Meet the leadership behind our inside-out security approach.

Purandar is the Co-founder & CEO of Sotero. Purandar has held senior management and leadership roles throughout out his career. He adopts a pragmatic approach that enables business to leverage technology to power growth and gain trust.

Purandar has built world class organizations that have fueled growth through new product offerings. Purandar has been on the leading edge of embracing new technology to help organizations transition their product & technology offerings, creating new revenue streams.

Purandar started Sotero with the conviction that today’s data protection was deficient and that a better approach was needed to protect data. He is a firm believer that security solutions, where the core focus is not the data, are not viable option.

Purandar was most recently the CTO at Infogroup. Prior to Infogroup, Purandar was the CTO at Epsilon, where he lead the Digital Solutions organization.

Purandar is a graduate of Texas A&M University (MS – Mechanical Engineering) and Bangalore University (BS – Mechanical Engineering).

Shanthi Boppana is Sotero’s Co-founder and CTO, overseeing the company’s technology development.

Shanthi has held several senior technology positions throughout her career built innovative analytical solutions on a broad range of modern platforms. Before co-founding Sotero she worked as Vice President of Big data and Analytics at Infogroup where she is responsible for modernizing legacy platforms and re-architecting applications to leverage Cloud Computing.

Previously, Shanthi worked at a startup Syncra Systems where she architected the Value Chain Collaboration Platform which was acquired by Oracle in 2005. Shanthi also led the mobile advertising and data analytics platform at Nokia. She earned an M.S degree in Engineering Science from LSU.

Eric is the VP of Sales for Sotero developing and leading the sales team in going to market with Sotero's as-a-service offerings.

Eric joins Sotero after 15 years of sales and sales leadership mainly in the VC-backed emerging technology industry (Sigma Partners, Battery Ventures, Charles River Ventures, Madrona, Vulcan Capital, NEA) with a well-rounded understanding of collaborative partnerships and a focus on aligning unique technology offerings to solve critical business issues for clients. Previous to Sotero, Eric lead sales teams and efforts at Akorri, Zerto, and most recently Igneous. His passion beyond succeeding in building the business is building a strong sales team with a culture of teamwork and success.

Eric earned his BA in Economics from the University of Maryland.

Bob is a Strategic Sales and Business Development Leader adept at bringing innovation through technology and engineering with deep experience in all aspects of product development, integration, training, support, sales, partner sales, marketing and business development.

Bob has spent most of his 40 year career as a technical leader, mentor and advisor. As a problem solver who moved into a sales role after many years and now working with companies to provide technology that solves real business problems, Bob reduces cost and improves operational efficiency.

As a senior technologist the best vendors to work with were those You could trust and delivered value not only with product but with quality support and had a desire to understand the business. As a sales professional these traits are the reason for success. Understand the needs, build trust, provide value and long term everyone wins.

Aboo Thanikkal is the Director of Software Engineering at Sotero. Aboo is a technology leader with more than 25 years of experience in the Software Industry. He leads the development of Sotero Software Platform and Applications.

Aboo has held senior technology positions in many small and large companies including EBSCO Information Services, CloudHealth Technologies and DataGravity. He has extensive experience in architecting and building highly scalable platforms and applications by making use of the latest technologies and tools. As the Director of Architecture at EBSCO, Aboo led the development of a premium online research platform used by libraries throughout the world called EBSCOhost serving hundreds of millions searches per day. At CloudHealth, Aboo worked on next-generation micro-services based technology platform for analyzing and optimizing cloud cost, usage, and performance.

Aboo holds a Masters degree in Computer Science from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics Engineering from National Institute of Technology, Calicut.

Chantel is the Chief of Staff at Sotero. Chantel manages all back office & administrative functions. Throughout her career, Chantel has focused on helping organizations achieve their objectives by establishing processes and providing them the structural support required.

Chantel has held various roles assisting executives at Abiomed and Epsilon, and managing offices at Stackpole & Partners and J. Bennett Construction Services. Prior to Sotero, Chantel took time away from her professional career to focus on her growing family.

Chantel has served on the Georgetown, MA Special Education Parent Advisory Council (SEPAC) to bring education and support to her community. She is a graduate of Endicott College (BS in Business Administration) and also studied Interior Design and Architecture at Wentworth Institute of Technology.

Alek is Sotero's Principal Solutions Architect, leading its pre-sale engineering practice and supporting its go-to-market strategy.

Alek brings years of experience in leadership, product management, and sales engineering for both startups and in large enterprises. With a strong focus on cybersecurity, optimizing data workflows, and guiding organizations to accelerate growth with technology, Alek has served in senior consulting positions both at Forcepoint and Experian—as well as a CIO for a high-growth venture.

After earning his undergraduate degree from Harvard University, Alek began his career researching at MIT and by modernizing a technology program for a school. In his spare time, Alek enjoys volunteering, running, hiking, and attempting to play the guitar.