Ajit Prabhu - Co-founder, CEO & Co-Chairman

As the Co-founder, CEO & Co-Chairman, Ajit Prabhu provides the vision and strategic direction for the growth of QuEST. His main focus is to integrate global resources to provide the competitive edge to QuEST. A seasoned entrepreneur, Ajit co-founded QuEST with Aravind Melligeri in 1997 with the vision of developing expertise that ranges from concept to product realization.

Ajit is known for his determination, dynamism and his passion to understand customer challenges. His mission is to improve the profitability of customers through effective utilization of QuEST's global resources. He is a Six Sigma Greenbelt certificate holder and also the recipient of the Young Investigator Award from the International Association for Dental Research. He gained practical experience at General Electric's Corporate Research and Development Center, in Schenectady, NY, while working on power generation, aircraft engines; appliances and locomotive related engineering problems.

Ajit holds a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from Karnataka University, India, a Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering from Old Dominion University, VA and a Master's degree in Biomedical Engineering from Rensselaer, NY.

He was inducted as a life time member into distinguished Livingston W. Houston 13 Society of Patrons of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He also serves on the Engineering School Advisory Council at Rensselaer.

Dr. Ajay Prabhu - COO

Dr. Ajay Prabhu is the COO of QuEST Global, a leading provider of diversified engineering services and manufacturing. Ajay oversees the global operations for QuEST Global.

Ajay's association with QuEST Global dates back to the year 2002, when he took charge of the India Delivery Centre, and has grown the organization from 200 employees to 1800. He did move onto heading P&L for Aerospace business and has played an integral role in QuEST Global’s foray into aerostructures domain, which has led to some major business wins for the organization in the defense sector and subsequently winning the EADS E2S Project Engineering Services Synergy Award in 2008.

Under Ajay’s leadership, QuEST has increased its global reach and has set up delivery centres in several cities of USA, Italy, Japan, UK, Germany, France and Spain. Ajay’s passion and commitment to excellence permeates every facet of QuEST Global. His relentless drive to build a best-in-class company through delivery and people process excellence has resulted in AS9100, ISO 9001:2000, ISO 27001, ACE Gold recognitions for QuEST Global and has been a key factor in bringing the organization on achieving CMMI Level 3 recognition. Ajay has architected a unique business process and institutionalized the rhythm that has resulted in scalability, predictability and enhanced customer and employee satisfaction.

Ajay worked with HP & Agilent Technologies in California for 6 years before moving to QuEST Global. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from NITK, Surathkal (India) and MS & Ph.D. degrees from the University of Massachusetts (USA). Ajay’s research work on very high frequency amplifiers was recognized with an award from the IEEE (Institution of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) Microwave Society Fellowship and he holds two US Patents.

Prosenjit Purkayastha - CFO

Prosenjit Purkayastha is the Chief Financial Officer at QuEST. His responsibilities include Finance, Legal, Compliances and IS.

Prior to joining QuEST, he was the Vice President - Finance and IT of Mahanagar Gas Limited for more than 4 ½ years. He led initiatives to bring in processes of cost control, debt restructuring and also participated in Strategy and Risk Management. He was able to successfully implement Customer Relationship Management initiatives through IT.

He brings with him 22 years of work experience in Indian companies and Joint Ventures with Multinationals. He has worked as CFO for several years and has experience in diverse areas like Strategic Planning, Budgetary controls, Taxation, Accounting and MIS. Prior to his stint with Mahanagar Gas, he held the position of CFO at Bharti BT Internet Ltd and HCL Comnet Systems and Services Ltd.

He holds a Bachelor Degree in Commerce and is a qualified Chartered Accountant.

Bejoy George - Chief Marketing Officer

Bejoy George joined QuEST in mid 2005, and is currently Chief Marketing Officer, responsible for the world wide strategic marketing functions in the three businesses of QuEST Global (Engineering Services, Manufacturing and QuEST SEZ). He is responsible for identifying potential strategic customers for all the QuEST businesses, and drives all functions and activities required for this. Bejoy also holds additional responsibility as Vice President, Global Electronics & Embedded Systems, for the development and growth of QuEST Global’s electronics and embedded systems practice worldwide.

