Dr. Manuel Figueroa, President of VERNET, Inc. holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Florida Tech where he was a Ford Foundation Fellow. Dr. Figueroa did his dissertation work at Argonne National Laboratories. Dr. Figueroa spent 13 years at Bell Laboratories and his contributions won national awards. A Wharton Business School Advanced Management Program graduate, Dr. Figueroa held the position of Vice President, Wireless Access Solutions at Lucent Technologies prior to founding VERNET in 2000.

He was responsible for Lucent’s wireless access sales to all of Latin America.   Prior to his appointment as vice president, he was CEO, Lucent Mexico Operations in Mexico City, Mexico. An active participant in the professional community, Dr. Figueroa is past president of Association of Puerto Rico Products, past member of the board of INTECO, the Puerto Rico Chamber of Commerce and current board member of the Triple S Management Corporation and BADECO. Dr. Figueroa presides the board of the PR State Chapter of EPSCoR.