Leadership, Experience, Commitment

By listening to customer needs and understanding business priorities, Aras executives draw on an intimate knowledge of corporate requirements and operating experience to provide innovative solutions to address complex challenges of global enterprises and deliver unmatched value to our customers.

Roque Martin

Roque Martin

Chief Executive Officer and Board Member

Roque Martin is an enterprise software executive with a track record of enabling companies to penetrate new markets, drive growth, and increase profitability. He has extensive engineering software experience, with more than 30 years of demonstrated leadership in Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), product management, P&L management, GTM, and global operations. Prior to joining Aras, Roque was general manager of PTC’s division delivering systems and software engineering solutions for manufacturers of advanced products, as well as an R&D executive. He also worked for 25 years at IBM, where he contributed to their SaaS, acquisition integration, and competitive intelligence strategies. Roque is also a champion for diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace and was a founding member of Hispanic/LatinX employee resource groups at both PTC and IBM.

Rob McAveney

Rob McAveney

Chief Technology Officer

Rob McAveney brings a lifelong passion for technology to the CTO role at Aras. For the past 20 years, he has focused that passion on building rich software platforms that solve difficult business problems for major industrial companies. Rob acts as Aras’ technology visionary and provides design oversight for future PLM technology, while remaining grounded in the realities of configuration management, systems integration, and the many other challenges of delivering enterprise software. Prior to Aras, Rob led technical sales engagements for Eigner, an early entrant in the PLM market. He began his career at Boeing, where he gained a broad understanding of engineering and manufacturing systems and processes.

Lalitha gunturi

Lalitha Gunturi

General Counsel

Lalitha serves as Aras’ general counsel and has over 15 years of legal experience in the technology industry. She leads all aspects of the legal services that support the day-to-day needs of the business, as well as strategic initiatives. Prior to joining Aras, Lalitha was deputy general counsel at RSA Security, where she served as a corporate generalist and head of legal for RSA’s NetWitness business. Lalitha began her legal career as an associate at Goodwin Procter LLP and went on to work as in-house counsel at various technology companies. Lalitha is an active board member in her local community and bar associations and is passionate about diversity and inclusion initiatives. She is the recipient of the 2021 Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly In-House Leader in the Law Award.

Will Porter

Will Porter

Chief Financial Officer

Will Porter is an accomplished CFO with thirty years of experience in SaaS and on-premise software companies in various industries including cybersecurity, healthcare, and financial services. His experience in high-growth environments resulted in significant contributions in driving growth both organically and through mergers and acquisitions with successful exits through the public markets and through M&A. Most recently, Will served as CFO of Aura, a technology company dedicated to simplifying consumer digital security. Before his tenure at Aura, Will also held CFO positions at ObserveIT, BlueTarp Financial, and Signiant.

Sam Zawaideh

Sam Zawaideh

Vice President, Cloud, Customer Success & Consulting

With over 25 years of executive experience in enterprise software development and delivery, Sam is responsible for driving global customer success and services at Aras. Sam brings extensive experience in advising public and private companies on how to scale operations to achieve accelerated growth, market leadership, customer success, and significant ROI. Prior to Aras, Sam served in various executive positions at Dassault Systèmes, Savo Corp (acquired by Seismic), Matrix One (acquired by Dassault Systèmes), and Dyadem Ltd (acquired by IHS). Sam also held field leadership positions at Adra Systems, Sherpa Corp, and Johnson. His additional areas of expertise include professional services, product and portfolio management, SaaS solution development and delivery, Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), and developing a high performance team.

Anne Scanlon

Anne Scanlon

Chief People Officer

Anne recently joined Aras as Chief People Officer (CPO) and is responsible for setting and overseeing the company's people strategy. Previously she was CPO at SmartBear, an information technology company that delivers tools for application performance monitoring, and software development and testing. Her experience includes Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) at Aptus Health, Inc. a subsidiary of Merck and Co., Inc. Prior to that she held global HR leadership positions at Thermo Fisher Scientific and EMC. Anne specializes in building and sustaining a positive employee experience, as well as developing strategic partnerships with leadership to help scale and support the company vision.

