Sujal is a leading technology executive with deep expertise in networking, infrastructure and security. Sujal is currently CEO and co-founder of defy portfolio, Nautilus Biotechnology; he was one of our first defy Sages in 2017.  Sujal founded Isilon Systems in 2001 with the vision that the rapid proliferation of unstructured, file-based data would necessitate a shift away from traditional storage architectures and toward a new, scale-out paradigm. In 2006, Isilon completed one of the most successful initial public offerings of the year, with a market capitalization in excess of $1 Billion. From 2007 to 2010, Sujal, as CEO, led Isilon during a period of profound growth, improving operating margins from -37.5% to +20%. Isilon was acquired by EMC in December, 2010 for $2.5 Billion, the largest acquisition in EMC’s history. Sujal served as the President of EMC’s Isilon Storage Division from the acquisition until November, 2012, driving significant revenue growth, market expansion and organizational scale. Prior to EMC and Isilon, Sujal served in various engineering roles at RealNetworks, Inc., in part as chief architect behind the company’s second-generation core media delivery system.

Sujal holds nineteen patents in the areas of storage, networking, and media delivery, is a well-known speaker on entrepreneurship, and has received a variety of industry awards. He graduated from the University of Maryland College Park in 1996 with a degree in Computer Science. Sujal first worked with the Defy team 10 years ago and has continued to collaborate with us over the years.