Ali Merchant, President and Co-Founder
Ali Merchant co-founded CADNexus after 5 years of leading innovative research in turbomachinery propulsion at MIT. He has been the lead researcher on advanced aircraft propulsion projects in collaboration with NASA and major US aerospace companies. Ali brings deep experience and knowledge of computational software and simulation-based design systems combined with strong domain expertise to the CADNexus team. Ali holds a Masters and Ph.D. from the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT.
Robert Haimes, Chief Software Architect and Co-Founder
Robert Haimes is the primary architect of the CADNexus' CAE Gateway technology. His areas of expertise include computational geometry, scientific visualization, parallel computing, and computational fluid dynamics. Robert has published extensively in each of these areas. He has developed world-class visualization software that is currently being used in commercial visualization packages and in the aerospace industry. Robert holds a Masters degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic and is currently Principal Research Engineer in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT.
Kent Summers, Advisor
Kent Summers advises CADNexus through the MIT Venture Mentoring Services program. Kent is a Partner with Garofalo & Associates LLC, a Boston-based investment banking firm that provides M&A advisory services to emerging growth software companies. Prior to G&A, Kent served as Chairman & CEO of Collego Corporation (acquired by MRO Software), founder and CEO of MyHelpdesk, Inc. (acquired by PC Support, Inc.), and VP of marketing at Electronic Book Technologies (acquired by INSO Corporation). Kent is a co-founding member of the W3C Technical Advisory Board (MIT 1994), and served as a director with the X Consortium and OASIS.
Yozo Seo, Advisor
Yozo Seo advises CADNexus on business development in Japan. He brings 20 years of leadership experience in the Japanese CAD and CAE industry to the advisory team of CADNexus. He was formerly the President and CEO of Kubota Solid Technologies Corporation, Rasna Japan Corporation (acquired by PTC), and Executive Advisor to the President of Toyota Caelum, Inc. Yozo Seo serves on the board of SolidWorks Japan, and he is currently President and CEO of Myrtos Corporation, the exclusive distributor for CADNexus in Japan.
Michael Aftosmis, Advisor
Michael Aftosmis is a leading research scientist at NASA's Advanced Supercomputing Division. Michael is an expert in Cartesian, Hybrid, and unstructured adaptive mesh techniques, design optimization, and recognized worldwide for his Cart3D aerodynamics and simulation software (NASA Software of the Year, 2002). He currently serves on the Debris Transport Team for the current space shuttle program, the design team for the next generation of crew exploration vehicle replacement for the space shuttle, and previously served on NASA's Accident investigation Team for the Columbia accident (STS-107). Michael holds a Sc.M. from the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT.
