Shekar Ayyar

Arrcus, Chairman & CEO

Speaker Bio

Shekar Ayyar is currently the Chairman and CEO of Arrcus, a leading Silicon Valley networking infrastructure company with some of the world’s largest market cap companies as customers. Shekar is a seasoned technology executive and industry leader with over twenty-five years of experience spanning general management, research, strategy, mergers & acquisitions, and business development.


Before joining Arrcus, Shekar was Executive Vice President and General Manager of the Telco and Edge Cloud business at VMware (now part of Broadcom). He incubated and grew this business to become one of the largest vertical opportunities for VMware in the context of 5G and Edge Computing. Prior to his General Manager role, Shekar was EVP of Strategy and Corporate Development, leading VMware’s M&A, corporate venture, and strategic investments for several years, spanning over 60 acquisitions and investments across a wide range of target companies and transaction sizes.


Before joining VMware in 2007, Shekar led product management and business development at companies like BindView, a compliance and security software company acquired by Symantec (now part of Broadcom) and Instantis, Inc. a web application automation company acquired by Oracle. In prior roles at other companies, including Lucent and McKinsey & Co., Shekar advised C-level executives on a wide range of strategic technology and business decisions.


Shekar has an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated as a Palmer Scholar. He also holds a Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University and a bachelor’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, both in electrical engineering.


Shekar currently serves on the board of Viasat (NASDAQ: VSAT) – a global satellite and communications company. He serves on the Strategic Review Committee of the board. He previously served on the board of Altair (NASDAQ: ALTR) through its $10B+ acquisition by Siemens in 2025. On the Altair board, he served on Audit, Nom Gov, and Tech Committees. He is also on the regional board of Room to Read, a non-profit focused on supporting literacy and girls’ education globally, and on the ECE Advisory Board of the Johns Hopkins University.

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