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Leadership Team

Fred Swaniker

Founder and CEO

Shaun Dippnall

Chief Delivery Officer

Sharon O’Donnell

Chief Experience Officer

Morten Vigeland

Chief Financial Officer

Piers Sanders

Chief Product Officer

Michael Liley

Senior Managing Director, Partnerships

Aidan Helmbold

Director of Innovation

Asong Suh

Managing Director, Customer Solutions

Abhishek Sandhir

Managing Director, Telecommunications

Brad Stanton

Managing Director, Commercial

Danai Mavunga

VP of People

Mayor Hardie Davis

Senior Advisor

Harrison McCoy

VP of Partnerships

Jonas Allen

VP of Marketing

Matthew Panszczyk

Managing Director, Utilities - Energy

Nick Hu

Managing Director, Healthcare

Praveen Vijayanarayanan

Managing Director, Insurance

Richard Crisp

Managing Director, Oil & Gas

Samuel Darko

Managing Director, Global Business Services

Sanjay Neogi

Managing Director, Energy and Utilities

Shana-Michelle Rabonda

VP of Operations

Ted Sullivan

Managing Director, Media and Entertainment

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Fred Swaniker

Founder and CEO

Fred is the Founder and CEO of Sand Technologies. He was honored in 2019 as one of the “100 most influential people in the world” by TIME Magazine and again in 2023 with a “TIME 100 Impact Award.” Fred has been recognized as one of the top 15 emerging social entrepreneurs in the world by Echoing Green, as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, as a TED Fellow, and as an Aspen Institute Fellow. He has been honored with doctorate degrees from Macalester College in Minnesota, Middlebury College in Vermont and Nelson Mandela University in South Africa. He sits on the boards of the Rhodes Trust and is a member of the International Advisory Board of Waterloo University. He began his career at McKinsey & Company and has an MBA from Stanford University.

Shaun Dippnall

Chief Delivery Officer

An actuary with a vision, Shaun has worked with enterprise AI for more than a decade because of his passion to change the world. In a previous life, he has held the positions of Chief Data Scientist, Chief Actuary and Business Analyst for various telecommunications companies and research consultancies.

Sharon O’Donnell

Chief Experience Officer

Sharon directs customer engagement initiatives and ensures exceptional experiences that drive business growth. Before joining Sand Technologies, Sharon spent more than two decades shaping brand narratives and customer experiences for global giants like Kaplan, Disney and DHL. Her leadership and entrepreneurial spirit helped spearhead innovation, product development and digital transformation.

Morten Vigeland

Chief Financial Officer

Morten has spent much of his career in finance empowering technology firms to develop and implement growth strategies. His tenures as CFO include both private and publicly traded companies, and he has managed international operations across several continents. Most recently, Morten helped a medical device company transform into a medical technology company with a cloud-based SaaS solution.

Piers Sanders

Chief Product Officer

As Chief Product Officer of the Enterprise AI business, Piers leads the product, design, science and engineering teams as they create AI solutions and digital twins. The team’s work has delivered impactful results for clients around the world in the water, energy, telecommunications, insurance and healthcare industries. Piers brings more than 20 years of product leadership and executive management experience, and he is trusted by clients for his entrepreneurial, commercially minded and collaborative approach. He holds degrees from the London School of Economics and the University of Cambridge.

Michael Liley

Senior Managing Director, Partnerships

A recognized thought leader on the future of work, Michael understands the importance of an integrated partner ecosystem to achieve results in the modern business environment. At Sand Technologies, he builds and manages strategic relationships with key global partners. Michael was a Partner with Ernst & Young and a Managing Director with Accenture before joining Sand Technologies. The German resident is also a member of faculty at Lagos Business School.

Aidan Helmbold

Director of Innovation

Aidan is an experienced data scientist with a demonstrated history of creating solutions in the financial services, utilities, telecommunications and healthcare industries. He spends his time building innovative operational AI systems that enable people to make better decisions in service of their customers. He is skilled in innovation, business strategy and risk management and has a strong academic background in Actuarial Science and Finance.

Asong Suh

Managing Director, Customer Solutions

Asong has guided the successful development of tech-forward business solutions for nearly two decades. For the past seven years, he has focused on enabling global clients to leverage AI, data science and data engineering to achieve key business outcomes. From his time as an electrical engineer through his tenure at McKinsey, Asong has remained passionate about helping companies find success through AI, digital technologies and advanced analytics.

Abhishek Sandhir

Managing Director, Telecommunications

Abhishek is a technically astute, growth-focused leader with extensive experience in developing and growing businesses. He has led cross-functional projects and teams in the AI/ML, SaaS, infrastructure and telecommunications industries in Europe, North America, the Middle East and Africa.

Brad Stanton

Managing Director of Commercial

Brad Stanton is Managing Director of Business Development at Sand Technologies. He has more than 25 years of consulting and software-development experience with leading global brands including Dell, Accenture and Hewlett-Packard. Brad has led high-performing teams in a number of capacities, from staffing and engineering process design to RevOps and channel formation. Based in Texas, he helps companies looking to harness AI talent and solutions in India, LATAM, Eastern Europe, Africa and the USA.

Danai Mavunga

Vice President of People

Danai has spent more than a decade building systems and developing high-performing teams in high-growth organizations. Her focus on coupling people and strategy to drive business success has benefitted multiple organizations, from the World Health Organization and African Leadership University to Sand Technologies.

