Meet the Team
Gopal D. Krishna, Founder, President and CEO
Gopal, a lifelong entrepreneur, is the backbone of the Drivestream team responsible for its creation, growth, and innovative ideas. He steered Drivestream by defining strategic direction and offerings, formulating and executing growth plans, marketing, and service delivery.
Gopal’s primary focus now is formulating and executing market-focused acquisitive and organic growth strategies; integrating business through joint ventures, alliances, and acquisitions. Drivestream’s phenomenal growth is attributed to Gopal’s sound business acumen and timely business judgment for pioneering new and innovative solutions, uniquely differentiating Drivestream in a competitive market.
Ragu Damodar, Chief Operating Officer & CFO
Ragu manages the finance, HR, and talent acquisition teams. His duties include setting up corporate performance targets, strategy and performance targets into business unit plans, and managing operations of the company in ways consistent with strategic and performance goals.
Prior to Drivestream, Ragu spent several years at KPMG, PWC Consulting, and IBM Global services delivering management consulting services to Fortune 100 companies around the world. Ragu holds a MBA from Newport University, California.
Jacob C. Thomas, EVP & Managing Partner
Jacob oversees Drivestream’s Account Management Group that provides strategy and advisory services to clients. He also heads up Drivestream’s Marketing and Alliances Organization. He has led several go-to-market strategies with various innovative service solutions including Drivestream’s unique Comprehensive Cloud Solutions.
Prior to Drivestream, Jacob was an Associate Partner at IBM, Human Capital Management Practice, a Global Managing Director at Unisys, and a Systems Integration practice leader at PWC.
Jacob is an Electrical Engineering graduate from the University of Maryland.
Bryan Sharif, EVP & Managing Partner
Bryan leads customer relationship management as Client Partner and is responsible for providing executive oversight of project delivery to ensure delivery success and continued customer satisfaction.
Prior to its merger with Drivestream, Bryan co-founded Stratum, Inc. specializing in large data integration and migration. He was also engaged as a consultant in leadership roles managing large development teams at several implementations in Fortune 100 companies.
Bryan holds a bachelor’s degree in International Business from Penn State University.
Rajeev Ponnusamy, SVP & Partner
Rajeev is part of Drivestream’s Strategy & Advisory Services team and leads the ERP practice for the organization. He is responsible for managing some of Drivestream’s key strategic accounts and projects in the Oracle Cloud space. With his 20+ years of experience in Financial applications, Rajeev has worked with CFOs and Treasurers in designing and implementing their Financial and Treasury applications.
Prior to joining Drivestream, Rajeev worked at leading consulting companies such as Infosys, Rapidigm (now Fujitsu), and others as a Financials & Treasury subject matter expert. Rajeev attended the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and also has an MBA in Corporate Finance & Strategy from The Ohio State University.
Arnulfo Mendoza, VP, Oracle Cloud Student Management Services
Arnulfo is part of Drivestream’s Center of Excellence that provides strategy and advisory services to clients. He also leads the Oracle Student Management Services practice for the organization. With his 19 years of experience in student application, Arnulfo has worked with University presidents, registrars, bursars, academic advisors, and financial aid leaders in implementing their student applications. Recently Arnulfo has been helping universities and colleges successfully migrate to student cloud applications.
Prior to joining Drivestream, Arnulfo worked with institutions implementing PeopleSoft student systems, student financial cloud systems and Oracle cloud Sales and Service products. Arnulfo attended Indiana’s DePauw University for Computer Science B.A. and has a MIS in ERP technologies from DePaul University in Chicago.
Judy Huang, VP, Associate Partner
Judy is part of Drivestream Strategy and Advisory Group, and a lead Cloud Architect. Judy is responsible for Cloud delivery enablement and CTA Program. With broad spectrum of knowledge and experiences in HCM and Technology, Judy has worked with clients from BA to C suite leaders realizing their HCM vision. In the past 9 years, Judy has been helping clients successfully transforming their mission critical back-office applications to Oracle Cloud.
Before Drivestream, Judy worked as an entrepreneur and at KPMG, IBM, and PwC. Judy obtained her MBA in Corporate Finance & MIS from the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota. She obtained her Bachelor of Engineering in Electrical Engineer from China.
Todd Norris, VP, Executive Leader for HESS Program
Todd brings extensive higher education experience to Drivestream where he leads our relationship with the HESS Collective program and its member institutions. Responsible for identifying and addressing client challenges, Todd leverages his prior role as co-chair of the HESS Collective program and his Oracle Cloud implementation experience to develop tailored solutions. With a focus on HESS Collective client success, Todd plays a crucial role in furthering Drivestream’s commitment to excellence in serving higher education institutions. Before joining Drivestream, Todd dedicated 24 years to a variety of academic and administrative roles in higher education. His most recent position was Chief Information Officer. Todd earned a B.A. degree from Taylor University and an M.A. in Counseling Psychology from Trinity International University.
David Demers Ph.D., VP, Product Strategy & Development
David manages Drivestream’s product strategy and development team. He brings over 25 years of IT leadership experience in both administrative and academic roles along with expertise in leveraging data analytics to enhance operational efficiencies and driving informed decisions.
Prior to joining Drivestream, Dr. Demers served as the CIO for several institutions, including the University of Maine System, SUNY Buffalo State and Bay Path University. David earned both his B.S. and Ph.D. at the University of California at Riverside where he pursued research interests in the field of Cell and Molecular Biology.
Kim Coughlin, HR Director
Kim handles human resources management and policies, practices and operations for Drivestream. She consults with the executive team on strategic planning, budgeting, and serves as a link between management and the employees. Kim oversees each of the HR business areas focusing on retention, performance management, immigration, compliance, benefit plan design, and employee satisfaction. She has been with Drivestream since 2010.
Prior to her role with Drivestream, Kim held various Director level roles in HR management and recruitment with various consulting companies including Stratum Inc., General Counsel Solutions, MainControl (eventually acquired by IBM), and James Martin & Company/Headstrong.
Kim holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Virginia Tech
Jeff Irby, VP Marketing
Jeff leads the Drivestream Marketing team. In this role he is responsible for strategic market planning, branding, demand generation and fostering relationships with alliances and partnerships. He works closely with the executive team to drive revenue growth and cultivate long term-customer relationships.
Prior to joining Drivestream, Jeff was the Global CMO at Unisys, Partner at KPMG Financial Services Management Consulting, Managing Director at Bearingpoint leading the mid-market practice. He has also run the marketing organizations for two startups and a credit card bank.
Jeff holds a B.S. in Economics from Indiana University and Juris Doctorate from Western Michigan University Thomas M. Cooley Law School. He is licensed to practice law in the State of Michigan.