Prior to joining QuEST, Bejoy was General Manager (Strategic Initiatives) in HCL Technologies, where he was heading the aerospace initiatives and the engineering services practice, both of which he setup from scratch and built for HCL from 2001 onwards. He has 15 years of work experience in different units of HCL, in various roles ranging from sales functions to sales management responsibilities to staff functions and strategic roles.

Bejoy has a Bachelor of Tech (B.Tech (Hons)) in Mechanical Engineering and a Master of Science (M.SC. (Hons)) in Physics, both from Birla Institute of Technology & Science (BITS), Pilani, along with an MBA in Marketing and International Business, from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Bangalore.

Steve Gerber - Senior Vice President Global Sales

Steve Gerber joined QuEST Global in February of 2009 and has played a key role in expanding our capabilities into new aerospace markets for engineering services. His focus is in expanding QuEST’s reach into scalable regions, verticals, and services.

Steve is a 27 year veteran of the Aerospace industry and brings a diverse background of executive leadership in areas of business development, sales, program management, operations management and engineering.

Prior to joining QuEST, Steve’s most recent assignment was leading the sales efforts for Techno Soft, Inc., a Cincinnati based engineering software technology concern. Steve had a 21 year career with Pratt & Whitney in various roles including: JSF Concept Demonstrator Program Manager, Turbine Module Center Product Director and Aftermarket Repair Engineering Director. After leaving Pratt & Whitney, Steve lead the UTC corporate account for the Belcan Corporation.

Steve holds a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering, Michigan State University and an MBA from the Sloan Fellows Program, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Robert Harvey - Senior Vice-President – Strategic Accounts

Robert, has joined QuEST Global in January 2010 and is responsible for the leadership and growth of QuEST strategic accounts. Robert will play a key role in expanding our capabilities and establishing long term relationships with new strategic customers and offering expanded services to our current customer base.

Robert has over 30 years of experience and has held senior domestic and international executive roles for Pratt & Whitney and General Motors, including P&L responsibility for multi-billion dollar businesses.

Robert began his career as a product development engineer for General Motors before serving in numerous corporate and operational finance roles. His last role at General Motors was running General Motors Europe’s power train operations, living in Zurich, Switzerland and managing plants in five countries. Following this, Robert joined Pratt & Whitney as Senior Vice President, Module Centers and Operations, where he ran all of Pratt’s US operations and current engineering. Robert then became CEO of a start-up fiber optic component company and most recently was COO of a start-up online luxury marketplace.

Robert holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Iowa State University and an MBA from the University of Chicago, with a specialization in Finance and Marketing.

Chad Cogburn - Vice President – Business Development (Oil & Gas)

Chad Cogburn, has joined QuEST Global in January 2010 as the Vice President – Business Development for Oil and Gas vertical. Chad will play a key role in building Strategic customers and driving sales within the Upstream and Downstream Oil and Gas market sector for 2015 success.

Chad has over 18 years of Strategic business development experience and has held senior management positions with large multinational companies like Computer Sciences Corporation, CGI and Photon Infotech.

Jameel Barkat – Vice President Corporate Development

Jameel joined QuEST Global, in January 2010, and he would be driving acquisitions that are aligned with QuEST’s organizational priorities. In this role, he will lead the sales and customer relationship management with our key strategic accounts.

Jameel was previously engaged with QuEST as a consultant in mergers and acquisitions since 2008.

Jameel brings 20 years of operating experience working for several companies serving the aerospace, defense and industrial markets. Throughout his career, he has served in various leadership roles including engineering, sales and marketing, program management, mergers and acquisitions, strategy development, integration (of acquired companies) and global supply chain management. He has closed over a dozen M&A deals with a total transaction value in excess of $300 million.

For the past two years, Jameel has worked at a private investment company he founded which was focused on acquiring small- to mid-cap companies in the aerospace, defense, and industrial market sectors.

Jameel has a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Washington University, an MBA from Duke University, and has completed executive education courses at Wharton, Darden, and the University of Michigan.

Thomas Mauthe – Managing Director (Germany Operations)

Thomas Mauthe joined the Europe team in February 2009 and is responsible for the leadership of all operations in Germany and Aerospace operations across Europe.

