and Delivery.  Prior to Narus, he held senior executive positions at Syndesis, Spirent and Hekimian.  With a strong customer focus, Chris has led the sale and delivery of over $1.2 billion in technology solutions around the globe.  He specializes in helping privately funded start-ups find their market edge and grow into profitable, high-value businesses.  Chris has helped generate over $1.8 billion in shareholder value through the sale of his last three ventures. 

Chris holds a B.S. degree in Finance and Accounting from Virginia Tech.  He has also received executive training from University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business and University of Pennsylvania’s The Wharton School.

Rocco Volpe

Vice President, Operations

Rocco brings over 25 years of engineering, services, supply chain, manufacturing operations and lean six sigma experience to Overture.  He has done this across the telecommunications and transportation industries.  Rocco began his career as an electrical and control systems engineer with Rockwell International then Cummins Engine Company.  In 1994, he joined General Electric Transportation Systems in Erie PA and spent the next 14 years in various senior and executive cross functional leadership assignments including a 2 year international position in Shanghai China.  In 2007 he accepted the position of Senior Director, Enterprise Supply Chain & Manufacturing Operations, with Nortel Networks (later acquired by Avaya).  Rocco holds a BS degree in Electrical Engineering from WVU Institute of Technology and is also a certified lean six sigma master black belt.

Keith Donahue

Vice President, Customer Service

Before joining Overture, Keith led the network services business unit of Aviat networks, a provider of wireless network solutions, where he grew revenue and profitability for maintenance and support services and built Aviat’s global professional service and field service delivery capabilities. Before moving into services leadership, he led product line management for Aviat. Previously, Keith drove several new business and product programs for Harris Corporation. From 1997 to 2000, he was European Marketing Manager, based in the U.K. Keith has also held product management assignments at Premisys Communications (acquired by Zhone Technologies) and AiT (acquired by 3Com). He holds a Bachelor of Arts from McGill University, Montreal, Canada and a Master of Business Administration from University College, Dublin, Ireland.

Betsy Creech

Director, Human Resources

Betsy has more than 25 years of experience in a wide range of human resources positions. Prior to joining Overture, Betsy established and led the human resources efforts for several local startup companies in the technology sector. Her experience includes years of providing consulting services to a broad range of organizations on various human resources initiatives. Before working with smaller, emerging growth companies, Betsy spent almost 10 years at Alcatel Network Systems (now Alcatel Lucent) where she held a number of positions. In her last role at Alcatel, Betsy was the senior director of human resources where she and her team supported Alcatel's North Carolina operations during a period of explosive growth and transition. Betsy started her career in human resources at Data General Corporation (now EMC) after graduating from UNC-Chapel Hill with a BS in psychology and industrial relations.