Mayor Hardie Davis

Senior Advisor

Dr. Hardie Davis Jr. is a distinguished leader who, as the 84th Mayor of Augusta, brought his expertise as an electrical engineer and his experience as a former State Representative and State Senator to transform the city into a smart, equitable and sustainable 21st-century hub. Among his accomplishments: securing $178M in funding for work in the electric vehicle industry and electric grids, implementing the largest municipal solar project in the state, launching the comprehensive climate action plan Green Augusta, and reducing unemployment rates to less than 4%. On a national level, Mayor Davis served on the Executive Committee of the United States Conference of Mayors, co-chaired the Technology & Innovation Task Force, and sat on the National League of Cities Board of Directors. He was also a founding member and Past President of the African American Mayors Association.

Harrison McCoy

Vice President of Partnerships

Harrison is an accomplished technology executive with more than three decades of expertise in sales and strategic partnership management. He has held senior positions at several Fortune 500 firms including AWS, IBM, EMC and Oracle. Harrison has built a reputation for navigating complex technological partnerships to drive collaborative growth strategies. At Sand Technologies, he oversees relationships with global leaders in its partner ecosystem, including Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Nvidia.

Jonas Allen

Vice President of Marketing

Jonas is an award-winning marketing professional who’s helped organizations tell strategic stories for more than 24 years. He began his career as a journalist before pivoting to B2B tech PR and marketing, where his leadership roles have included Global Head of Marketing for two billion-dollar business units at Wipro, Director of Marketing for the world’s premier electronics ecolabel, and Regional Marketing Manager for a US wireless operator.

Matthew Panszczyk

Managing Director, Utilities - Energy

As a Managing Director of Energy and Utilities for Sand Technologies, Matt is responsible for the growth and development of the E&U practice in North America. His background includes 20-plus years of experience helping E&U Clients with complex Grid Modernization transformations in the following emerging areas Digital Worker, Smart Grid, Enterprise Asset Management, Grid Control Systems, DERs, Asset Performance Management, AI, Drones, and Robotic Rovers. Matt has an EMBA from the University of Notre Dame. In his spare time, he enjoys reading, golf, raising awareness for Autism, and fundraising for the Els for Autism Foundation. He has two lovely boys on the spectrum.

Nick Hu

Managing Director, Healthcare

Nick has more than 15 years of experience launching healthcare companies in Africa, most recently for drone company Zipline, expanding operations to five countries. Nick holds a Masters in Global Health from UCSF and studied System Design at UC Berkeley. Nick focuses primarily on the intersection of health tech and operations to increase access to health services.

Praveen Vijayanarayanan

Managing Director, Insurance

Praveen is a strategic, growth-focused leader with nearly 25 years of international experience in the insurance industry. Before joining Sand Technologies, he was Vice President of Insurance at Virtusa Corporation and Managing Client Partner at Cognizant Technologies. He brings diverse expertise in sales, client relationships, go-to-market strategy, practice development, people management, consulting, business and technology transformation, and technology delivery.

Richard Crisp

Managing Director, Oil & Gas

Richard has extensive experience in the Oil & Gas sector, having led client solutioning and relationships for KPMG, IBM and Infosys Consulting, the latter two as a Partner. As Managing Director of the Oil & Gas vertical at Sand Technologies, he brings a deep understanding of value-based consulting and a world-class delivery record. With these insights, along with his passion for developing talent, the US and UK citizen plays a key role in the company’s North America and global organization.

Samuel Darko

Managing Director, Global Business Services

Samuel has more than 15 years of experience as an entrepreneur and business leader. As Managing Director of the company’s GBS business, he oversees a team that blends the best of AI and human judgment to deliver business process and technology services outsourcing out of Africa. Before joining Sand Technologies, he served as a Vice President at Genpact in a number of sales roles. Samuel teaches entrepreneurship at Ashesi University and is a Rotarian. He loves memoirs and is taking lessons for a private pilot’s license.

Sanjay Neogi

Managing Director, Energy and Utilities

Sanjay is an accomplished business leader with three decades of experience in the energy and utilities sector. His unique blend of industry, consulting and IT experience has helped him build a reputation as a digital transformation leader across the UK, US, Europe, Asia, India, Australia and Middle East. He has worked extensively with the UK’s utilities and energy market for the past 20 years. Sanjay’s career has included senior leadership roles in TCS and Capgemini, as well as a Country Head role for Enzen, a boutique energy and utilities-focused organization.

Shana-Michelle Rabonda

Vice President of Operations

Shana-Michelle is the Vice President of Operations at Sand Technologies, focusing on overseeing various operational aspects of the organization including strategic planning and project management. She has worked with the AL Group for over 5 years, with roles primarily focused on learning, operations and people development. Prior to working at ALG, she worked as an IT consultant at Mobius Consulting.

Ted Sullivan

Managing Director, Media and Entertainment

Ted has spent more than three decades creating strategic solutions that help Media & Entertainment executives overcome key challenges and grow their business. He has held global executive positions at several international firms, including KPMG, PwC, IBM and SAP. Ted has in-depth understanding of the prevailing industry trends and future trajectory of the Media & Entertainment industry. As Managing Director of Sand Technologies’ Media and Entertainment group, he is responsible for formulating and executing a strategic plan that encompasses the direction, management and creation of solutions for M&E leaders worldwide.