Yves Padrines

Chief Executive Officer

Yves Padrines is Synamedia’s Chief Executive Officer who comes from Cisco, where for over six years as Vice President of Global Service Provider for Europe, Middle East, Africa and Russia, he was responsible for all Cisco products and services business for major telecommunications, mobile and cable operators, broadcasters and media companies as well as cloud and managed service providers. He has also held general management and senior executive roles during his previous tenure at NDS from 2004-2012.

Before joining NDS, Yves served in various capacities in sales, product management, finance and management consulting with large international companies in the media and technology industries such as Vivendi, Creative and PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

Bijal Patel

Chief Financial Officer

Bijal Patel is Synamedia’s Chief Financial Officer and brings over 20 years of experience in international high-tech and software companies as well as private equity backed technology firms. Bijal has extensive experience driving business transformation, integrations and process improvements.

Bijal joined Synamedia from hospitality technology innovator, HotSchedules where he served as CFO for 3 years. Prior to HotSchedules, Bijal was CFO at Aptean and before that he held the position of Vice President of Finance at Finastra and was interim CFO between 2012 and 2014. Bijal spent the early part of his career in a variety of senior roles at IBM.

Charlotte de Metz

Chief People Officer

Charlotte has a strong track record in delivering innovative employee development, engagement, and retention practices that enable the creation of sustainable teams that deliver value and better meet corporate objectives. A results-oriented HR leader, she has extensive experience in managing high-impact, enterprise-wide transformations in challenging, fast-paced environments.

Before joining Synamedia in early 2019, Charlotte served as Executive Vice President at Finastra where she was responsible for Executive Talent, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Culture and Values, and Diversity and Inclusion. Prior to joining Finastra in 2012 as Global Head of Human Resources, Charlotte spent over 11 years at Ventyx, a global provider of software solutions for the energy, utility and other asset-intensive businesses. During her tenure at Ventyx she held various HR roles, latterly as Human Resource Manager for Rest of World.

Ismat Levin

Senior Vice President and General Counsel

Jean-Marc Racine

Chief Product Officer

Sue Couto

Senior Vice President, General Manager, Asia Pacific

Sue is Senior Vice President and General Manager of Asia Pacific. She has joined the executive team to drive growth and expand customer relationships across Asia Pacific. She has overall responsibility for sales, marketing, partners, and delivery in the region. Sue brings over 20 years’ experience in senior leadership roles in the TV and broadcast industry in Asia Pacific, most recently as Senior Vice President of APAC Sales for TiVo, where she was responsible for overall sales strategy for software solutions.

Prior to this, Sue was Senior Vice President, Video Software Solutions, APJC at Cisco, and at NDS before its acquisition by Cisco. She has built and led the teams which have been instrumental in winning key customers and enabling them to grow their businesses. Many of these players are now amongst the largest DTH platforms in the world.

David Longaker

Senior Vice President, General Manager, Americas

Fin O’Kane

Senior Vice President & General Manager EMEA

Fin O’Kane is Senior Vice President and General Manager EMEA. Previously Fin was responsible for our major accounts – Sky and Liberty Global. Fin comes to us from Cisco where he was responsible for the Cisco portfolio relationship into the Cable Media and Video sector in Europe. Before Cisco, Fin held senior roles in Ericsson and Lucent, mainly in the Service Provider sector looking after both sales and delivery phases across his accounts.

Alok Gera

Chief Technology Officer

Alok Gera is Chief Technology Officer for Synamedia. Alok comes to the role from Cisco where he was Director and the CTO of Cisco’s Service Provider Platforms and Applications business. Prior to this role, Gera was a Senior Engineering Manager for systems engineering, working with Comcast Cable. He has worked across multiple architecture and market transitions, including migration to the cloud, evolved service offerings and the transition to IP video.

Yael Fainaro

Senior Vice President, Security

Yael Fainaro is SVP, Security. In her role Yael is responsible for Synamedia’s Security Group as well as heading the Business Operations Group and acting as Chief of Staff for the business. Yael has over 18 years’ experience in the security technology industry in the areas of strategy, M&A, innovation, business development & post-merger integration. 

Prior to joining Synamedia, Yael served as VP Corporate Development of CyberArk Software (NASDAQ: CYBR) where she was responsible for leading the company’s strategy and for generating new growth activities through organic and in-organic initiatives. Prior to that, Yael held the position of Director, Corporate Development and Integration at Cisco, which she joined through the NDS acquisition in 2012. 

Julien Signes

Senior Vice President and General Manager, Video Network

Julien Signes leads Synamedia’s Video Network business. One of the industry’s foremost experts on video processing, Julien advised emerging video technology businesses on financing and helped them scale globally before joining Synamedia in early 2019. He also provided advice to Atlantic Bridge, a global venture capital firm.

Julien founded Envivio in 2000 and as CEO he led the company through private equity financing and a NASDAQ IPO to create the global leader in software-based video encoding. Ericsson acquired the business in 2015. While at France Telecom (now Orange) in the 1990s, Julien led the development of the MPEG-4 standard, resulting in multiple patents for MPEG-4 virtual reality and 3D graphics support.

Tzvi Gerstl

Senior Vice President, Engineering

Tzvi Gerstl is Senior Vice President of Engineering. In his role, Tzvi is responsible for the Infinite Engineering Group. Tzvi is an energetic and dynamic leader who has over 20 years’ experience in the digital Pay TV industry in senior and executive roles. He brings with him extensive and intimate knowledge of technical leadership on large scale development programs, building world-class software.

