Management Team

Osama Alshaykh, Ph.D

Chief Technology Officer

Osama Alshaykh, Ph.D, is the chief technology officer of PacketVideo. He joined PV in 1998 as one of the original members of the engineering team and helped CEO Jim Brailean found the company to develop new generations of wireless multimedia devices. Alshaykh is responsible for exploring new architectures and synchronizing the technical direction of the company with new developments in silicon and devices.

Prior to joining PV, Alshaykh worked as a research scientist with the Multimedia Group at Rockwell Science Center. He has been actively involved in the development of ISO, MPEG-4 and JPEG-2000 video and image standards.

Osama Alshaykh received a bachelor of science with honors in electrical engineering from the University of Jordan, Amman, a master of science from Iowa State University, Ames, and a doctorate of philosophy from Georgia Institute of Technology, all in electrical engineering. He was a post-doctoral visiting researcher at the Video and Image Processing Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, and he is an associate editor for IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology. He was awarded the Fulbright Scholarship in 1991.

Jeff Wright

Controller and Vice President of Finance

Jeff Wright is the controller and vice president of finance for PacketVideo. Wright has served the past 22 years in financial management roles in the wireless and high-tech industries. He is responsible for financial planning and analysis for PV and managing all financial operations. Prior to joining PV, Wright was the controller for Freescale Technology, formerly Motorola Semiconductor Technology. As controller at Freescale/Motorola, Wright led financial restructuring and negotiation in the creation of joint ventures, acquisitions, equity investments and divestitures. Jeff Wright received a master of business administration and bachelor of science in business administration from San Jose State University.

Joel Espelien

Chief Business Officer, General Counsel and Vice President, Strategy

Joel Espelien is general counsel and vice president of strategic relationships for PacketVideo. He is responsible for formulating company strategy and supporting the company's corporate development activities. Prior to joining PV in May 1999, Mr. Espelien was a corporate and licensing attorney in the Information Technology Group of Cooley Godward LLP in Palo Alto and San Diego. Joel Espelien received a bachelor of arts in Spanish, German and Political Science from St. Olaf College and a juris doctorate and master of laws in international and comparative law from Duke University. He is a member of the Bar of the state of California.

Corbett Kull

Senior Vice President of World Wide Sales and Market Development

Corbett started with PacketVideo in 2000 after the acquisition of 911 Consulting. He established the Chicago operations for PV with the acquistion. He is responsible for global sales and market development, which include carrier relationships with Verizon, AT&T, Vodafone, Telefonica and Orange. His team also manages OEM relationships with Cisco, Motorola, Samsung, HTC and LG.

Before working at PacketVideo, Corbett founded 911 Consulting to provide DSP software and services in the wireless communications industry. He started his career at Motorola in Schaumburg working on the Iridium satellite system as a Digital Signal Processing software engineer.

Corbett received his Masters in Business Administration in Marketing at the Illinois Institute of Techonology in Chicago specializing in international trade in emerging markets. Corbett received his Bachelors in Electrical Engineering from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. Corbett sits on the Industrial Advisory Board of the Engineering School at Northern Illinois University. He also sits on the board of Holy Family Catholic Academy in Inverness, Illinois.

Neil Sharma

Senior Vice President, Strategic Initiatives

Neil Sharma is senior vice president of strategic initiatives at PacketVideo. He is responsible for worldwide operator strategy and corporate development. Prior to joining PV, Sharma led global business development for Microsoft Corporation. Over his course of several years at Microsoft, he developed new business and managed cutting edge projects with several tier 1 partners such as Verizon, Qualcomm and AT&T, making significant inroads into the telecommunications space. He is recognized as pioneering the ecosystem for Windows Media technologies in wireless handsets and over the air types of multimedia services. He also helped to establish a content protection team for next generation drm. Before arriving at Microsoft, he drove sms strategy and account management at InfoSpace where he was responsible for the original Compaq iPAQ partnership. He also supervised as program director for In-Core Consulting. Neil Sharma holds a master of business administration from Goizueta Business School at Emory University, a bachelor of arts in political science and asian studies, and a second bachelor of arts in education from the University of British Columbia.

Mark R. Banham, Ph.D

Senior Vice President of Engineering, Media Service Products

Mark Banham, Ph.D, is senior vice president of engineering, media service products, at PacketVideo, where he currently oversees the development of software products for PV's OEM customers and manages the resources and operation of the engineering department. He joined PV in 1998 as one of the original members of the engineering team and helped CEO Jim Brailean establish and grow the company. Before transitioning into his current role leading the development of embedded software products, Banham was director of development for PV's platform and infrastructure solutions, which now operates as a separate business.

Prior to joining PacketVideo, Banham worked on wireless transmission of low bitrate video at Motorola's Corporate Research Labs. During that time, he also participated in both the ISO MPEG-4 committee and ITU-T Study Group 16. Banham is a past associate editor of the IEEE Transactions on Image Processing and the author of many journal articles and conference papers in the field of image and video processing He holds seven patents in the area of wireless multimedia communication.

Mark Banham received a bachelor of science in electrical engineering from Drexel University and master of science and doctorate of philosophy in electrical engineering from Northwestern University.

Barbara Emond

Senior Vice President of Engineering, Customer Products

Barbara Emond is senior vice president of engineering, customer products at PacketVideo. She joined PV in 2000, established PV's customer products department and philosophy, and runs a strong customer products team focused on customer satisfaction and achieving corporate ROI goals. In 2002, she established PV's offshore developer center relationships, and is responsible for resource management of offshore teams.

Prior to joining PV, Emond was a principal program manager at Motorola's Internet and Networking Division in Mansfield, Massachusetts, where she managed the next generation router development effort. Previous to Motorola, she held positions at American Science and Engineering, Raytheon, and the Naval Underwater Systems Center.

Barbara Emond received a bachelor of science in electrical engineering from the University of Vermont, and a master of business administration from Babson College.

Cheuk Chan, Ph.D

Senior Vice President of Engineering, CORE™ Client Products

Cheuk Chan, Ph.D, is senior vice president of engineering, CORE client products, at PacketVideo. He is responsible for the development of technology and multimedia applications for embedded devices. He joined PV in 1998 as one of the original members of the engineering team and helped CEO James Brailean establish the company. He led advanced product concepts for embedded devices and large scale systems performance analysis of the company's multimedia server and infrastructure products.

Prior to joining PV, Chan was on the staff of PAR Government Systems in La Jolla, working on real-time target detection and tracking algorithms for advanced IR, multispectral, and imaging sensors. Cheuk Chan received a bachelor of science, summa cum laude, from Tulane University and a master of science and doctorate of philosophy in electrical engineering from Northwestern University.