John Sperling

John Sperling

Senior Vice President, Product Management

John brings over 25 years of experience in engineering and enterprise software development to the product management team at Aras. John is a results-oriented leader with in-depth knowledge of PLM project and program management, software implementation and customization, and user interface design and usability. Before joining Aras, John was director of product management for engineering collaboration and enterprise visualization at Oracle, where he drove their strategic product vision and managed a global development team and network of integration partners to multi-million-dollar growth. Previously, John developed engineering systems, solutions, and processes at Boeing and Rockwell International for the space shuttle, space station, delta rockets, GPS satellites, and experimental vehicles.

Andrey Knourenko

Andrey Knourenko

Vice President, Engineering

With over 20 years of experience in enterprise software, Andrey Knourenko brings extensive expertise in all aspects of managing software product development. Andrey has a strong track record of building superior technical teams and delivering quality enterprise software products. Andrey joined Aras in 2005 and was VP of product development from 2013-2018. Prior to joining Aras, Andrey co-founded NetView Technologies, a provider of web-based enterprise business process management software. Earlier in his career, Andrey was director of development of Pro/INTRALINK® for PTC.

Armen Meguerditchian

Armen Meguerditchian

Chief Information Officer

As Chief Information Officer (CIO), Armen leads Aras’ IT transition to a fully global, distributed, and fluid workforce collaborating on building the next generation of our award-winning platform. With 30+ years of experience from startups to the Fortune 50, Armen brings a range of approaches to process improvement and systems deployment. He applies a partnership approach to IT/IS situations where adaptability, flexibility, and broad skills are needed to propel the business forward, scaling and expanding into new markets. Earlier in his career Armen was part of the CRM strategy practice at IBM. Prior to joining Aras as director of information systems, Armen built information systems for a series of startups.

John Busa

John Busa

Vice President, Production

John Busa brings nearly 30 years of engineering software experience to Aras, with successful leadership in cross-functional operations, product management, and product development. Prior to joining Aras, John served on the management teams, in a variety of senior operational and product development roles, at aPriori Technologies and CXO Systems. Prior to that, John served as Senior Vice President for Research and Development at PTC, a leading provider of PLM solutions. He has played a key role in the management and the growth of all of these companies.

Stephane Guignard

Stéphane Guignard

Vice President, Operations, Europe

Stéphane Guignard brings over 25 years of experience in the product lifecycle management software industry to Aras. He has extensive expertise in information system architecture and business processes optimization, as well as executive sales. Stephane has strong track record in team empowerment and entrepreneurship, founding and running multiple companies, including PCO Technologies in 1997, the first and largest independent French PLM services company (later acquired by Accenture). Previously, he drove the Metaphase worldwide implementation program at Schneider Group.

Masahiko Hisatsugu

Masahiko Hisatsugu

President, Aras Japan and Vice President, Operations, Japan

With over 20 years of technology experience, Masahiko Hisatsugu is one of the foremost authorities on PLM in Japan. Prior to Aras, Masahiko served as founder and president of Progress Partners Consulting, a Japanese PLM consulting firm. Before founding Progress Partners, Masahiko was the first Metaphase (now Siemens PLM) consultant, introducing PLM to the Japanese market and working with industry leaders including Toyota, Konica Minolta, Mitsubishi, Toshiba, and Canon. Masahiko was then recruited by SAP to build and run SAP PLM in Japan, where he developed business solutions, drove strategic marketing, and established a consulting methodology. He is also the author of the book "How to Develop a PLM System," and a frequent blogger on PLM and related topics.

