Executive Management

Exostar’s management team combines decades of aerospace and defense leadership with depth of experience in e-commerce, information technology, and financial services.

Executive Management

Richard Addi

Richard Addi

President and CEO

Richard joined the management team of Exostar in early 2007, initially in the role of Chief Financial Officer. He became Chief Executive Officer in 2011.

Richard was previously the Vice President of Finance and member of the executive management team at Data Systems Solutions (DS&S), a world leader in asset management and predictive maintenance. The company is an international technology leader in various markets, including nuclear, aerospace & defense, and energy. When Richard joined the company it was a joint venture between SAIC and Rolls-Royce.

Prior to joining DS&S, Richard held various positions of increasing leadership, having worked for an international public accounting firm in Washington D.C. for several years before joining Atlantic Research Corporation, a subsidiary of Sequa. Richard then moved to Rolls-Royce North America where he assumed successive positions of responsibility, ultimately as Director of Tax for Rolls-Royce North America. In this position, he managed the design and implementation of corporate restructurings, cross-border financing, mergers and acquisitions, and economic development. In addition, he led the design and implementation of the company’s “Building Financial Acumen” program with the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business.

In addition to holding an undergraduate degree in Accounting from Marymount University, Richard is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and holds a Masters of Tax degree from The George Washington University. He also serves on the Aerospace Industry Association Board of Governors, and is a member of the American Institute for Certified Public Accountants (AICPA).

Jim Ogilvie

Jim Ogilvie

Chief Customer Officer

Jim Ogilvie joined Exostar’s executive leadership team in the summer of 2021.  As Chief Customer Officer, Jim leads the company’s Services Operations and Delivery organization.  This team ensures the success of all customers, starting from the moment they join the Exostar community.  Jim defines the services operational strategies, plans, processes, and metrics for customer onboarding, training, service delivery, and support to deliver the strongest possible results, continuous improvement, and optimal customer experience.

Jim’s career as a mission-focused executive leader spans nearly two decades of experience transforming small-to-mid-sized businesses into enterprise software companies.  Previously, he served as Vice President of Services at PowerPlan where he was responsible for over half of the company’s employees, revenue, and EBITDA.  Jim went to PowerPlan when it was a founder-owned business with 30 employees.  He played an integral role in the company’s transformation and growth, leading to acquisitions by private equity firms JMI Equity and TPG Growth in 2010, Thoma Bravo in 2015, and ultimately its sale to publicly traded Roper for $1.11 billion in 2018.  After PowerPlan, Jim co-founded RunLoyal, a vertical SaaS plus integrated payments startup where he ran the Customer Success, Product Management, Sales, and Finance functions.

Jim holds Bachelor of Science degrees in Computer Science and Discrete Mathematics from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Carl Gillert

Carl Gillert

Chief Finance Officer

Carl Gillert joined Exostar in 2022.  As Chief Finance Officer (CFO), he serves as a key member of the company’s Executive Leadership Team, leading the Finance & Administration organization and overseeing all related strategic and tactical activities.  Carl brings more than 25 years of experience in executive finance roles at multi-billion dollar publicly-traded businesses and private equity-owned technology firms to his position at Exostar.

Before coming to Exostar, Carl was CFO at T2 Systems, a leader in parking Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and hardware technology solutions owned by Thoma Bravo.  He ran the financial and manufacturing operations of the company and worked closely with the CEO on corporate strategic direction, including managing the acquisition of a pair of competitors and ultimately leading the successful exit to a publicly-held acquirer in December 2021 for 16 times earnings.

Prior to T2 Systems, Carl spent 10 years as Vice President at Syniverse, a global technology and SaaS firm, owned by The Carlyle Group, with operations in over 35 countries.  There, he led organizations of as many as 50 in finance operations and treasury, compliance and risk management, capital markets and taxation, and international finance and accounting.

Earlier in his career, Carl was Vice President of Risk Management & Government Affairs at HD Supply, a $12B spinoff of The Home Depot; Director of Planning, Audits and M&A Integration at The Home Depot; Director of Taxation & Risk Management at $6B international wholesale distributor Hughes Supply; and Manager at Big 4 auditing firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.  Carl is a Certified Public Accountant, and holds Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in Accounting from the University of South Florida and the University of Central Florida, respectively.

Tony Farinaro

Tony Farinaro

Chief Revenue Officer

Tony Farinaro brings a strong background in technology, business-to-business secure collaboration, and the Aerospace and Defense Industry, along with 35 years of progressive leadership experience, to his role as Chief Revenue Officer. He oversees all functions directly responsible for executing Exostar’s go-to-market strategy and revenue generation, including the company’s Sales and Marketing organizations.

Before joining Exostar in September 2020, Tony spent his career working in technical, business, and executive management roles at publicly-traded, privately-held, and private equity-owned small-to-medium sized businesses and large enterprises. Immediately prior to Exostar, he served as Senior Vice President for Worldwide Sales and Professional Services at CollabNet (now digital.ai), a software platform provider for collaborative software development and value stream management for Government and commercial customers. Tony played an integral part in growing CollabNet’s revenues from $30M to more than double, leading to its acquisition by TPG Capital.

Previously, Tony was Corporate Vice President and General Manager at Actel, where he helped raise the hardware manufacturer’s revenues from $100M to $250M. Earlier in his career, he was Vice President of Applications and Design Systems at Gatefield, and held various engineering positions at Plessey.

