Executive Team
Knowledge, Experience, Dedication
With deep knowledge and experience in the telecommunications, air traffic control and command and control industries, SolaCom's management team understands the technology, trends, and market forces that influence their customer needs.
Franz Plangger
Chief Executive Officer and President
Franz Plangger is the founder of SolaCom Technologies. Before founding SolaCom, he co-founded CML Technologies in 1982. At CML, he was responsible for the design and development of all CML products. In 1989, Franz Plangger took over entire responsibility for the running of CML Technologies Inc. During his career as President at CML, Mr. Plangger was instrumental in winning and successfully delivering several multi-million dollar contracts to Transport Canada, Illinois State Toll Highway Authority, City of Chicago and many others. During this period, revenue figures for CML grew from $3.8 million to nearly $25 million in 1999. Under his leadership, the company was awarded some very prestigious awards such as The 50 Best Managed Private Companies by Arthur Andersen Group and the Canada Awards for Business Excellence and the Mercuriad award by the Quebec Chamber of Commerce.
Mr. Plangger obtained his Bachelor of Electrical Engineering degree, with High Distinction, in 1975 from Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario. He was awarded a National Research Council of Canada Scholarship to continue his engineering studies toward a Master's of Electrical Engineering degree, obtained in 1978.
Jocelyn Racine
Senior Vice-President, Finance & Administration
Jocelyn Racine joined SolaCom in September 1999 as Director of Finance and Administration. Mr. Racine is a Certified Management Accountant with 16 years of experience and 10 years experience in senior positions. Prior to joining SolaCom, Mr. Racine was Vice-President of Finance for Le Groupe Brigil Construction and Manager at KPMG, Chartered Accountants.
Allan Zander
Vice-President, Business Development
Allan Zander is responsible for developing strategic relationships, partnerships and growth strategies for all of SolaCom’s business units and for ensuring that resources in all portfolios are continually optimized. Mr. Zander’s mandate is to evaluate new business plans, technologies and market entrance strategies to evolve SolaCom into the global leader for critical communications. A seasoned entrepreneur, engineer and computer scientist turned guerrilla marketer, Allan has 15 years of experience gained from his own company and others such as CML Emergency Services, Mitel Networks and Nortel Networks. He has introduced many industry firsts on platforms that integrate voice, video, data and instant messaging predominantly for mission-critical use.
Alain Tremblay
Vice-President, Research & Development
Before joining SolaCom Technologies, Alain Tremblay was Vice President & General Manager of the Mobile Radio Business Unit at CML Technologies from 2000 to 2001. Previous to that, he was Vice President, Product Solutions for one year preceded by Vice President, R&D from 1997 to 1999. Leading up to these postings were the positions of Hardware Design Manager from 1989 to 1997 at CML Technologies. Earlier that, he was Product Development Engineer from 1985 to 1989 at Northern Telecom. He obtained his Bachelor's of Applied Science degree in 1985 from Laval University.
Pierre Plangger
Vice-President, ATC Business Unit
Before joining SolaCom Technologies, Pierre Plangger was Vice President and General Manager at CML Technologies from 2000 to 2002. Previous to that, he was VP Marketing, from 1998 to 2000. From 1994 until 1999, Pierre Plangger was responsible for Product Management and Business Development, at CML Technologies.
Sivakumar Chandrasekaran
Vice-President, LibertySHIELD Business Unit
Before joining SolaCom in 2006, Siva Chandrasekaran was Chief Business/Solution Strategist at Alcatel, responsible for defense communication and homeland security . Prior to that assignment, he was Senior Program/Design Manager for Alcatel's ATM/IP Path Management products. Before joining Alcatel, Siva worked at General Dynamics Canada (GDC) as RSAOC ICS project lead and Chief System Architect . He holds a Masters in Engineering and a Masters in Business Administration, both from the University of Saskatchewan.
Ray Vilis
Vice-President, iTEL Business Unit
Ray Vilis brings 30 years of telecommunications industry experience in product management, product development, and system engineering, over the the past six years, focusing on the definition and introduction of new VoIP services. Mr. Vilis developed his expertise at Bell Northern Research and Nortel, where he established a proven track record in the delivery of large, profitable, multi-year product development projects including traditional PSTN voice and turnkey IP solutions (Magellan Passport), automated speech recognition technology and data network solutions. His experience managing teams from 20 to 250 individuals over three continents includes several joint venture activities between Nortel Networks and key technology organizations.
Avo Bedrossian
Vice-President, Operations
Avo Bedrossian joined the SolaCom executive team in 2006 as Vice-President Operations with responsibilities that include Manufacturing, Field Services, Project Management and MIS. Prior to joining SolaCom, Avo Bedrossian was the Production Manager with the JDS Uniphase Systems Products Group in Ottawa where he contributed to the substantial growth in the company’s instrumentation business.
Mr. Bedrossian graduated from University of Ottawa with a B.A.Sc. and a M.A.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering respectively in 1974 and 1976. He has over 25 years of experience in operations management with several industry sectors and technologies having previously worked with ProSlide; Canada Post; Via Rail; Iron Ore Company of Canada and Denison Mines.
Eamon Friel
Director of Project Management
Eamon Friel joined SolaCom in 2003 after a very distinguished career in industry and government. He started his career as a design engineer for STC on the first British PCM system and for Marconi on avionics for the Harrier aircraft, obtaining a patent for improvements to navigation receivers.
Mr. Friel joined Raytheon Canada in 1969 as a design engineer on VOR ground based navigation systems and managed a multimillion dollar turnkey contract to supply navigational aids to Indonesia before joining Transport Canada as a senior project engineer in the navigational aids group in 1975.
Mr. Friel was promoted to Superintendent of Information Systems in 1981 and to Superintendent of Communications Systems Engineering in 1985 where he was responsible for all Canadian ATC voice communications systems and radio systems including system specification, procurement, installation and life cycle support.
When ATC was privatized in 1996, Mr. Friel transferred to NAV CANADA where he represented Canada on the ICAO working group on voice switching and signaling (AVSSSG). Mr. Friel joined Solacom Technologies as Director of project management in January 2003.
Mr.Friel obtained his honours Bachelor of Technology in electrical engineering from Loughborough University (U.K) in 1965.
Yvan Paquette
Director of Manufacturing
Yvan Paquette joined CML Technologies Inc. in 1983 where he underwent a comprehensive training program and a very successful career spanning from electronic design, electronic drafting, mechanical design, component engineering and communication system packaging to manufacturing management. Mr. Paquette graduated in 1983 with a degree in Electronics Technology.
SolaCom's Executive Team can count on employees with lots of skills and talents, combined with an attitude focused on customer satisfaction. Together we make it our mission to listen to, and act upon, our customer needs.
| 
