Changing the Paradigm

Leon Lauritsen

Chief Executive Officer

Leon Lauritsen joined Aras in 2022 through the acquisition of Minerva PLM, where he had been for over 20 years. While at Minerva, Leon led sales and marketing globally and expanded its geographic coverage throughout Europe and North America. Leon’s experience ranges from launching products in the PLM domain to other enterprise software domains like ERP, CRM, and SCM. His prior experience with different roles and companies includes a broad background, ranging from programming to business consulting, project management, and business development. These experiences and his results-oriented focus have been decisive to Aras’ success. Leon has an IT and Economics degree (HD-IØ) from Copenhagen Business School and an Executive MBA from Henley Management College.

Rob McAveney

Chief Technology Officer

Rob McAveney brings a lifelong passion for technology to the CTO role at Aras. For the past 20 years, he has focused that passion on building rich software platforms that solve difficult business problems for major industrial companies. Rob acts as Aras’ technology visionary and provides design oversight for future PLM technology, while remaining grounded in the realities of configuration management, systems integration, and the many other challenges of delivering enterprise software. Prior to Aras, Rob led technical sales engagements for Eigner, an early entrant in the PLM market. He began his career at Boeing, where he gained a broad understanding of engineering and manufacturing systems and processes.

Lalitha Gunturi

General Counsel & Corporate Secretary

Lalitha serves as Aras’ general counsel and has more than 20 years of experience in the technology industry. As general counsel, she leads all legal services that support the day-to-day needs of the business, as well as strategic initiatives.

Prior to joining Aras, Lalitha was deputy general counsel at RSA Security, where she served as a corporate generalist and Head of Legal for RSA’s NetWitness business. Lalitha began her career as an associate at Goodwin Procter LLP and went on to work as in-house counsel at various technology companies. Lalitha is an active board member in her local community and bar associations and is passionate about diversity and inclusion initiatives. She is the executive sponsor of Aras’ Women in Leadership Business Resource Group and the recipient of the 2021 Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly In-House Leader in the Law Award.

Will Porter

Chief Financial Officer

Will Porter is an accomplished CFO with thirty years of experience in SaaS and on-premise software companies in various industries including cybersecurity, healthcare, and financial services. His experience in high-growth environments resulted in significant contributions in driving growth both organically and through mergers and acquisitions with successful exits through the public markets and through M&A. Most recently, Will served as CFO of Aura, a technology company dedicated to simplifying consumer digital security. Before his tenure at Aura, Will also held CFO positions at ObserveIT, BlueTarp Financial, and Signiant.

Josh Epstein

Chief Marketing Officer

Josh Epstein is an accomplished technology chief marketing officer with a record of building category-defining enterprise technology brands across various industries, including cybersecurity, cloud infrastructure, data, analytics, and AI. He has held a range of marketing leadership roles at venture-backed startups and global technology leaders. Most recently, Josh served as CMO at AtScale, a data and analytics software provider helping enterprise data teams modernize business intelligence and analytics for the cloud. Prior to joining AtScale, he held marketing leadership roles with ObserveIt, Kaminario, Oracle, and Dell/EMC.

Sam Zawaideh

Chief Operating Officer

With over 25 years of executive experience in enterprise software development and delivery, Sam is responsible for driving global customer success and services at Aras. Sam brings extensive experience in advising public and private companies on how to scale operations to achieve accelerated growth, market leadership, customer success, and significant ROI. Prior to Aras, Sam served in various executive positions at Dassault Systèmes, Savo Corp (acquired by Seismic), Matrix One (acquired by Dassault Systèmes), and Dyadem Ltd (acquired by IHS). Sam also held field leadership positions at Adra Systems, Sherpa Corp, and Johnson. His additional areas of expertise include professional services, product and portfolio management, SaaS solution development and delivery, Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), and developing a high performance team.

Igal Kaptsan

Senior Vice President, Product Management

Igal Kaptsan is an accomplished product management, design, and software development industry leader with over 25 years of experience. Most recently, Igal served as general manager for GE Additive’s software business and was responsible for driving innovation, executing product strategy, and developing new products. Prior to GE, Igal had considerable experience within the digital engineering and PLM industry as the Vice President of Product Management at Dassault Systèmes, and several years as the VP of Product Management with PTC. His experience also includes several product development and R&D roles at Bentley Systems and various startups.

Christopher D’Arcy

Senior Vice President, Human Resources

Christopher D’Arcy is a senior human resources executive with more than 20 years of experience leading talent strategy, organizational development, and performance management across diverse business environments. He has deep expertise in guiding organizations through growth and transformation, including mergers and acquisitions in high-growth SaaS companies, delivering strong outcomes for private equity and venture-backed organizations.

Prior to joining Aras, Chris served as Chief Human Resources Officer at Arcadia, where he supported a platform focused on advancing healthcare insights and outcomes. He also held senior HR leadership roles at Liaison International and Silverlink Communications, shaping people strategies that drive engagement, scalability, and long-term success.

Don Cooper

Senior Vice President of Global Alliances

Don Cooper brings over 25 years of expertise in enterprise software and technology sales, with a proven track record of success across direct and indirect sales channels. Known for his results-driven and innovative approach, Don inspires teams and partners to achieve exceptional business outcomes. Don’s leadership spans the full spectrum of sales and business development functions. His ability to build, scale, and optimize diverse teams has consistently driven transformative results, positioning organizations for sustained growth in competitive markets. Specializing in simplifying complexity, Don applies deep operational insights to craft effective sales strategies, optimize processes, and develop compelling value-driven messaging that accelerates revenue growth. His expertise in aligning strategic business objectives with tactical GTM execution has established him as a trusted leader in the Enterprise SaaS space. With a focus on actionable outcomes, Don’s commitment to excellence makes him an invaluable asset to organizations seeking to navigate the evolving technology sales landscape.