The H2O.ai leadership team brings together over a century of experience in the fields of artificial intelligence, machine learning, data science, engineering, cloud computing, and software as a service (SaaS) to deliver on our mission to democratize AI.
Sri Ambati is the founder and CEO of H2O.ai. A product visionary who has assembled world-class teams throughout his career, Sri founded H2O.ai in 2012 with a mission to democratize AI for anyone, anywhere, creating a movement of the world’s top data scientists, physicists, academics and technologists at more than 20,000 organizations worldwide. Sri also regularly partners with global business leaders to fund AI projects designed to solve compelling business, environmental and societal challenges. Most recently, Sri led the initiative o2forindia.org, sourcing O2 concentrators for more than 200 public health organizations in Tier 2 cities and rural communities in India during the Delta wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, helping to save thousands of lives. His strong “AI for Good” ethos for the responsible and fair use of AI to make the world a better place drives H2O.ai’s business model and corporate direction.
A sought-after speaker and thought-leader, Sri has presented at industry events including Ai4, Money2020, Red Hat Summit and more, is a frequent university guest speaker, and has been featured in publications including The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, IDG and the World Economic Forum and has been named a Datanami Person to Watch.
Before founding H2O.ai, Sri co-founded Platfora, a big data analytics company (acquired by Workday) and was director of engineering at DataStax and Azul Systems. His academic background includes sabbaticals focused on Theoretical Neuroscience at Stanford University and U.C. Berkeley, and he holds a master’s degree in Math and Computer Science from the University of Memphis. Sri is inspired by his two daughters and genius.
Raman Kapur is the Chief Financial Officer at H2O.ai. With over 20 years of experience working in finance across corporate finance, investor relations, treasury and financial planning and analysis. He leads H2O.ai and its global finance endeavors to enhance the company’s overall business strategy.
Raman was previously CFO for Moogsoft. He worked as the VP of finance at Splunk for nine years and as a senior director of finance at Yahoo for three years. Raman earned his MBA in information systems and finance from The University of Texas at Austin.
Arno Candel is the Chief Technology Officer at H2O.ai. Arno works to design and innovate the H2O AI technology in order to empower customers, institutions and companies throughout the world.
Arno has worked at H2O.ai for 7 years. Prior to that, he worked as a senior member of the technical staff at Skytree, Inc. and as a staff scientist at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. Arno received a PhD in computational physics at ETH Zurich.
Eyal Kaldes is the Chief Success Officer at H2O.ai. Eyal leads the managed support, customer success and customer enablement teams that onboard and scale customers.
Eyal was previously VP of Client Services and managed Support, Customer Success, Professional Services and training at PerimeterX. He worked as the VP of Client Services and Customer Success at Aerohive and VP of Worldwide Technical Support at Proofpoint Inc.. Eyal holds a bachelor’s in e-business from the University of Phoenix.
Christian Woodward is the Chief Revenue Officer at H2O.ai. Christian leads the worldwide sales, sales enablement and partner organizations.
Along with his work with H2O.ai, Christian is also currently a member of Revenue Collective and a partner at Riverbend Capital. He worked as the VP of Americas at OutSystems for five years and as Director of Enterprise Sales for Americas at New Relic, Inc.. Christian received his MBA from Virginia Tech, Pamplin College of Business.
Read Maloney is the Senior Vice President of Marketing at H2O.ai. Read leads the worldwide marketing, event and PR organization focusing on H2O.ai’s efforts to build awareness and grow the business.
Read previously worked at Oracle as the senior director of product marketing. He also worked as the head of digital marketing and product marketing manager for Amazon Web Services. Read served as a captain in the United States Marine Corps. Read received his BSE in mechanical engineering from Duke University, and his masters of business administration from University of Washington.
As the Senior VP of Human Resources, Terry Wong leads the team that is focused on key people strategies for H2O.ai, including talent acquisition, talent development, engagement, and people operations.
Prior to H2O.ai, Terry was Vice President of Human Resources for MATRIXX Software and was Senior Director, Human Resources at Nimble Storage (NMBL). At Nimble, she was a key member of the HR team that led the company through a successful IPO, multiple years of revenue and headcount growth and finally an acquisition by Hewlett Packard Enterprises (HPE). Since leaving San Jose State University, Terry has spent the last 20 years in the Bay Area focused on her passion for building companies from early-stage start-ups to mid-market companies with world class teams and cultures.
Vinod Iyengar is the Vice President of Product at H2O.ai. He leads a team charged with product management and product development across the H2O.ai platform.
Vinod has worked for H2O.ai since 2015. In his time with the company, he has worked as the VP of marketing & technical alliances, and VP of customer success & product. Vinod received his bachelor’s degree in engineering from the University of Mumbai and his master’s degree in quantitative analysis from the University of Cincinnati College of Business.
Michal Malahlava has been the vice president of engineering at H2O.ai since 2013. He has also worked as chief architect of platforms at H2O.ai since 2017.
Michal holds a PhD from Charles University in Prague and a postdoctoral degree from Purdue University. During his studies he was interested in the construction of various software systems using model-driven methods and domain-specific languages. He participated in the design and development of various systems including SOFA and Fractal component systems or jPapabench control systems.
Venkatesh is the VP of Engineering at H2O.ai. He is a software engineering leader with a focus on building great teams that deliver products and functionality to solve customer use cases.
Venkatesh has worked at Adobe Systems, where he held a number of positions in the software engineering and leadership space including his latest role as Sr. Manager with a primary focus on master data management and data science. Prior to Adobe Systems Venkatesh has worked in various engineering roles in companies like Philips, HP and IBM. Venkatesh holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Mumbai University India.
