Management Team
Franz Birkner
Co-Founder, President and CEO
Franz brings to RAYSPAN over 25 years of successful experience as a telecommunications entrepreneur and venture capital investor in the wireless, wireline and optical networking sectors. Before serving as co-founding CEO of RAYSPAN, he was a co-founder and Managing Director of Express Ventures. Previously, he was an active investor and board member at Dot Wireless, acquired by Texas Instruments, and Cognet Microsystems, acquired by Intel.
Franz was co-founder and chairman/CEO of ComStream Corporation, a highly successful supplier of digital satellite communications equipment which was acquired by Spar Aerospace. For his accomplishments at ComStream, Franz was elected San Diego High Tech Entrepreneur of the Year. He also has served as Vice President - Strategy Development for Linkabit and the Digital Communications units of M/A-COM.
Franz was a founder of the San Diego Telecomm Council and launched its University Outreach program. He serves on the advisory boards of UCSD's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Center for Networked Systems.
Previously, he was a manager at the Boston Consulting Group, where he provided strategy development services to numerous major corporations. Franz began his career as an engineer at Watkins-Johnson Corporation, where he designed digitally controlled microwave surveillance systems. He earned dual B.S. degrees with honors from MIT's School of Electrical Engineering and from its Sloan School of Management.