Management Team

Mike Manson, CEO

Mike Manson is CEO and co-founder of the TaraSpan Group.  He has helped launch numerous startups and together with Raj Narula has secured over $40 million in funding for TaraSpan’s clients.   Mike is formerly Senior Vice President and General Manager at Alcatel, where he led a global business unit with software development centers in Canada, California, Belgium, Spain and India.  Prior to Alcatel, he held executive positions at Newbridge Networks in roles spanning product line management, business development and strategic alliances.  Mike is a frequently invited speaker on doing business in India, software business strategies and venture capital fundraising.  Mike serves on the board of directors of Canandia Inc. in Canada and Wesley Clover Communication Solutions Pvt Ltd in India.  Currently Mike divides his time between Ottawa Canada and Gurgaon India.

Mike holds a BASc degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Waterloo, Canada.

Raj Narula, President

Raj Narula is President and co-founder of the TaraSpan Group. Raj is formerly CEO and co-founder of TenXc Wireless, a company developing intelligent antenna systems for the GSM market.   As CEO and VP of business development he launched the company and was instrumental in raising over $20M in venture capital.  He also secured Alpha trials with Tier 1 carriers in Canada and the US.  Prior to TenXc, Raj was an active angel investor with investments in eLearning, Web Portals, security and IT companies and a serial entrepreneur. He started his first successful business at age 20.  He has helped launch numerous startups and together with Mike Manson has secured over $40 million in early and mid stage funding for his clients.  Additionally he transacted an M&A of an Ottawa software company by a publicly-traded Indian software company.  Raj divides his time between North America and India.

Raj is also the co-founder and Charter Member of the Ottawa chapter of TiE (the Indus Entrepreneur), a global organization focused on the fostering of entrepreneurship through mentoring, networking and education.  He has served on the board of many charitable organizations and enterprises over the past 20 years. He currently serves on the board of Canandia Inc.

Raj holds a B.Eng degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Ottawa, Canada and a Mechanical Systems Diploma from Algonquin College.

Dr. Peter Sommerer, Chairman

Peter Sommerer is currently President of Erlauf Holdings Ltd., a private equity investment company located in Canada and serves on the Board of Directors of a number of privately held technology companies.

In the period from 1996 to 2004 he founded, obtained financing for, and served as Chairman of three Internet oriented companies: GoodContacts, a contact management software company acquired by Reunion.com in 2004; Coventus, an internet-based service for business travelers, which was liquidated in 2001; and Vienna Systems, a pioneer of voice-over-Internet technology acquired by Nokia in 1998.

From 1990 to 1998 Mr. Sommerer served as President, COO, Director and Vice-Chairman of Newbridge Networks Corporation, which was subsequently acquired by Alcatel for over $7 billion.   Prior to Newbridge, he served in a number of technical, administrative and general management roles at Mitel Corporation and ITT Austria, now also part of Alcatel.

Mr. Sommerer obtained the academic title of Mag.rer.soc.oec. from Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration (Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien) in 1975, after graduating with a professional engineering degree (Ing.) from HTBLuVA Mödling, Austria.  In 2007 he completed his doctoral studies with the thesis “Single-market-multi-product companies – Evolution, organization and performance”.