Executive Leadership

Based in Sunnyvale, California, Transera was co-founded by Prem Uppaluru, Mukesh Sundaram and Lori Kendall, proven visionary leaders with patented inventions that have revolutionized the contact center industry. Prem and Mukesh co-founded Telera, which was acquired by Alcatel in 2002 for its leadership in VoiceXML self-service solutions. Transera's team brings a focused perspective on the call center and communications industry, drawing upon leadership roles at Genesys Telecommunications/Alcatel, MCI, Geotel, Nuance, Avaya, Cisco and Novell.

Prem Uppaluru

President & Chief Executive Officer (Co-Founder)

Prem brings to Transera his 25 years of experience in the telecommunications and networking industry and his keen entrepreneurial instincts. Prior to joining Transera, Prem was Executive Vice President, Voice Portal Solutions at Genesys, where he was responsible for strategic direction and development of the company's Voice Platform and Managed Service solutions. As a result of his efforts, the Genesys Voice Portal products were awarded the top ranking in worldwide market leadership from the Gartner Group for completeness of business vision and ability to deliver compelling value to the marketplace. Prem joined Genesys in mid-2002 when the company he co-founded, Telera, was acquired by Genesys and its parent company, Alcatel. While at Telera, Prem served as Chief Executive Officer, and was the driving force behind the company's success in the emerging VoiceXML platform and solutions market. Prior to co-founding Telera, Prem co-founded VOIS Corporation where he served as Chief Executive Officer. Before launching into his entrepreneurial efforts, Prem held Vice President and General Manager positions at Novell. He also served as Vice President of Engineering at Fluent and Samsung Software America. Prem also held engineering management positions with Bell Labs and Bellcore during his tenure in telecommunications, network management, multimedia and telephony. Prem holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of Texas at Austin. He received his masters and undergraduate degrees in Electrical Engineering from IIT Bombay.

Mukesh Sundaram

Sr. Vice President & Chief Technical Officer (Co-Founder)

With more than 25 years of software development and management experience, Mukesh is the driving force behind many communications and networking innovations. Mukesh has successfully contributed to the development of several next generation standards, including voice communications and network management protocols, managed services architectures, and web technologies. Mukesh joined Genesys in mid-2002 when the company he co-founded, Telera, was acquired by Genesys and its parent company, Alcatel. While at Telera, Mukesh served as Chief Technical Officer, and guided the development of Genesys/Telera's patented Voice Web Application Platform™, which earned Gartner’s highest ranking in the 2004 IVR and Voice Portal report. The platform was recognized for product completeness and ability to deliver value to the marketplace. Prior to co-founding Telera, Mukesh was at VOIS Corporation where he served as Vice President of Engineering. Prior positions also include Director of Engineering at Novell, spearheading the ManageWise product line, and engineering management positions at Ungerman-Bass. Mukesh holds a Masters degree in Computer Science from the University of Tennessee. He pursued doctoral studies at University of Illinois, and earned an undergraduate degree from IIT Madras.

Lori Kendall

Vice President of Services (Co-Founder)

As a co-founder of Transera, Lori brings over 20 years of IT and Telecommunications industry experience to her position as Vice President of Services. Lori's experience spans seed funded startups to Fortune 500 companies developing software applications for call centers, telecommunications providers, and systems management solutions. Lori is responsible for Transera's services and operations. Lori was most recently Vice President of Products & Marketing at Enkata Technologies, an early stage and privately held company providing enterprise business intelligence services and solutions, where she oversaw all marketing efforts. Prior to joining Enkata Technologies, Lori was Vice President at Genesys Telecommunications, an Alcatel operating company, where she was responsible for global strategic accounts and enterprise applications development. At Genesys, Lori spearheaded an initiative to increase overall Customer Satisfaction by creating a global strategic account management program. She was also responsible for defining next generation products for call center markets. Under Lori's tenure, product revenues increased over 250% as a result of extending market reach and entering markets with new product offerings. Prior to Genesys, Lori held management positions in Marketing and Information Technology at companies including Novell, VOIS, Aion, Xerox, and Candle. Lori is a frequent guest speaker and lecturer for numerous user groups, technology forums, and universities. Lori holds an undergraduate degree in Business.

Dan Burkland

Sr. Vice President, Sales

With over 18 years of sales leadership experience in the Call Center and Voice Applications market, Dan is responsible for Transera’s global sales operations and business development activities. Dan brings a successful track record in building, directing and managing global sales organizations and channel partnerships for early stage technology companies. Prior to Transera, Dan served as SVP World-wide Sales at IP Unity, where he grew sales from $6M to over $33M in 2 years, managing both direct and indirect sales efforts. Before that, he was Cisco Systems' western area manager for Advanced Technologies, including its IP Telephony sales team, and was responsible for growing annual revenues from $65 million to $130 million. Prior to that assignment, he managed Cisco's Contact Center Software sales group for the Western U.S. His successful career has also included director of sales at GeoTel, where he expanded sales nearly ten-fold prior to the company’s acquisition by Cisco. His experience prior to GeoTel included 6 years with Centigram, a voice processing applications company, where he held various sales management positions, including director of sales for the western US and Canada. He consistently delivers strong revenue growth while demonstrating his ability to open new markets. He holds a BS in marketing and economics from California State University, Chico.