1. Keerti Melkote
Co-Founder, SVP, GM
Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company
He's the ultimate disrupter. Keerti Melkote's technology vision has completely reshaped the networking landscape. The Aruba co-founder wrote the playbook for leap-frogging Cisco Systems with a mobile-first focus that has paid off in huge sales growth for software-savvy Aruba partners.
Now the superstar engineer, who holds several patents, is taking Aruba into the core of the network with the game-changing OS-CX operating system and 8400 switch. Still not satisfied, Melkote is overseeing the next big Aruba breakthrough: an SD-WAN offering that is aimed at bringing wireless and wide area networks together.
Melkote, for his part, says he is no longer worried about Cisco catching up. "With the innovation path that we are on, we have put a lot of distance between us and Cisco," he says. "You will see us continue to innovate and expand the distance."
