OUR MANAGEMENT TEAM
Working together to add value and drive growth
Aleran’s talented team is always working hard to find novel ways to leverage market-changing forces as we create new tools and buyer journeys for our customers.
With an expanding team of creative and innovative thinkers, we are focused on increasing your revenues and driving sales growth.
Alex Sayyah
CEO
Alex Sayyah brings over 20 years of experience leading eCommerce, digital innovation, and revenue teams for global B2B and B2C brands. As a strategic, data-driven and growth-focused executive, Alex lives by the mantra: push harder. With proven success creating strategic roadmaps that drive market development and expansion, Alex has met aggressive revenue goals for online/offline businesses and managed cross-functional, geographically dispersed teams across the Americas, Europe and Asia.
Alex Kushner
CTO & Founder
A pioneering force in building innovative CRM and logistics software solutions for Fortune 500 companies, Alex Kushner founded Aleran Software with the singular goal of making complex and expensive technologies simple and affordable enough for SMBs. His focus was on using “free-up” principals and designing software for the sales rep and manufacturer — streamlining their back office by eliminating much of the costly, non-productive and time-intensive burdens of IT.
Harley Handegard
CFO
Harley Handegard has served as Chief Financial Officer of Aleran since May, 2021. He has extensive experience in public accounting, private company finance, and financial reporting. Since 1994, he has served as CFO for several privately held companies and was directly involved in raising over $50 million of equity and debt financing from institutional and angel investors. He has been a CFO of a SaaS company and has consulted on SaaS accounting issues with others. Harley is a Minnesota CPA (Inactive) and began his public accounting career with Arthur Andersen & Co. in Minneapolis.
SARAT KAKUMANU
Senior VP of Technology
Sarat Kakumanu has more than 20 years of experience in product engineering in the retail, healthcare, and transportation industries. He has led software development teams for enterprise customers (BestBuy, Optum) and as well as successful software startups. Sarat is always questioning the status quo and how emerging technologies can be applied to generate new solutions. With his experience in SaaS/Cloud Architecture, development methodologies, and product implementation he has successfully led geographically disbursed teams and multiple software product releases.
TARAK PATEL
VP of Product Marketing and Product Management
Tarak Patel brings over 20 years of experience with product management and product marketing working across a variety of industries. With a focus on sales & marketing SaaS software, Tarak’s experience has helped companies streamline their operations in these areas as well as drive performance improvements using data AI/ML techniques. Prior to joining Aleran, Tarak held positions at or partnered with companies such as Oracle, SalesForce, and Microsoft among others.
ROBERT KELEN
VP of Operations
Robert Kelen comes to Aleran with over 20 years of digital marketing and operational experience. Prior to joining Aleran, Robert held a variety of senior positions at technology companies — in manufacturing, healthcare, consulting, and software industries. Robert has a strong marketing background and technical skill set that allows him to work comfortably, and cross-functionally, in a variety of settings.
CHRISTIAN LYNDES
VP of Business Development
Christian Lyndes has over 20 years of business development at firms like Salesforce, Thomson Reuters, and Gartner. Having started his career in M&A at the Merchant Bank, Ridgemont, he recently led sales and business development for NES Financial, which was purchased by JTC:LON.
