Leadership

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Bernadette Nixon Chief Executive Officer

Bernadette Nixon is the CEO of NetBrain, where she leads the company’s mission to help global enterprises prevent network outages and reduce MTTR with AI-powered automation. She brings more than two decades of experience scaling high‑growth software companies and building customer‑centric, high‑performing teams across the infrastructure and content management markets.

Previously, Bernadette served as CEO of Algolia, the AI‑powered search and discovery platform, where she drove global expansion, major funding, and strategic acquisitions. Before Algolia, she held senior leadership roles at Alfresco, SDL, OpenText, Metastorm, CA Technologies, and the United Nations in Geneva, consistently focusing on innovation, go‑to‑market excellence, and measurable business impact.

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Song Pang Chief Technology Officer

Song Pang serves as the Chief Technology Officer at NetBrain, where he leads the company’s technology vision and strategy to deliver innovative, scalable, and customer-focused solutions. Since joining NetBrain in 2016, he has played a pivotal role in ensuring customer success by driving adoption and value realization through Technical Support, Professional Services, and Customer Success initiatives.

Prior to NetBrain, Mr. Pang worked at Stroud International, a management consulting firm, where he partnered with operations leadership teams to identify opportunities, deliver results, and design improvement frameworks. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Cornell University.

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Scott Fitzgerald Chief Marketing Officer

Scott Fitzgerald is the Chief Marketing Officer at NetBrain, where he leads the company’s global brand, go-to-market strategy, and demand generation as NetBrain enters its next chapter of Agentic NetOps. He brings more than 25 years of enterprise software marketing experience, having previously served as CMO at Intapp and at Duck Creek Technologies, both of which he guided through growth and IPO. Earlier in his career, Scott held senior marketing, product and sales roles at CA Technologies, ACI Worldwide, and Cisco Systems.

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Barbara Scarcella Chief Customer Officer

Barbara Scarcella joined NetBrain in 2008 as Senior Advisor to the CEO and assumed the role of SVP of Global Sales in September 2016. Ms. Scarcella moved into the Chief Customer Officer role in 2020 and is responsible for global renewals and customer retention.

Ms. Scarcella has deep expertise in building strategic customer relationships; her passion for customer success is the foundation of the culture for the Sales organization. Before joining NetBrain, Ms. Scarcella held multiple executive positions during her 18 years at Thomson Corporation including SVP & Strategic Sourcing Officer, Chief Technology Officer and President of Operations and Technology.

Ms. Scarcella holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from Richmond College, Staten Island, New York and a Certificate in Management Development, Columbia University Development Program, New York, NY. Her professional affiliations include Advisory Board Member: AT&T, American Express, Starwood. Keynote speaker for Strategic Sourcing Summit. Presenter, Gartner Symposium. American Management Association and Information Industries Association.

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Raj Lakhani Chief Financial Officer

Award winning senior finance and operations executive with a record of establishing cross-functional partnerships to drive optimal results at technology/software/SaaS/Services companies of diverse sizes (3 multinational public companies and 3 PE-backed late stage startups) and offerings, including Artificial Intelligence (AI), ad-tech, mobile applications, life sciences, legal digital information services and blockchain PaaS platform. Adept at managing multi-million dollar budgets, allocating resources to exceed profit and sales goals, and leading high performance teams. Started career as a software engineer at IBM on its Deep Blue supercomputer which was a milestone in the application of Symbolic Artificial Intelligence AI. After graduating with an MBA from Yale University, worked for several years in financial planning & analysis function at IBM and Microsoft, followed by experience as a SaaS startup CFO and division level CFO positions at public technology/software/SaaS companies.

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Greg Baden Senior Vice President & General Counsel

Greg Baden joined NetBrain’s executive team as SVP, General Counsel in 2024. He is responsible for managing all legal, risk, and compliance matters for NetBrain.

Before joining NetBrain, Mr. Baden served as the General Counsel and Chief Administrative Officer for a pharmaceutical services firm and as the General Counsel for two enterprise software platform companies. He has practiced corporate and intellectual property law in New York and London, and, prior to his legal career, worked as an engineer in the software industry.

Mr. Baden holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Texas A&M University, a master’s degree in Software Engineering from the University of Maryland, and a Juris Doctorate degree from the University of Texas School of Law.

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Lingping Gao Chairman and Founder

Lingping Gao founded NetBrain in 2004 with a mission to simplify network management — drawing directly on his experience as the Chief Network Architect at Thomson Financial, where he witnessed firsthand the complexities of managing large enterprise networks and maintaining network performance. Over more than two decades, Mr. Gao built NetBrain into the market leader in network automation, serving the world’s largest enterprises and managed service providers.

Mr. Gao has experience within multiple areas of business, including management, engineering, and international business within the networking, software, and automotive industries. Mr. Gao holds a BS and a BA in Automotive Engineering from Tsinghua University and an MS in Engineering from Yale University.

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Vishal Amin Board Member

Vishal Amin is a Senior Managing Director in Blackstone Growth (BXG) and co-heads investments across the technology sector. Before helping to launch BXG, Vishal was a Partner at Andreessen Horowitz, where he led growth investing and capital execution. Prior to this, he began his career at both TCV and Allen & Company.

Vishal grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, and is a graduate of Duke University.

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Jerry Guo Board Member

Jerry Guo is a seasoned technology executive bringing decades of leadership experience in networking, cloud, and broadband innovation. He is the Founder, former CEO, and Chairman of Casa Systems, where he led the company’s growth in next-generation network infrastructure for cable, wireless, and fixed-line operators. Earlier in his career, he conducted research at Bell Laboratories and led engineering development at RiverDelta Networks.

Jerry holds a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He brings deep expertise in network innovation, solution development, and market expansion to NetBrain’s Board of Directors.

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Gus Malezis Board Member

Gus Malezis is an executive and board leader with more than 30 years of experience driving profitable growth, innovation and market leadership across enterprise technology sectors. Known for aligning strategy, planning for sustained long-term success, focusing on customers and teams, he has built and scaled organizations with strong brands while advancing AI-enabled solutions for global enterprises.

Gus currently serves as Chairman of IRIS Global. He previously served as CEO of Imprivata, leading the company to renewed profitability and record growth, and held senior leadership roles at Tripwire, nCircle, McAfee, 3Com, and Merisel. His expertise spans IT, SaaS, mobile platforms, software, hardware, and network systems.

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Stephen Schafer Board Member

Stephen Schafer is a Principal at Blackstone, which he joined in 2023. Since joining, Stephen has been involved in the firm’s investments in NetBrain among others. Prior to Blackstone, Stephen was a Private Equity Vice President at Cove Hill Partners in Boston, and before that, he worked in investment banking at Goldman Sachs.

Stephen graduated summa cum laude from the University of Notre Dame with a B.B.A. in Finance and Economics, earning a 4.0 GPA and the distinction of Salutatorian of his graduating class. Outside of work, Stephen enjoys Notre Dame football, skiing, tennis, traveling, and participating in an intramural darts league.