Tony earned his BS in Electrical Engineering from the New Jersey Institute of Technology, his MS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Stevens Institute of Technology, and his MBA in Finance from Seton Hall University.

Deepak Kaimal

Deepak Kaimal

Chief Technology Officer

Deepak Kaimal joined Exostar as Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at the beginning of 2023.  As CTO, he oversees the ongoing design, development, operations and evolution of The Exostar Platform and its modules and applications.

Deepak brings over 25 years of directly relevant experience working for publicly traded and privately held companies ranging from large enterprises to startups to his role at Exostar.  His expertise allows organizations to work effectively to bring products to market more quickly, building and executing roadmaps that eliminate technical debt and deploy the latest advances in cloud, mobile, data and analytics, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and other technologies to drive growth.

Prior to Exostar, Deepak served as CTO at ArrowStream.  His work leading the transformation of a legacy B2B SaaS application into a cloud native distributed platform played a key role in the company’s acquisition at a high revenue multiple.  Before ArrowStream, Deepak served as Vice President of Engineering at Flexera.  There, he led a global team of 250, converting several on premises software products into an integrated online microservice based B2B SaaS IT asset management platform that generated over $150M annual revenue and culminated in the firm’s acquisition by Thoma Bravo.

Earlier in his career, Deepak held positions of increasing seniority, from Technical Architect to Vice President, at Cars.com, JPMorgan Chase, Rolls-Royce, Capgemini, and Intiqua International.  He holds a degree in Engineering from the University of Mumbai.

Waide Jones

Waide Jones

Vice President and Chief Information Security Officer

Waide joined the management team of Exostar in mid-2015 as the Director of Information Security.  He became the Chief Information Security Officer in August of 2016.  In this capacity Waide directs the Exostar information security program to protect its information, assets, and customers.

Prior to joining Exostar, Waide spent 17 years of his career with Lockheed Martin where he held various technical and leadership roles.  He is an accomplished leader and IT security architect.  He has a proven ability to develop and execute cyber security initiatives that include people, process, and technology.  Waide is experienced in working with industry peers to influence change and create opportunities to better protect critical information from cyber threats wherever it resides.  His experiences range from program/team leadership, strategy development, cyber security risk management, supply chain cyber security, budget & financial planning, risk and vulnerability assessments, audit, IT architecture, secure system design, CIRT, forensics, and policy/standard development.

Waide holds a Master Degree in Telecommunications and a Bachelor Degree in Management Information Systems from George Mason University.  Waide has several certifications to include the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP).

Vijay Takanti

Vijay Takanti

Senior Vice President of Innovation and Informatics

As SVP of Innovation and Informatics at Exostar, Vijay is responsible for the strategy and product road map, design, development, and customer delivery of Exostar solutions. Vijay has more than 20 years of experience in electronic data processing, application design and development, and information security solutions. He joined Exostar through the acquisition of Evincible® Software in 2004, where he was the founder and CEO. At Evincible®, Vijay developed solutions that bridge the integration chasm between business applications and security components, such as Public Key Infrastructure (PKI).

Prior to founding Evincible® Software, Vijay served as Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at the Society of Worldwide Interbank Telecommunication (SWIFT), where he architected the Next Generation of the SWIFT Net architecture. SWIFT is the financial industry-owned cooperative supplying secure messaging services and interface software to 7,000 financial institutions in 197 countries, processing on average an estimated USD 6 trillion of payment messages.

Vijay is recognized as an expert on the evolving technologies related to  identity management and cybersecurity, and he has engaged with a variety of enterprises on these topics. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Electronics and Communications from JNTU in Hyderabad, India; a Master’s Degree in Computer Sciences from the Indian Institute of Technology in Khargpur; and an MBA from George Mason University, Virginia.

Venencia Magnusen

Venencia Magnusen

Vice President of Human Resources

Venencia Magnusen joined Exostar in June 2015 and currently serves as the company’s Vice President of Human Resources.  In this role, Venencia is responsible for planning and implementing Exostar’s Human Resources strategy.  She directs the development of the company’s workforce, including talent acquisition, leadership development and training, employee relations, compensation, and benefits.

Venencia has extensive experience developing and implementing successful talent assessment, employee engagement, and development initiatives. She is highly effective in collaborating with her client base at multiple levels by capitalizing on her experience, as well as her interpersonal and customer service skills. In addition to being an independent thinker with a bias for action, Venencia is dedicated to understanding the customer’s needs to ensure that Human Resources positively impacts business success. She’s a proven change agent with strategic vision and proven leadership, communication, and organizational skills.

Prior to joining Exostar, Venencia served as a Human Resources Manager at Harris IT Services, supporting an international client base within the Department of Defense line of business. Venencia received her Bachelor’s degree in Business Management and her Master’s degree in Organization Development and Knowledge Management from George Mason University.

Felicia Faragasso

Felicia Faragasso

Vice President, Legal/Contracts

Felicia joined Exostar in 2018 with over a decade of experience in the aerospace and defense industry, and additional experience in telecommunications.  Prior to her in-house engagements, she was in private practice in Washington, D.C.  Felicia provides guidance on all legal matters at Exostar. She brings experience in both corporate and business law – including mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, negotiation, and documentation – and in international regulatory areas such as export compliance, data privacy and anticorruption policy.

Felicia graduated from the law school at the College of William and Mary, after receiving her undergraduate degree from Duke University. She is a member of the board of directors of Girls on the Run, northern Virginia chapter, and a Virginia committee member of The Power of Pink.