His focus is on making QuEST a key engineering services supplier to the aerospace industry in Europe. He plays a pivotal role in expanding our capabilities into new and emerging verticals such as infrastructure, nuclear energy and industrial in Germany. His primary focus will be on establishing long term relationships with new customers and offering expanded services to our current customer base.

Thomas brings more than 18 years experience in the aerospace industry, working in different functions. He began his career in Airbus. He was involved in different functions such as engineering, production and program management. He also led a number of initiatives in business development, off-shoring and reorganization of business units during his illustrious career. In his previous job, he was the managing director of a European engineering services provider.

Thomas holds a Masters in Aerospace Technology from the Technical University Aachen in Germany.

Dr. Duccio Bonaiuti - Business Unit Manager (Italy Operations)

Dr. Duccio Bonaiuti is responsible for the Italy Operations Business Unit, with overall responsibility for the engineering services and technology development of the Italian Centre.

He joined QuEST with 10 years of industry experience in turbo machinery design and management of consultancy services. He also worked at Advanced Design Technology, where he was in charge of the consultancy activities. Duccio made a substantial contribution to the business development in Europe, US and Asia. Under his able leadership, the company came to be recognized as a major global provider of innovative solutions for the design of turbo machines.

His earlier assignment was as a researcher at the University of Florence and at the NASA Glenn Research Center. His research activities ranged from the analysis and design of turbo machinery components to the development of innovative design strategies. Many of his research works have been published on international journals.

Dr. Bonaiuti holds a Laurea with Honors in Mechanical Engineering and a Ph.D. degree in Energy Engineering from the University of Florence. His Ph.D. thesis was awarded the “Sergio Stecco” Prize from the University of Florence.
 

Edward Brown - Vice President (North America Operations)

Edward is responsible for QuEST’s North American Engineering Operations. He has over-all responsibility for the delivery of engineering from North America based engineers. This includes responsibility for people, processes and technology. Edward has opened two offices for QuEST (Greenville, SC and East Hartford, CT) over the course of his career. He contributed to the early development of the Schenectady, NY office (where QuEST began), joining QuEST as the 12th employee and helping QuEST grow into a 1700+ person global team. He played a significant role in developing and negotiating QuEST’s first large scale contract for offshore support with General Electric.

Edward has over sixteen years of experience in a variety of technical and managerial roles. His area of technical expertise is in structural and thermal analysis, with experience in design optimization and the development of advanced technology components, such as submarine structures, telescope instrumentation, nuclear material transportation containers, and turbo-machinery components and assemblies. He has mastery over advanced techniques in contact, plasticity, large deformations, buckling, thermal radiation, transient-dynamic, and modal analyses.

Edward completed his MS in Mechanical Engineering from Columbia University and received his BA in Physics from Wesleyan University. He is a GE-certified Six-Sigma Green Belt and trained by Pratt & Whitney in ACE.

James Gallo- Vice President (Strategic Account Management)

James Gallo is currently responsible for the leadership and growth of QuEST’s Strategic Customer Relationships, with an emphasis on the energy domain.

James joined QuEST in early 1998 and since then has played a key role in contributing to the impressive growth and ensuring its sustainable competitive advantage. His primary focus has been on establishing long term relationships with strategic customers and developing strong customer-focused engineering teams for the execution of turnkey projects in all of QuEST’s service areas. Further, he has continuously expanded QuEST’s scope of supply; diversifying from high-end analytical support to the design and manufacturing of both mechanical and electrical products from the component level to complete power plant layouts.

Prior to joining QuEST, James had a successful career with General Electric in their Power Systems and Corporate Research and Development groups, where he was involved in the detailed design and analysis of gas turbine, nuclear and other power generation equipment. He is well versed in Six Sigma, having executed and led many DFSS and DMAIC projects at GE and QuEST.

James holds a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from the State University of NY, Stony Brook and a Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.

Dr. Mani Subramanian – VP (Business Development)

Dr. Mani Subramanian has joined the QuEST US team on Jan 09, and would be playing a pivotal role in expanding Aero & Fluid Systems (AFS) capabilities with an emphasis on the aerospace, oil & gas and power generation domains.

Mani brings in over 30 years of aerospace and mechanical engineering expertise to QuEST. Some of his key accomplishments were in developing and applying advanced 3-D analytical methods for the design and performance improvements in aircraft gas turbine engines and high-speed propulsion systems. Mani was part of the team that won NASA’s “Turning Goals into Reality” award for his valuable contributions to the application of advanced 3-D unsteady and multi-blade row analytical methodologies for the design and development of next generation propulsion systems.

Prior to joining QuEST, Mani’s served as President of ASE Technologies, Inc., in Cincinnati, Ohio and had been in this position since the company was started in 1993. Prior to this role, Mani worked as a staff engineer at GE Aviation in Cincinnati, Ohio on hypersonic programs and turbine aerodynamic technology. Mani also worked as a staff engineer for several years at Textron Lycoming in Stratford, Connecticut (now Honeywell Engine Systems, Phoenix, AZ).

In 1985, Mani spent 1 year at NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio as an Industry Visiting Scientist. During this time Mani developed a 3-D CFD code for the design and analysis of gas turbine components. Dr. Subramanian worked as a research Assistant Professor at Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia for a year and as a graduate research associate at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia for 5 years. Mani also worked as an aerospace engineer in the Aerodynamics Division at the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) in Trivandrum, India.

Mani holds a Bachelor of Engineering (with honors) in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Madras, India. He obtained his MS and Ph. D. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia. He has authored and co-authored several technical papers on subjects related to gas turbine engines, propulsion, CFD, turbo machinery flows, hypersonic reacting flows and radiative heat transfer.

Joe Barnes - Vice President (Strategic Account Development)

Joe is responsible for the leadership and growth of QuEST’s strategic customer relationships with a focus on infrastructure domains including energy, oil and gas, water, and transportation systems. He joined QuEST in November 2007 after 22 years of leadership experience in the US Army and General Electric’s Energy division.

At GE Energy (1996-2007), Joe led several business initiatives to include global engineering development and successfully grew the business’ capability to deliver engineering and drafting support from India, Mexico, Russia and China. Additionally, Joe led GE Energy’s Product Cost Productivity initiative across all of Energy and led productivity synergy efforts across GE Infrastructure (Energy, Aviation, Water, Transportation and O&G). Prior to that, Joe was an officer in the US Army from 1985–1996, and held several leadership positions including Light Infantry Fire Support Officer, Firing Battery Commander, and Assistant Professor of Military Science at Syracuse University. He left the military with the rank of Major after 11 years of active duty.

Joe holds a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering (automotive systems) from the United States Military Academy at West Point, NY, and a master's degree in business administration from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, NY.

Kurt Noe – VP (Strategic Account Development)

Kurt Noe is responsible for leading QuEST’s several strategic accounts in Aerospace. He leverages his 25 years in the industry to develop long-term engineering and manufacturing solutions to meet the customers’ needs.

Kurt has engineering and program leadership experience with several firms – from small, privately held companies to major multinationals. Most recently Kurt was Vice President of Programs for Sermatech International. Kurt has also made significant contributions to United Technologies as Hamilton Sundstrand Program Director at UTRC and Manager of Technology for Pratt & Whitney. Additionally Kurt held positions of increasing responsibility in Engineering and Program Management for Honeywell/AlliedSignal Aerospace, Textron Lycoming and Douglas Aircraft.

Kurt has Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in Aeronautical Engineering from the University of Illinois. He has also completed the UTC Leadership Program at Darden School of Business and has Six-Sigma Greenbelt, UTC ACE and extensive AlliedSignal Program Management training.

Dr. Madhusudhan B S – Vice President (India Operations)

Dr. Madhusudhan is responsible for the entire gamut of engineering operations in India. He is in charge of the overall delivery covering all the verticals namely aerospace, civil structures, industrial products, oil and gas, power generation and transportation.

Dr. Madhusudhan comes with an enriched background of Aerospace Engineering with over 20 years industry experience. Before joining QuEST, he worked at Infosys Technologies, Bangalore, where he was heading the aerospace and heavy engineering group.. He was instrumental in building several capabilities in aero structures domain including advanced composites capability..

