Krishnan Haridasan is the founder and President of Protean Technologies LLC. Prior to founding Protean, he was the VP, Professional Services for Knight Sky, LLC, a satellite start-up, where he performed a multifaceted role spanning technical, operational and management functions that was key in transforming the consulting company into a Managed Network Services (MNS) provider with multi-million dollar contracts spanning satellite bandwidth and NOC services to federal government agencies.
Mr. Haridasan’s broad technology background spans Converged IP Services (Video, Voice, Data, Web) over VSAT Networks, Digital Audio Broadcasting, IP Networking Architectures, Content Distribution Networking, Digital Video and Multimedia, VoIP and Video Teleconferencing (VTC). He has architected disaster response communications networks to provide incident response, situational awareness and reach-back capabilities for the US Department of Homeland Security as well as distance learning solutions for the African Virtual University/WorldBank, in addition to providing technical and business development consulting for companies such as WorldSpace and Hughes Network Systems. Mr. Haridasan has functioned in Principal Engineering and SME roles on projects for the US Army, the US Air Force, the National Guard Bureau, the FBI and the Defense Information Systems Agency and provided engineering services involving analysis of complex network architecture issues, terminal stability and carrier-bandwidth issues as well as recommendations on technology insertion, refresh and evolution strategies .
Mr. Haridasan was formerly with Lockheed Martin Global Telecommunications (LMGT) and the erstwhile COMSAT Laboratories, where he functioned as the technical lead for various projects involving augmenting, overlaying and extending existing satellite networks to provide for enhanced end-user interactivity and Internet access. Mr. Haridasan has an M. S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Maryland and a B. Tech. in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. He has performed award winning research in the area of advanced video processing and currently has a patent application pending in the area of seamless terrestrial/satellite inter-networking.
Dr. S. Rangarajan is the Chief Technologist at Protean Technologies LLC. Dr. Ranga has a keen interest and wide-ranging experience in the application and adaptation of communication technologies to solving real-world problems. A recognized satellite industry veteran, Dr. Ranga has more than three and a half decades of experience in successive leadership roles in the public and private sectors. He has worked on the system architecture of integrated satellite-terrestrial system for a variety of applications.
Earlier, Dr. Ranga was the SVP of Engineering Solutions at WorldSpace, where he developed solutions to adapt the Satellite Digital Audio Broadcasting infrastructure towards the development of innovative applications for Data Delivery, Distance Education and Emergency/Disaster-Alert Delivery. These solutions include Combined Live Audio & Slide Show (CLASS) and Addressable Radio for Emergency Alert (AREA).
Formerly, Dr. Ranga spent more than two decades at the Indian Space Research Organization, first as a Deputy Director of Satellite Missions, later as the Director of the Satellite Control Facility and finally as the Program Director of India's Geostationary satellite program. He was the first to introduce satellite-based telemedicine in India. Throughout his career, he has successfully held several executive positions, been actively involved in satellite design, satellite control, flight dynamics, mission planning and satellite applications while simultaneously pursuing academic interests.
Dr. Ranga obtained his Ph.D in Physics from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, India, and MS from the Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai.