Sam (Samir) Gulve
Sam (Samir) Gulve is currently Chairman and MD for Avaya India Pvt. Ltd. Avaya is a multi-billion dollar company that delivers Intelligent Communications solutions that help companies transform their businesses to achieve marketplace advantage. At Avaya Sam oversees the GCS product development functions in India and have broader accountability for positioning Avaya as an employer of choice in the highly competitive software industry in India. As the India location leader, Sam is responsible for developing the India growth strategy in alignment with Avaya’s global capability sourcing strategy and designing and deploying specific methodologies to manage off-shore work.
Prior to joining Avaya, Sam was senior vice president, Software and Technology for Amdocs, a leader in business and support software for the telecom industry. At Amdocs, which he joined in 2004, he was a member of the management team that scaled the organization in India from 50 to more than 3000 in just over three years, while maintaining the highest standards of quality and delivery. He led both product development and worldwide implementation projects for telecom service providers around the globe. Later, Sam was also responsible for building and growing a managed services division at Amdocs. During his tenure at Amdocs, his team achieved CMMI-L3 (Capability Maturity Model® Integration) certification, a process improvement approach that provides organizations with the essential elements of effective processes.
Sam has extensive experience in the technology industry, having spent eight years at AT&T Bell Laboratories in various roles in R&D, engineering and product management. He gained experience in technical sales at Netscape and Calico Commerce, Inc., as well as at startup Shakti Systems Inc., which he co-founded. Sam has also held significant senior management roles at leading companies such as SSA Inc, CDI Inc, Kiva Software and Consolidated Commerce Inc.
Sam earned a B. Tech. from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, an MS in Computer Science from Virginia Tech University, and did significant work toward a PhD in computer science at Illinois Institute of Technology.