Prior to his stint with Infosys, he had worked at National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL), Altair Engineering, India and GE-JFWTC in Bangalore. He is a DAAD fellow, Member of AIAA and is a Peer Reviewer in Journal of Structures and Multidisciplinary Optimization.

Dr. Madhusudhan holds a Bachelors degree in Civil Engineering from BMS College of Engineering, Bangalore and M.Tech in Industrial Structures from National Institute of Technology, Surathkal along with a Ph.D. in Structural Optimization from Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai.

Natarajan Iyer - Vice President (Human Resources)

Natarajan has worldwide responsibility for all of QuEST's human resources activities, including workforce development and organization effectiveness, benefits and compensation, staffing and HR processes and information management.

Natarajan began his career in 1978 with the Indian Air Force and specialized in Air Traffic Control. His career in Human Resources began with TATA Consulting Engineers in the year 1994. He held a various positions in Human Resources before becoming Vice President at InfoTech Global Inc. Prior to that he was the Director of Human Resource for Spike Technologies.

Natarajan is a Graduate in Economics, Post Graduate in Human Resources and an alumnus of Symbiosis College, Pune.

Peter Hessney – Vice President (Strategic Account Development)

Peter Hessney is responsible for developing and structuring strategic onshore/offshore business engagements that provide creative outsourcing solutions that help QuEST clients lower their engineering operational costs. He leads a team of QuEST professionals that structures long-term technical support agreements with targeted strategic accounts.

Peter brings in over 20 years of experience in the professional technical services industry working in the engineering divisions of Fortune 500 Companies. He has a demonstrated track record of successes in building and growing “leading edge” technical services businesses. His experience in Sales, Marketing, and P&L Operational Management enable QuEST in leveraging offshore engineering services outsourcing.

Prior to joining QuEST, Peter worked at Butler International, Vice President of Technical Services and before that founded USAlternatives and Cadigen, Inc., a Merger and Acquisition Outsourcing and a Functional Outsourcing company. Peter also established Project Results, Inc., a corporation focused on acquiring technical services companies and managing them for growth.

Peter holds a Bachelors of Science degree in Business Administration and Marketing from Rochester Institute of Technology and an MBA from the William E. Simon Graduate School of Management at the University of Rochester.

Raman Subramanian - Vice President (Strategic Initiatives)

Raman focuses on the strategic initiatives at QuEST. He has been instrumental in acquiring several strategic accounts for QuEST. He is responsible for driving key corporate level initiatives across the company. These initiatives include supporting sales team in establishing new large client relationships, strategic ventures with current and new customers, adding new competencies and segments for the organization’s continued growth and leveraging the current competencies.

Raman Subramanian has over 19 years of Product and Service business building experience in both corporate and entrepreneurial environments. He has held senior management positions in various industries. Prior to joining QuEST, Raman worked in various industrial segments from Integrated Steel Plants to Electronic Product companies.

During his career, Raman has successfully built Fortune 500 accounts. He is well experienced in all aspects of business building namely Strategic Account Management, Product Management, Program and Operations Management, Consultative Solution Selling and Brand Management.

Raman is an alumnus of Indian Institute of Technology, Madras and Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore.

Vijay Shrinivas – Vice President (Quality)

Vijay heads the Quality Team and the Quality Initiatives at QuEST. He is a certified Six Sigma Black Belt in DMAIC & DFSS by General Electric and Certified Lead Assessor for ISO 9000-2000 Quality Management Systems.

Before joining QuEST, Vijay has worked in senior management role at TVS Motor Company, GE Power Systems, Fomas India Limited and Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited. Amongst his significant achievements are the implementation of Six Sigma Initiatives at GE Power Systems and TVS Motor which resulted in significant cost savings for both the companies.

Vijay has been awarded with GE President of India’s award for outstanding contributions in effecting significant improvements in the foundry process using Six Sigma Tools during Sept 2000 and Cotton Memorial Award for being an outstanding student at UT El Paso. Vijay has to his credit published numerous papers on Quality Systems in the US and India.

Vijay is an alumnus of Indian Institute of Technology, Madras and The University of Texas, El Paso, USA.