Saksena, Vikram

2015 Distinguished Alumni Award

For leadership in business and technology strategy in the telecommunications industry.

Vikram Saksena joined Bell Labs in 1982 and was part of a small team of pioneers focused on defining the core aspects of fast packet switching technology that later became part of the Internet standards. During this period he built the foundation for AT &T’s Internet and data services business. He left AT &T in 1998 and cofounded two start-up companies, MaxComm Technologies (later acquired by Cisco Systems) and Narad Networks (later acquired by Ciena). He became CTO of Sonus Networks, where he led the development of industry’s first wireless softswitch and media gateway technologies, a femtocell gateway platform, and a new application server platform for next-gen services.

In 2008, he became CTO of Tellabs. Saksena then joined Neustar in 2012 as SVP of new product innovation to focus on mobile and cloud-based applications and services. At Neustar, he led new initiatives in industrial automation, registry and device management, and wireless rich media communications. More recently, he joined Netscout Systems to lead technology strategy for service assurance and security solutions in a virtualized software-centric world driven by recent advances in software defined networking and network function virtualization. He was recognized as an AT &T Fellow in 1997, the company’s highest honor, for
pioneering contributions and continuous innovation to AT &T’s data networking services, and in 2008, he was recognized by the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council as CTO of the Year for his contributions to Sonus’ wireless business.