Who We Are

Seasoned business professional with over 25years experience in running companies and projects in the information technology and software development space. Strong expertise in Business Development and Partner Development to drive desired organizational results. Strong expertise in understanding and gathering customer requirements, working with the end users and bridging the gap between the technical challenges and functional user community. Worked extensively with the Federal government Agencies, such as Depart of Defense, ARMY, NAVY, Department of Justice, Housing and Urban Development, Federal Trade Commission and Department of Agriculture. In the past, Sumanth established a team of 10 sub-contractors, including Deloitte, to bid and win a $250 Million TRADOC OMNIBUS contract through a JV called GDS-MELE Sumanth has re-structured GDS to include next generation cyber security products, Block chain capabilities, Edge ERP and Legacy modernization offerings. Under Sumanth’s leadership GDS is expanding into Energy Storage industry through partnerships with C4V and 40 plus companies in the battery storage industry. GDS is discussing a CRADA with Army Research Laboratory ( ARL ) and ARMY C5ISR Center, which will be focused on commercializing revolutionary technologies to support the high demands of Energy Storage in DOD and the Federal Government. We are in the process of putting together a high-profile Board of Advisors for GDS, as we embark on a journey of exponential growth over the next decade.

Mr. Kirksey brings a twenty eight year career in defense/aerospace industry and commercial with increasing levels of responsibility and authority. Positions included Vice President and General Manager of a $150M line of business for an international corporation. Mr. Kirksey has worked at the executive level for accomplished companies such as BAE Systems, Marconi Electronics and Tracor. As the Executive Vice President and Chief Operations Officer at his latest position, he was responsible for oversight of company operations, by developing, executing and maintaining the company’s business development strategic plans; identifying, capturing and bidding on new opportunities. He developed, negotiated, and implemented strategic partnerships with Information Technology companies with a focus on cyber security, network infrastructure and smart city command and control solutions. At GDS, Mr. Kirksey is responsible for oversight of all company operations. He develops strategies for establishing partnerships and business relationships to contribute to overall company growth.

Mr. Reilly has over thirty years’ experience defining and designing global and large-scale enterprise level applications, executive support applications, supply chain management systems, and enterprise infrastructure applications. Mr. Reilly has a broad entrepreneurial background creating businesses and performing several business turn-arounds. He has automated hospitals, energy firms, utility performance management systems, and banks such as Credit Lyonnaise in New York City. He has also engaged in the large-scale planning; defining; constructing; implementing; and operating of several technical infrastructures; for states; and federal government entities such as DOJ and Forest Services; and global enterprises. Industries that Mr. Reilly has supported include: Health Care, Medical Insurance, Software, Financial Accounting, Banking, Supply Chain Management, Warehouse Management, Regulated Utilities, the State of Maryland, and the Federal Government. At Oracle Corporation, Mr. Reilly was appointed nationwide Regional Consulting Manager for the Regulated Utilities Industry. He also directed the information technology for Larry Ellison’s International Oracle Users’ Group and the European Oracle Users’ Group in Cannes, France. The State of Maryland nominated Mr. Reilly for the George A. Bell award for his work on the Redirections of Maryland State Data Processing, a project under the auspices of the Governor and the Maryland State Legislature. Mr. Reilly received a B. S. in Industrial Psychology from Johns Hopkins University. His graduate study in Industrial Organization was also conducted at Johns Hopkins University.

Parag Rajpal brings nearly two decades of financial, operational and strategic experience. Currently, he serves as VP of Finance for a technology company in New York City. Parag Rajpal’s professional experience also spans interim management, restructuring and management consulting. Throughout his career, Parag has provided financial leadership to CEO and CFOs. Overseeing revenue forecasting, expense planning, pipeline management, & investor relations. Accountable for delivering detailed annual financial & operating plan, and the quarterly reforecasts. Responsible for preparing board decks, quarterly business reviews (QBR), designing sales compensation plans, working valuation provider and auditors to complete the 409a valuation report and annual audit. Managed a team of three direct reports • Prepare the monthly reporting package for all departments that includes financial statements, metrics, actual vs, budget variances and detail level explanations for any differences. • Constantly track the company’s expenditures by department and look for opportunities for savings, to deploy capital where it produces best return. • Partner and collaborate with Executive Management & department leaders on headcount planning, growing sales, reducing customer churn, infrastructure investments, improving NPS, and increasing profitability. • Review sales pricing and contracts for existing and prospective clients. • Negotiated favorable terms for debt facility and secured additional term loan from bank. • Assisted in improving business from negative EBITDA and negative free cash flow in 2015 to positive EBITDA and FCF in 2018. • Conducted financial due diligence on M&A deals; provide strategic support to executive team for all merger and acquisition opportunities. • Implemented key business metrics (LTV, CAC, & Magic number) to track in board decks and business reviews. Parag started his career in Management Consulting where he assisted the management of a 300M auto supplier in developing a plan to generate adequate EBITDA to cover fixed charges and secure a new line of credit (Company was sold to Audi) • Managed and developed 13-week cash flows, three statement models and liquidation models/ budgets for retail, telecom, media, and healthcare companies; provided financial models to lenders and potential equity investors. • Worked with 180B beverage client to assess feasibility & profitability of competing in the sports & energy drinks market. (client eventually acquired Honest Tea and entered into the energy drinks market) • Advised the management of 200M paper producer on their restructuring and financing alternatives. Parag holds degrees from University of Michigan and Simon School of Business in Rochester.

Pankaj has held technology leadership roles across a wide variety of leading companies, ranging from startups to some of the industry’s largest firms. Pankaj is the Chief Executive Officer at Security First Corp. since October 2019. In the last six months, he created the very first Cloud Security service (SaaS) based on Single-Pass Data Security architecture. He joined Security First Corp as a Chief Product and Strategy Officer (CPSO) in August 2018. He is responsible for the long-range vision to set the direction for the company’s products, as well as running the development, testing, and delivery organizations for Security First’s products.
Prior to joining Security First, Pankaj was Vice President of Engineering at Zscaler, bringing next-generation security to the cloud and building it to scale across hundreds of data centers. He also led the team to build its first AI/ML-based big data platform. Prior to that, he was GM and Director of Engineering at Microsoft, including leading the Windows Security Team, as well as delivering several networking and security products, and responsible for the revenue of over $800M. He founded iPolicy Networks and led product and engineering teams to build the industry’s first implementation of a next-generation firewall solution for enterprise and service providers delivering the very first implementation of secure access from the service edge (SASE). Pankaj is accustomed to thinking years ahead of the market and has been strategic advisors at several security startups.
Pankaj has completed a Ph.D. work at Arizona State University after obtaining an MS in Computer Engineering also at Arizona State. Also, he has completed advanced courses at Carnegie Mellon and the University of California, Berkeley. He is based in Silicon Valley in California.