James R. Scapa brings deep expertise and experience in business growth, innovation, and cultural stewardship to his role as founder, chairman, and CEO of Altair (Nasdaq: ALTR), a global leader in computational intelligence software and technology.

Founded in 1985, Altair employs more than 3,000 scientists, engineers, and creative thinkers across 28 countries and serves more than 16,000 customers across a broad range of industries including automotive, aerospace, government and defense, finance, energy, technology, life sciences, architecture, and construction.

Scapa holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Columbia University and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Michigan.

As chief operating officer, Stephanie Buckner is responsible for Altair's corporate development efforts and field operations, sales, and technical support globally. Previously she served as senior vice president of corporate development where she was responsible for building strategic partnerships across Altair’s entire ecosystem including software, hardware, cloud, the Altair Partner Alliance, and with customers. She was recently named among the Top 50 Women Chief Operating Officers of 2024 by Women We Admire and the Top 25 AI Executives of 2024 by The Software Report.

Earlier in her career, Buckner held senior management roles at Altair including director of strategic alliances where she surpassed aggressive new partner enrollment goals and was responsible for scouting, selling, onboarding, and managing relationships with third-party B2B software providers. Additionally, during her time at Altair, she also was the co-founder and chief executive officer of WEYV, a multi-content platform built on Altair’s patented digital content licensing model.

Prior to joining Altair, Buckner held analyst roles at Cisco Systems and American Express.

Buckner earned a bachelor’s degree in industrial and operations engineering from University of Michigan.

As chief technology officer, Srikanth (Sam) Mahalingam is responsible for overseeing the development and dissemination of Altair’s simulation, HPC, and AI technology and portfolio of products and solutions.

With more than 20 years of experience in software development, software architecture, technical management, and project management, Mahalingam previously served as Altair’s chief technical officer for the company’s cloud and HPC strategy where he shaped current products and identified new solutions to ease cloud adoption and mobile strategies for Altair customers.

During his time at Altair, Mahalingam has worked on various products and projects across custom services and product teams. He then joined a start-up as a joint promoter to launch a disruptive virtual try-on product that was later acquired by a large software services firm in India. Mahalingam rejoined Altair in 2005 to spearhead new product initiatives and eventually became Altair’s thought leader for enterprise software strategies.

Mahalingam earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science and engineering and an executive master’s degree in business administration from the Indian School of Business.

As chief product and strategy officer, Ravi Kunju is responsible for the strategy and vision of Altair products, which includes facilitating the development, sales, pricing, and marketing of Altair’s solutions for multiple industry verticals, across all business lines. He most recently served as the senior vice president of product strategy and pricing for Altair’s software solutions where he established and launched the go-to-market strategy for the Altair Units business model. He also led the analytical team responsible for customer software usage data, including royalty payments and reports for the Altair Partner Alliance.

Previously, Kunju held several leadership roles at Altair including vice president of business strategy for Altair’s manufacturing solutions, vice president of strategy for enterprise computing, managing director of enterprise computing for the Americas, and managing director of the U.S. North Central region.

Prior to joining Altair, Kunju was a project engineer at Ford Motor Company and a structural analyst at Chrysler Corporation.

Kunju holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Osmania University in Hyderabad, India; a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Wayne State University; and an MBA from the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business.

As chief financial officer, Matthew Brown is responsible for Altair’s global finance organization. Over the past two decades, Brown has led finance teams at top technology companies, helping drive financial strategy and planning, accounting, reporting, and capital structure.

Prior to joining Altair, Brown previously served as interim chief financial officer at NortonLifeLock, a leading consumer cyber safety company, and chief accounting officer at Symantec, a leading provider of enterprise security software. He also held finance leadership roles at Blue Coat Systems, NETGEAR, and Brocade Communications, after starting his career at KPMG, LLP.

Brown is a certified public accountant with a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the Walter A. Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.

As chief marketing officer, Amy Messano is responsible for Altair's global corporate marketing and communications strategy and execution. She has more than two decades of deep experience in all facets of marketing and communications in the fields of technology, advanced mobility, and energy.

Prior to Altair, Messano served as vice president of integrated marketing and communications at Aptiv (formerly Delphi), where she was a key player in launching the spin-off company. Previously, she held various senior roles at Microsoft and DTE Energy. Throughout her career, Messano has received countless awards for leading and launching innovative campaigns that have driven exceptional results through world-class collaboration.

Messano earned a master's degree in journalism from Northwestern University and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Colorado.

As chief people officer, Gilma Saravia leads Altair’s global human resources organization, including workforce strategy, talent acquisition and development, and employee engagement.

Saravia joined Altair from Aptiv where she served as vice president, global corporate human resources and talent. Previously, she held various senior roles at U. S. Steel and Deloitte’s Human Capital consulting group.

Saravia has more than two decades of experience in leading large-scale, global teams in organizational effectiveness, talent acquisition and development, and HR transformation at major companies.

She earned a bachelor of business administration degree from the University of Texas at Austin and holds various certifications in talent, leadership development, diversity, and inclusion.