# Mansour Karam

> Mansour Karam is the founder and CEO of Aria Networks, the AI-native networking company that raised $125M to rethink how GPU clusters talk to each other. A Stanford-trained electrical engineer with a Lebanese-American background, he helped build Arista Networks from a handful of employees to a $4B IPO, then founded Apstra - the company that coined 'intent-based networking' - and sold it to Juniper in 2021. A piano player who names companies after musical terms, Karam has spent 25 years at the bleeding edge of how data moves, and now bets that the network - not the GPU - is the real bottleneck in the AI era.

- **Role:** Founder and CEO at Aria Networks
- **Organizations:** Aria Networks, Apstra (acquired by Juniper Networks), Juniper Networks, Arista Networks, Big Switch Networks, Routescience (acquired by Avaya)
- **Nationality:** American (Lebanese-American)
- **Education:** BS in Computer & Communications Engineering, American University of Beirut, MS and PhD in Electrical Engineering, Stanford University
- **Known for:** Co-founded Apstra, which coined and popularized the term 'intent-based networking', First business leader at Arista Networks, helping grow the company to a $4B IPO in 2014, Sold Apstra to Juniper Networks in 2021

## Career timeline

- **2000** — Joined Routescience as Principal Architect; company later acquired by Avaya
- **2006** — Joined Arista Networks as first business leader and employee #1 on the business side
- **2014** — Arista Networks IPO at $4B valuation; Karam had helped scale the company from inception
- **2014** — Co-founded Apstra alongside David Cheriton and Sasha Ratkovic, pioneering intent-based networking
- **2016** — Apstra emerged from stealth, introducing the concept of 'intent-based networking' to the industry
- **2021** — Apstra acquired by Juniper Networks; Karam joins Juniper as GVP of Products, Data Center division
- **2024** — Founded Aria Networks in October 2024 with CTO Subhachandra Chandra
- **2025** — Aria Networks raises $125M from Sutter Hill Ventures, Atreides Management, Valor Equity Partners, and Eclipse Ventures
- **2026** — Aria Networks launches Deep Networking platform with Aria Switch 800G and Aria Switch 1600T

## Achievements

- Co-founded Apstra, which coined and popularized the term 'intent-based networking'
- First business leader at Arista Networks, helping grow the company to a $4B IPO in 2014
- Sold Apstra to Juniper Networks in 2021
- Raised $125M for Aria Networks from top-tier investors including Sutter Hill Ventures
- Holds a portfolio of patents in networking technologies
- Won the Cloud Trailblazers Award (via Tech Trailblazers) for Apstra
- Launched Aria's Deep Networking platform claiming 100-10,000x finer telemetry resolution than competitors
- Founded three companies with names beginning in 'A': Apstra, Arista (early employee), Aria

## Latest updates

- **2026-04** — Aria Networks launched Deep Networking platform with $125M Series A, targeting AI-scale networking with Aria Switch 800G and 1600T products
- **2025-10** — Aria Networks formally emerged from stealth with team of networking veterans from Arista, Juniper, Meta, Google, Cisco
- **2024-10** — Founded Aria Networks with co-founder and CTO Subhachandra Chandra to tackle AI-scale networking challenges

## Links

- Website: https://arianetworks.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mansourkaram
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/mansourkaram
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mansourkaram_/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/mansour-karam
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-05-06