Smartbridge Management
Deepthi Raju - Managing Director of Digital Innovation
Deepthi joined Smartbridge in 2005 and currently leads its Automation & Modernization practice. She is responsible for delivering innovative solutions that transform the workforce of Smartbridge’s clients. She believes these solutions should be simple, easy, and intuitive to the users. She engages with technology partners to evaluate and adopt the best of breed platforms to design, develop, deploy, and manage enterprise mobile solutions.
Additionally, she has worn multiple hats time and again to implement the processes needed to meet the demands of a growing organization. She has over 30 years of technology consulting experience in energy, retail industries, and government. She has deep experience in .NET technologies and custom application development.
Prior to Smartbridge, Deepthi was an architect and senior developer at Schlumberger, responsible for the development of drilling log analysis technologies.
Deepthi has BS in Computer Science from Birla Institute of Technology and Science in India and an MS in Computer Science from Mississippi State University.
George Danner - Alliance President & Founder of Business Laboratory
George E. Danner is President of Business Laboratory, LLC, an award-winning consultancy that uses the very latest scientific techniques and methods to improve the performance of mid-size and large organizations through problem-solving, the optimization of existing practices, and advanced forecasting. He is the author of the forthcoming book about business problem solving, “Profit From Science,” published by Macmillan.
George specializes in the application of agent-based simulation modeling, Monte Carlo simulation, System Dynamics, Game Theory, Visualization, and Real Options to some of the world’s most difficult and complex business strategy problems.
George has 29 years of experience in corporate strategy, specifically operational and financial analysis, across a wide variety of industries: retail, manufacturing, energy, telecommunications, transportation, and financial services.
Prior to founding Business Laboratory, George held executive positions at nGenera Corporation, Industrial Science LLC (as founder) and Arthur Andersen. Business Laboratory clients include Simon Property Group, BP, Sun Microsystems, Schlumberger, Manpower, Target Stores, AstraZeneca, TIAA-CREF, NationalGrid (UK), TD Ameritrade, Motiva, and the US Navy.
George has a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Texas A&M University and a Master of Science in Management from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Sanat Nileshwar - Managing Director of Automation Services
Sanat helped start-up Smartbridge in 2003 and rejoined the company in 2016 to lead the automation services practice. Sanat is an accomplished technology leader with over 30 years of experience directing and motivating teams, driving and managing change, and executing priorities to achieve business goals. He has proven success in defining and executing strategies to deliver enterprise digital transformation and process automation. Sanat is a transformational leader with demonstrated success in PMO/project management, business process improvement, and delivering process automation technology solutions that actually address customer needs.
Sanat works with clients in various industries ranging from food & beverage, healthcare, retail, construction, and energy industries. He has successfully deployed process automation across industries in finance, HR, operations, and supply chain to dramatically improve the efficiency of business processes to deliver better services at a lower cost.
Prior to joining Smartbridge, Sanat worked for several years in Fortune 100 companies and former big-5 consulting companies including Arthur Andersen and BearingPoint. Sanat obtained a Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Houston.
Brooke Browne - Director of Marketing
Since 2002 Brooke has been focused on improving and building business for SMBs through marketing and communications. She joined Smartbridge in 2012 after spending a decade creating a voice for software and non-profit organizations. Now she focuses on the marketing strategy and transformation for Smartbridge, comprising of a multitude of marketing disciplines.
Brooke holds a BA in Communications from the University of Houston and more recently a Marketing Strategy Certification from Cornell.
Chakravarthy Janga - Director of ERP Services
Chakravarthy Janga started at Smartbridge in 2003 and is a Director of Automation & Modernization Services. He is responsible for leading the service line across all industries and markets. He has been instrumental in helping many of our clients in QSR, Oil & Gas, Logistics, Pharmaceuticals, and Government. He leads a dynamic client services team, ensuring clients’ engagements are delivered with the highest level of quality and professionalism. Janga partners with management teams and other strategic account leaders to develop solutions for successful client engagements.
Janga has an impeccable track record of delivering success for our clients. He is a certified Project Management Professional and holds certifications for Oracle JD Edwards, Oracle Cloud, and UiPath Automation software.
Before joining Smartbridge, Janga worked as a technical consultant on multiple ERP implementations, managed applications, as well as development teams. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Electronics and Communication from Sri Krishnadevaraya University in India.
