Leadership and Integrity

Karlu Rambhala

President and Chief Executive Officer

Karlu Rambhala founded Avineon in 1992 and serves as President and Chief Executive Officer. As the company’s top executive, Karlu oversees all of Avineon’s divisions and strategically guides the company as it delivers sophisticated information technology (IT) systems and solutions to U.S. Government and commercial clients.

Karlu’s experience spans more than twenty two years in the technology sector with significant expertise in a wide range of computer aided engineering, database management and software engineering environments. Under Karlu’s leadership, Avineon has grown from a small start up to a global enterprise with subsidiaries in the UK, France, and India and more than 1,000 employees worldwide. Prior to founding Avineon, Karlu worked in various technical and management positions in the manufacturing and defense industries.

Karlu earned undergraduate degrees in Marine Engineering and Mathematics/Physics. He holds Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Engineering from the University of Michigan where he also completed the Executive Program at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business.

Heesun Robertson

Senior Vice President, Federal Systems

Heesun Robertson is Senior Vice President of Federal Systems, supporting all of Avineon’s federal government customers, including civilian, defense, and homeland security agencies.

Prior to her appointment as Senior Vice President, Heesun was Vice President of IT Services, applying expertise gained from her multiple technical and management positions within Avineon serving many of the company’s largest contracts. She has participated on multiple systems engineering teams and understands the full software development life cycle, having demonstrated experience in systems analysis, design, development, implementation, maintenance, and testing. Robertson also guides Avineon’s continuous software process improvement initiatives, including the Software Engineering Institute’s Capability Maturity Model® Integration (CMMI), an internationally accepted standard for process improvement.

Heesun completed the Fundamentals of Engineering and Licensing Exam and is certified by the Virginia State Licensing Board. She received her undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Michigan in Naval Architecture, Marine Engineering, and Information Technology. Heesun also holds an Executive MBA from The George Washington University.

James E. Smith

Senior Vice President, Federal Business Development

James Smith is Senior Vice President of Federal Business Development, and is responsible for directing Avineon’s federal sales efforts and strategic planning. He leads the business development team in tailoring technical solutions to better serve civilian, defense, and homeland security agencies.

James has over twenty years of experience in marketing, sales, and strategic planning with a focus on federal government programs. His background includes information technology support services (including cyber security), telecommunications services, software development, administrative services, facilities management, and program management. James has successful executive management experience in business development for large multi-national firms and mid-size companies, as well as small disadvantaged, 8(a), and woman-owned businesses.

Gary Wilkison

Senior Vice President, Commercial Systems

As Senior Vice President of Commercial Systems, Gary Wilkison is responsible for all services provided to commercial and state/local government customers, including geospatial, engineering, and commercial IT services. He is also responsible for the oversight and day-to-day operations of Avineon’s office in Clearwater, Florida.

Gary has more than 27 years of management and industry experience. He has held senior management positions with various geographic information systems (GIS) service companies. Gary managed production activity and coordinated projects between North American offices and offshore production facilities in support of large-scale projects for various United States and international utility companies and government agencies.

Gary is a member of the Geospatial Information Technology Association (GITA), several other industry associations and attended Denver Metropolitan State College

Charles Erdrich

Vice President, Business Development

Charles Erdrich is Vice President of Business Development. He is responsible for Avineon’s corporate marketing and supports the federal sales process, including capture and proposal management.

Charles’ experience includes more than 25 years of program management, business development, and systems analysis, engineering and integration for commercial and government clients. He has extensive management experience on large-scale, multi-disciplinary, technical services contracts. Prior to joining Avineon, Charles was Director of Federal Information Technology Programs, at the Titan Corporation.

Charles is the recipient of numerous awards for technical leadership, customer satisfaction, and business development accomplishments. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Aeronautical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a Master of Science in the Interdisciplinary Transportation Program (School of Engineering) from Northeastern University

Peter van Es

Managing Director, Avineon Europe Ltd.

As Managing Director of Avineon’s European subsidiary, Avineon Europe Ltd., Peter van Es is responsible for the day-to-day administrative and technical functions of Avineon’s European operations and facilities in the United Kingdom, France and Benelux. His specific responsibilities include finance, business development, human resource development, and general administration.

Peter brings more than 20 years of experience to his position, including 12 years in executive-level management. Prior to Avineon, he held several sales, marketing and management positions including Chief Commercial Officer for Tele Atlas.

Peter holds a Civil Engineering degree from Technical University of Delft in the Netherlands and Bachelor and Master degrees in Business Administration from Limburg University in Belgium. He speaks Flemish, Dutch, English, French, and German.

Raghu Ganeshan

President, Avineon India Private Limited

Raghu Ganeshan serves as President of Avineon India Private Limited (AIPL), the India-based subsidiary of Avineon, Inc., where he oversees more than 800 employees and holds direct responsibility for AIPL’s operational affairs in engineering, computer-aided design, geographic information systems (GIS), and IT services. In addition, Raghu is responsible for ensuring AIPL maintains stringent requirements for information security management to protect confidential company and customer information.

Raghu’s technical experience includes GIS data modeling, requirements study, large scale database creation and maintenance, systems integration, application development, and data migration. Since joining Avineon in 1999, he has held a number of top management roles within the company’s operations in the United States and India.

Raghu earned a Bachelor of Technology degree in Civil Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology and a Master of Science degree in Civil Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology.