Kannan Ayyar is President of Grand Design Systems. Kannan has over 20 years of business and technical leadership at a variety of companies. He is an avid entrepreneur and software executive who has founded and led several companies. Renaissance Software, a financial software company was sold to Sungard. Interweave Software, a decision support software company, was sold to Cognos. Karna Global, a global systems integrator, was sold to Cranes Software. He is a sought-after expert on software creation, offshore development, marketing, and business positioning for technology companies. He has an international focus and has conducted business in over 20 countries. He sits on the board of several private companies. He is an avid speaker on entrepreneurship and is a mentor at various accelerators for software companies. He started his career as a banker at Salomon Brothers, and holds a computer science degree from University of California, at Berkeley.