Geolocation Pioneers

As the Co-Founder and CEO of NextNav, Ganesh is leading the mission to enable the future of geolocation. He is passionate about bringing scale to technologies. Over his twenty+ year career, spanning companies such as Qualcomm, he has led various initiatives in launching terrestrial, satellite based (GPS and LEO), proximity-based location systems into mass market devices – including GPS and sensor-based technologies.

Ganesh has an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School and a Masters in Electrical Engineering from George Mason University.

As Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer, Arun Raghupathy heads Engineering at NextNav spanning Systems Algorithms, Hardware, Firmware and Software domains. Before co-founding NextNav, he spent more than 10 years as a technology leader developing innovative ideas and maturing them into commercial products at multiple technology companies. At Qualcomm, he was involved in development of technology for cellular modems including key contributions to transmitter design and to the design of the first CDMA direct conversion receiver chipset. At Texas Instruments, he led the GPS systems team and, as system architect, developed innovative GPS measurement and positioning techniques applied to multiple generations of smartphone multi-radio chipsets. At NextNav, he has been a key contributor to the critical IP and the architect for system/HW/SW design for the TerraPoiNT and Pinnacle services. He has more than 50 issued patents.

He has a Ph.D in Electrical Engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park in 1999 and an M.S in Electrical Engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park 1996. with specialization in signal processing and communications. Prior to that he obtained a Bachelors of Technology in Electronics Engineering and Communications degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras in 1993.

Christian Gates is NextNav’s Chief Financial Officer. Prior to that, he served as Senior Vice President of Strategy and Development, leading the business development team, managing the company’s corporate partnerships, and contributing to its policy outreach efforts. Before joining NextNav, he was VP of Strategy at SkyTerra. Mr. Gates’ background includes a range of telecommunications and technology ventures, after starting his career in finance. Mr. Gates is a graduate of Dartmouth College.

David Knutson, SVP of Network Operations and Deployment, is responsible for manufacturing, designing, building and operating the NextNav network. Prior to joining NextNav in 2011, David worked for multiple startups. At American Personal Communications/Sprint Spectrum, he helped launch the first PCS network in the United States. At Telecorp PCS (AT&T Wireless’ largest affiliate), he was the head of Engineering and Operations from inception until its sale to AT&T in 2001. At Cyren Call Communications, he helped pave the way for what is now FirstNet. David also held roles as SVP Outsourcing, EVP Sales and Business Development and COO for a global $250 million revenue services business unit of Wireless Facilities Inc (WFI) focusing on wireless network design and deployment for major carriers around the world.

As Chief Marketing Officer, Gillian Smith is responsible for planning, developing, and implementing NextNav’s marketing and communications efforts. She is an award-winning marketing executive with over 25 years of experience with companies and organizations including Coca-Cola, Burger King, and Teach For America, and has been a pioneer in the digital media space.  Her marketing campaigns have won awards including Cannes Golden Lions, Effies, Association of National Advertisers Best Multicultural Advertising,  Best Viral Advertising (Wall Street Journal), and even Best Campaign of the Century according to The New York Times. Gillian is passionate about launching new products and leveraging the power of innovative technologies to enhance people’s lives and improve experiences.

Robert Lantz, an attorney with over two decades of legal experience in the public and private technology and telecommunications space, serves as NextNav’s Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary. His background includes extensive corporate securities, commercial, governance and regulatory work globally with publicly traded companies spanning technology, telecommunications, and more. In his role as General Counsel, Robert oversees NextNav’s legal function and supports the company’s commercial activities, including its partnership and growth endeavors such as NextNav’s transition to become a public company and the recent acquisition of Nestwave.

Ed Mortimer is NextNav’s Vice President of Government Affairs, bringing over thirty years of experience in infrastructure legislation and regulation to the team. Most notably, Mortimer served as the Vice President of Transportation and Infrastructure for the United States Chamber of Commerce from 2015 to 2022, a role in which he was an outspoken champion of and critical leader for the passage of the recent bipartisan infrastructure bill. Ed was named a “Top Lobbyist” by The Hill magazine in 2022.

Ambroise Popper is NextNav’s Vice President and General Manager, based out of France, and leads all of NextNav’s business development efforts. He has over 20 years of experience in wireless & IoT start-ups, on both sides of the Atlantic. He was a co-founder of Sequans (NYSE: SQNS), where he led the IoT business unit as the company evolved into low-power LTE. After Sequans, Ambroise joined Quantenna, a high-performance Wi-Fi leader, shortly before their IPO in 2016. At Quantenna, he was in charge of marketing and business development, until its acquisition by ON semi. Ambroise started his career developing DSP algorithms for DOCSIS systems at Juniper Networks.

As Vice President of People, Mary Lee Sharp is responsible for leading NextNav’s global people strategy and guiding human resources priorities to build and support a high performing organization, including workforce planning and design, talent recruitment and management, employee relations and engagement, learning and development, compensation and benefits, DEI & HR social media initiatives, and compliance. Most recently, Ms. Sharp served as the Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer of National Mortgage Insurance. She has also held executive positions in Human Resources at Financial Engines, Omnicell Inc., Sybase Inc. and Panalpina Inc. Mary Lee holds a J.D. from Santa Clara University School of Law and a B.A. degree in political science and public affairs from the University of Denver.