Joe Moorman

Joe Moorman

Vice President of Sales, North America

Joe Moorman joined Aras in June 2022 as vice president of Sales, North America. He leads our team of PLM sales professionals, who will engage customers on their business initiatives, drive value with Aras solutions, and grow Aras ARR. Before joining Aras, Joe was senior director, Automotive and Manufacturing Sales America at Autodesk, where he spent seven years in various automotive and manufacturing positions. He was responsible for Autodesk’s largest accounts in North America and drove a $130M business. Previously, Joe was at PTC for 18+ years and held several regional and strategic sales roles.

Enrique Rodríguez

Enrique Rodríguez

Vice President, Global Alliances and Business Partners

Enrique is an experienced sales, channels, and senior operations executive with a successful track record leading teams of diverse field professionals. He brings over twenty-five years of global sales experience in the software and IT industry to Aras. Most recently, Enrique held positions at PTC Software as division vice president of Americas sales and channels, as well as advisor to the EVP of global sales and marketing. Before his experience at PTC, Enrique held several senior executive sales roles at JDA Software, where he was chief sales officer, and at IBM. While at IBM, he held VP roles including software sales and operations for Growth Markets, Asia Pacific, and Japan, as well as VP of software sales for Latin America, and VP of sales for several of IBM software brands. As global vice president of alliances, he will provide leadership for OEM relationships, business partner channels and system integrators.

Roque Martin

Roque Martin

Chief Executive Officer and Board Member

Roque Martin is an enterprise software executive with a track record of enabling companies to penetrate new markets, drive growth, and increase profitability. He has extensive engineering software experience, with more than 30 years of demonstrated leadership in Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), product management, P&L management, GTM, and global operations. Prior to joining Aras, Roque was general manager of PTC’s division delivering systems and software engineering solutions for manufacturers of advanced products, as well as an R&D executive. He also worked for 25 years at IBM, where he contributed to their SaaS, acquisition integration, and competitive intelligence strategies. Roque is also a champion for diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace and was a founding member of Hispanic/LatinX employee resource groups at both PTC and IBM.

Tony Affuso

Anthony (Tony) J. Affuso

Board Member

Tony Affuso is the former CEO of Siemens PLM Software. He serves on the Aras board, bringing over 30 years of experience in driving growth in the PLM software industry. Prior to Siemens, Tony was the CEO of PLM industry leader UGS for over 20 years, where he led UGS growth from a start-up to a multibillion-dollar global leader, and to a successful merger with Siemens PLM.

Tony also serves on the board of directors of Symbotic, where he was formerly CEO of the start-up robotics automation company.

Jim Cashman

James (Jim) E. Cashman

Board Member

Jim Cashman III is the former chairman and CEO of Ansys; with experience in technology, finance, sales, and operations, he has been key to the successful growth of numerous software companies in computer-aided engineering, product lifecycle management, and transaction processing over his 40-year tenure. Jim served for over 20 years at Ansys, the global leader of engineering simulation software, where he led the company from $50 million to over $1 billion USD in annual revenue and a spot in the S&P 500.

In addition to his board role with Aras, Jim serves as a corporate director and advisor to several high-tech organizations spanning information technology, industrial automation, and biotechnology.

Peter Schroer

Peter Schroer

Board Member

Peter Schroer, founder and former CEO of Aras brings over 25 years of experience transforming high-tech companies into market leaders by spearheading solution innovation and structured growth strategies. Prior to founding Aras, Peter was general manager, US operations and a board member for Eigner+Partner (acquired by Agile Software), a provider of PDM technology.

Marianne Budnik

Marianne Budnik

Board Member

Marianne Budnik is an accomplished IT industry leader with extensive experience among technology innovators and market leaders in cybersecurity, networking, and enterprise storage. Widely known for her expertise in go-to-market strategy, brand building and crisis communications, she is frequently invited to speak at global business, industry and academic events. Ms. Budnik previously served as Chief Marketing Officer for companies including CrowdStrike, CyberArk, SimpliVity (acquired by HPE), Acme Packet (acquired by Oracle) and CA Technologies. She also served as an independent director for Schibsted Media Group.  Ms. Budnik holds an M.B.A. from Boston University and a bachelor’s degree from Babson College.