Management Team

As experts in communications, networking, infrastructure, telephony, gaming and design, we combine innovative, powerful technology with beautiful design to create unparalleled branded mobile experiences.
Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati

Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati

Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati is the premier legal advisor to technology and growth enterprises worldwide, as well as the investment banks and venture capital firms that finance them. Over the past five decades, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati has established its reputation by having an unmatched knowledge of its clients’ industries and deep and long-standing contacts throughout the technology sector.

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Alan S. Knitowski

Chairman & CEO

Alan is a successful serial entrepreneur with multiple post Internet and technology bubble exits to such companies as Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO), Level 3 Communications (NASDAQ: LVLT) and Internet Security Systems (NASDAQ: ISSX). He has been a Founder, Executive, Angel Investor and Fund Manager throughout his career in the private sector after serving in the United States Army as an Airborne, Air Assault and Ranger qualified Captain in the Corps of Engineers both domestically and abroad. He has also created and managed companies that have won both regional and national awards for growth, including the 2008 Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Orange County and the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 North America awards.

Previously, Alan was President of Alternative Investments for Curo Capital LLC and both Managing Director and President of Strategic Investments for Trymetris Capital Management LLC. In the past he was a Co-Founder and Director of Telverse Communications, a next-generation advanced services ASP focused on wholesale communications services for carriers, service providers and value-added resellers, which was acquired in July 2003 by Level 3 Communications. Most recently, Alan was Director of Marketing for the Voice Technology Group at Cisco Systems and was responsible for business, market and community development, including business planning and strategy for Cisco’s global packet communications initiatives. In November 2000, Alan joined Cisco as part of the Vovida Networks acquisition, where he served as Co-Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer and led the company from idea conception through its eventual acquisition by Cisco.

In the past, Alan was an Angel Investor and Director of vCIS, a proactive software behavior analysis and anti-virus security company, and helped negotiate and structure its acquisition by Internet Security Systems in October 2002, which was subsequently acquired by IBM (NYSE: IBM) in August 2006. Additionally, he was a Founding Director of both the Open Multimedia Protocol Alliance (OMPA) and the International Softswitch Consortium (ISC) in 1999, which were subsequently merged and scaled to nearly 200 companies prior to renaming itself to become the International Packet Communications Consortium (IPCC) in 2003. During his tenure at the consortium, Alan served as its Vice Chairman, Co-Chair of its Government Liaison Working Group and one of its external evangelists.

Alan has worked in various operational, line management and consulting roles with The Results Group, Nortel Networks, Hewlett-Packard and the United States Army. Alan holds an MBA from the University of California at Berkeley, an MS in industrial engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and a BS in industrial engineering from the University of Miami (Magna Cum Laude). He has delivered and moderated general and executive sessions at various events and conferences within the communications industry, has appeared on radio and television to discuss next-generation networking, packet communications and outsourcing and has delivered educational sessions on next-generation networking and packet communications to the United States Federal Communications Commission. Alan resides in Austin, Texas, with his wife Kelly and their four young children, and currently serves as a member of the President’s Council of the University of Miami. He also serves as a member of the Central Texas Angel Network and the Austin Technology Council.

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luandang

Luan Dang

President & CTO

Luan is a successful serial entrepreneur, author, inventor and technologist, with post Internet and technology bubble exits to such companies as Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO), Level 3 Communications (NASDAQ: LVLT) and Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ). Previously he was President of Strategic Investments for Curo Capital LLC and President of Alternative Investments for Trymetris Capital Management LLC. He was also a Director of Engineering at Linksys, a subdivision of Cisco Systems, overseeing the development of Voice-over-IP (VoIP) products and strategies. At Linksys, he grew the VoIP product line from $0 to $150M in 12 months, making it the fastest-growing product line in Linksys or Cisco history to achieve 1M ports shipped. Luan came to Cisco through its acquisition of Vovida Networks, where he served as Co-Founder, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer.

In the past, Luan was an Angel Investor in Vonage (NYSE: VG) and an Angel Investor and Advisor to both Telverse Communications, a next-generation advanced services ASP focused on wholesale communications services for carriers, service providers and value-added resellers, which was acquired in July 2003 by Level 3 Communications (NASDAQ: LVLT), and vCIS, a proactive software behavior analysis and anti-virus security company, which was acquired by Internet Security Systems (NASDAQ:ISSX) in October 2002, before it was subsequently acquired by IBM (NYSE: IBM) in August 2006. Additionally, he was a Founding Member of the Technical Advisory Board of both the Open Multimedia Protocol Alliance (OMPA) and the International Softswitch Consortium (ISC) in 1999, which were subsequently merged and scaled to nearly 200 companies prior to renaming itself to become the International Packet Communications Consortium (IPCC) in 2003.

Luan has worked in various operational and technical roles with Nortel Networks and Unisys. He has over 15 years of experience in the communications industry and has also co-authored a book entitled Practical VoIP that is currently being used as a core textbook for teaching VoIP system development at universities worldwide. Luan holds patents on display screen management apparatus (1997) and caller IP (1998) and has three other patents currently pending. He holds an MS in computer science from Stanford University and a BS in computer engineering from the University of California at San Diego. Luan resides in Newport Beach, California, with his wife Linh and their three young children, and serves as a member of the Central Texas Angel Network and Austin Technology Council.