Raj is the founder and CEO of Smartbridge; he started the company in 2003 with the mission to provide technology advisory, strategy, and consulting services to help mid and large businesses accelerate their growth. His vision was to create a highly talented team of consultants that partner with clients as their trusted advisers to deliver value every day. Raj leads the organization and its transformation into what it is today – a powerful digital transformation enabler with services such as robotic process automation(RPA), data management & analytics, machine learning/AI, and cloud modernization on the Azure platform. He advises client executives on business and technology strategies to modernize their systems and capabilities.
Before launching Smartbridge, Raj held leadership positions at Arthur Andersen Business Consulting, leading advanced technology strategies and implementation for clients in the oil & gas, retail, healthcare, and services industries. He held P&L responsibilities and managed the Gulf Coast Advanced Technology services group in the consulting division working closely with the finance transformation, HCM, and supply chain functional teams.
Raj is a thought leader and launched several cloud SaaS technology products such as Crisis360.com and Smartmpm.com; and product innovations such as Kitchintel, an AI-driven restaurant kitchen operations automation software. Under his leadership, Smartbridge incorporated a culture of innovation through a quarterly hackathon program since 2018.
Raj is a 35+ year industry veteran and has BE and MS degrees in Computer Science.
Steve Senterfit - President
Steve Senterfit is President of Smartbridge, leading the firm’s strategy, sales, service delivery, and day-to-day operations. Prior to his appointment to President, Steve served as Managing Director of Digital Innovation where he focused on helping clients simplify their digital transformation journey through digital innovation, data and analytics, robotic process automation, intelligent content management, and systems modernization.
Steve has over 30 years of experience in management and technology consulting, spanning strategy through implementation and execution. He has spent 20 years in energy/oil and gas, 10 years in financial services, and has also worked in various industries, like restaurants and construction. Prior to joining Smartbridge in 2020, Steve held executive leadership positions with NCG (as founder and CEO), Halliburton, SAIC, and Fidelity Investments. Steve has helped domestic and international companies like: Baker Hughes, Bank of America, BP, CenterPoint, Chevron, CNCP, Entergy, Equinor, Graniterock, JP Morgan Chase, PDO, OMV, Shell, United Way, and Yum Brands.
Steve is best described as a “player-coach” and understands the importance of empowering and mentoring individuals, leveraging the strength of the organization, and knowing when to follow vs. lead to obtain team goals and objectives. He is committed to the education of our next generation of professionals and supporting STEMs efforts in the Houston Metro Area.
Steve has a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Lander University.
Venu Kari - Director of Salesforce & Integrations
Venu Kari is a Director of Automation & Modernization. He leads the Smartbridge team that helps customers with Salesforce implementation, support, and enterprise integration.
Venu joined Smartbridge in 2003. He has been providing hands-on leadership to many customer engagements including Salesforce implementations, cloud migrations, enterprise integration, custom web, and mobile development. His previous responsibilities included running a large offshore organization that enabled global delivery for Smartbridge customers. There, Venu lead the product development team that created and implemented solutions to hospitality and marketing customers in the USA, Dubai, and India.
Venu has over 20 years of technology architecture, program management, and implementation experience in health care, life sciences, food services, and other industries. Venu has supported and worked with clients such as Whataburger, LivaNova, Securus, Martin Brower, EMCOR, KHOU 11, Spark Energy, State of New Hampshire, CSM Dubai. Venu holds a Master’s degree in Computer Applications.
Rajeev Aluru - Managing Director of Innovation & Analytics
Rajeev Aluru is serving as the Managing Director-Innovation and Analytics, where he is focused on helping clients with their digital transformation journey through data and insights-driven business innovation. He recently worked as Head of Operations Analytics at Calpine Corporation in Houston. His responsibilities included leading the value creation from data and positioning the company to use data as a strategic asset. Prior to that, he worked as Analytics and Strategic Growth Director for Duke Energy in digital transformation, big data focusing on customer analytics, and leading business transformation programs. He also held various engineering leadership positions in mid-sized aerospace and automotive industries. Rajeev also co-founded a digital Oil & Gas optimization firm by leveraging IoT and analytics focused on production optimization.
Rajeev serves as a reviewer for NSF (National Science Foundation) seed fund in the areas of energy, blockchain, and serves as an advisor for various start-up companies. Rajeev graduated with a PhD. in Engineering from Auburn University and Global MBA from UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School.
In his free time, he contributes his time to leading the Houston Chapter of EKAL (a global non-profit focused on village empowerment in India). He likes traveling across the world, meeting different people, and learning about different cultures.
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