Tzvi joined Synamedia from Cisco where he was Head of the Infinite Home Engineering Group, an advanced cloud software solution for the pay TV market. Prior to Cisco, Tzvi held the positions of Director and VP as Head of Consumer Devices Testing Technology Department at NDS, responsible for the quality certification of the NDS Conditional Access and Consumer Device software.

Tzvi holds a PhD in Combinatorial Optimization.

Steve Taylor

Vice President, Engineering

Steve Taylor is Vice President of Engineering. In his role, Steve is responsible for the Foundation Engineering Group. Steve brings with him over 20 years’ experience in the industry as a hands-on, motivated leader with a history of success building and managing high-performing, globally-diverse engineering teams, and developing innovative software engineering resources and processes.

Steve joined Synamedia from Cisco where he was Senior Director of Engineering and Architecture, leading a global engineering team working on multimillion-pound Sky projects, including SkyQ and Sky+.

Prior to Cisco, Steve rose from Technical Director to Vice President of Technology at NDS where he was a member of the Corporate Technical Advisory Group, advising the CEO and Executive Board on the technical direction for the company.

Dr. Abe Peled

Chairman of the Board

Dr. Abe Peled is a Senior Adviser to the Permira Private Equity TMT Group, Chairman of the Board of TeamViewer, and on the Operating Committee of Metalogix, both Permira portfolio companies. Abe is also the Senior Independent Director on the Board of Inmarsat Plc. And a Partner at CyberCloud Ventures, a Consulting and Investment Company. From 1995, Dr. Peled served as CEO of NDS Group Ltd, and lead the company until its acquisition by Cisco in 2012.

Yves Padrines

Chief Executive Officer

Yves Padrines is Synamedia’s Chief Executive Officer who comes from Cisco, where for over six years as Vice President of Global Service Provider for Europe, Middle East, Africa and Russia, he was responsible for all Cisco products and services business for major telecommunications, mobile and cable operators, broadcasters and media companies as well as cloud and managed service providers. He has also held general management and senior executive roles during his previous tenure at NDS from 2004-2012.

Before joining NDS, Yves served in various capacities in sales, product management, finance and management consulting with large international companies in the media and technology industries such as Vivendi, Creative and PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

Robin Crossley

Adviser to the Group CEO at Sky

Robin Crossley joined Sky TV in 1989 and was instrumental in Sky’s transition from a broadcaster to a full service company . He also worked on the introduction of encryption technology allowing Sky to launch pay-TV channels. After four years at Sky’s satellite provider, SES, Robin rejoined BSkyB in 1995 to manage the transition to a digital broadcaster. He led the team that developed Sky’s first digital set-top box and later led the teams that introduced the red button interactive TV services and the Sky+ Digital Video Recorder.

In 2006, Robin was appointed Strategic Adviser for Technology at Sky Group. Between 2013 and 2018, he was also Technology Adviser to the Board of Modern Times Group (MTG) in Sweden. Following Sky’s acquisition by Comcast in January 2019, Robin was appointed Adviser to the Group CEO at Sky. He is also a Director of Sky Consumer Products Ltd and is Sky’s representative at the DVB Standardisation Group.

Bijal Patel

Chief Financial Officer

Bijal Patel is Synamedia’s Chief Financial Officer and brings over 20 years of experience in international high-tech and software companies as well as private equity backed technology firms. Bijal has extensive experience driving business transformation, integrations and process improvements.

Bijal joined Synamedia from hospitality technology innovator, HotSchedules where he served as CFO for 3 years. Prior to HotSchedules, Bijal was CFO at Aptean and before that he held the position of Vice President of Finance at Finastra and was interim CFO between 2012 and 2014. Bijal spent the early part of his career in a variety of senior roles at IBM.

Richard Sanders

Partner, Co-Head of Technology, Permira

Richard is a Partner. He is Co-Head of the Technology Sector team and a member of the Investment Committee. He spent the first nine years at Permira based in the London office, before relocating to the United States in 2008 to set up the Menlo Park office. Richard returned to London in 2011. He has worked on numerous transactions including Allegro Group, ABS, Freescale Semiconductor, Genesys, Inmarsat, Intelsat, NDS, TeamViewer and Teraco.

Prior to joining Permira, Richard worked for Morgan Stanley in London in the M&A and High Yield Capital Markets divisions.

Benoit Vauchy

Partner, Permira

Benoit is a Partner and a member of the Investment Committee and the Board. He is a member of the Financing Group and has worked on numerous transactions including Acromas (The AA & Saga), eDreams ODIGEO, Freescale Semiconductor, Iglo Group, NDS, Vacalians and Exclusive Group.

Prior to joining Permira, Benoit spent six years at JPMorgan in Frankfurt and London, arranging leveraged finance transactions. He also worked for Paribas in Frankfurt within the Media/Telecom team and in the Leveraged Finance department.

Ryan Lanpher

Principal, Permira

Ryan is a partner and focuses on investment opportunities in the Technology sector. He has worked on a number of transactions including Genesys, Informatica, and Metalogix. He is currently a Non-Executive Director at Genesys, Informatica and Metalogix.

Prior to pursuing his MBA, Ryan worked in Permira’s Menlo Park office for three years. Before that, he worked at Bank of America in the Healthcare Investment Banking Group.