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alanmkane

Alan M. Kane

Chief Financial Officer

Alan has over 15 years in growing businesses as a Founder, Employee, Manager, Director, Advisor and Investor. With a diverse career spanning investment banking, a successful NYSE IPO and managing a video game studio, he knows success comes from executing on solid business models.

Alan currently serves on the Board of Directors of the International Game Developers Association’s Austin Chapter and on the Board of Advisors for the International Game Investment Conference. Previously, he was the COO and CFO for Midway Games’ Austin based development studio. In the past he also worked in various operational and consulting roles with Booz Allen Hamilton, Procter & Gamble, VIMAC Ventures, Wells Fargo and American Residential Investment Trust. Alan holds an MBA from Babson College, a BBA in finance and business management from the University of San Diego and resides in Austin, Texas, with his wife Katie.

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Hans Erickson - COO of Phunware, Inc.

Hans Erickson

Chief Operating Officer

Hans is an experienced technology executive with a consistent track record of rapidly accelerating top line growth, improving profitability and building and leading organizations both domestically and overseas. His functional experience spans sales, operations, marketing and finance, and he has successfully leveraged his background in a variety of general management roles. He is a proven leader dedicated to recruiting, developing and retaining top talent, and has a collaborative style that works extremely well with customers and partners alike.

Prior to joining Phunware, Hans served as Vice President for Global Business Management for Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD), responsible for AMD’s operational planning across the Client, Server and Graphics business units, as well as the company’s four major geographic regions. His teams were also responsible for pricing and contracts management with the company’s major OEM and distribution partners. Prior to that role, Hans was based in São Paulo, Brazil, and served as Vice President and General Manager for AMD Latin America.

Prior to joining AMD, Hans worked at Dell, Inc., for eight years in a variety of roles based in the United States, Panama and Brazil. This included three years as Director and General Manager of Dell’s Latin America Consumer Division, where he was responsible for retail and direct sales, including e-commerce and call-center operations.

Hans served five years in the United States Army as a Ranger-qualified officer in the Corps of Engineers at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, and Fort Lewis, Washington. He holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School and a BS in economics from the United States Military Academy at West Point. He has participated as an angel investor in several early stage companies headquartered in both Texas and California, and currently resides in Austin, Texas.

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andygreff

Andy Greff

VP, Business Development & Sales

Andy has over 15 years of consulting, product management, general management and sales experience in the software industry. He has a proven track record of delivering value to his customers and partners. He has a customer-first philosophy and uses his role as an advocate and key stakeholder to drive success. His unique background in both account management as well as product strategy enables him to collaboratively work with large and small customers to create a mobile strategy roadmap that maximizes ROI. He has over 12 years experience in the broadband/telco world with the last 4 years focused on building, marketing, selling and delivering mobile software globally for wireless operators.

Prior to joining Phunware, Andy served as Sr. Director of Mobile Products at Alcatel-Lucent (Motive Product Division)where he built the global mobile product portfolio from the ground up and secured key customer wins in Asia, Australia, Western Europe and North America. Before that, Andy was Director of North American Consulting Services for Motive, Inc. delivering successes at customers such as ATT, TELUS, Sprint, Alltel, Hughes and Bell Canada. Andy is a proud graduate of the University of Notre Dame where he received a B.B.A. in Finance.

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Eric Moujaes

Eric Moujaes

Chief of Creative Services

Eric has management and creative expertise in various fields, including film and television production, animation, creative offshoring and outsourcing, user-experience and interaction design and console, casual and mobile gaming development.

Previously, he was Vice President of Boomstar Entertainment, an international animation production company, where he was Supervising Producer for the television series “Rocket Monkeys” on 4Kids / The CW Network. Mr. Moujaes also served as Studio Operations Manager of Spoonbend, an Austin based design studio, and Creative Advisor for Exocloud™, a Cloud Manager for building, deploying and managing resources across multiple commercial clouds, which was acquired by Service Mesh in 2009. Prior to joining Phunware, Mr. Moujaes led Business Development at GameSalad™, a visual authoring software for mobile game developers.

He also has previous experience managing production and concept development for brands including Zynga, Discovery Communications, Sony Online Entertainment, Forterra Systems, Digital Playspace and Say Design. Mr. Moujaes holds a BA in Philosophy from The University of Texas at Austin.

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gabrielacoccosanchez

Gabriela Cocco-Sanchez

VP & Studio Chief, Phunware Studios

Gabriela is a accomplished creative executive with over 13 years experience in TV Programming, content development and production, live events, talent scouting and general management. She’s earned a reputation as a strategic thinker whose versatility and business savvy have enabled her to successfully launch multiple properties for major record labels, networks and digital media companies.

Prior to joining Phunware, Gabriela served as Vice President of Programming & Production for GoTV Networks, overseeing the programming of over 400 monthly, short-form episodes of content across multiple media platforms. Gabriela started her career at EMI Latin America developing strategic marketing plans, and in programming and talent development for MTV Networks Latin America. Gabriela played an integral part in the creation and launch of Universal Music Group’s IMF (International Music Feed) serving as Director of Programming for Latin and International markets.

Gabriela was honored by Billboard Magazine in 2007 as one of the 30 under 30 Top Executives in the Music Industry. Gabriela served on the board of Directors for Los Angeles Women In Music (2009 & 2010). Gabriela currently resides in Los Angeles, California, with her husband Fernando, is a committee member of the Seven Bar Foundation and Jury Chair for the CINE Organization. Gabriela holds a BA in Business Administration from Florida International University.

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