Management Team

Donald Zilkha, Chairman of the Board

Mr. Donald E. Zilkha is a Co-founder and Managing Partner of Sciens Venture Partners, L.P. Mr. Zilkha is responsible for fund raising, provided leadership and a strategic direction of portfolio development, transaction analysis and execution, monitoring and interaction with portfolio managements for SVP I. Mr. Zilkha has more than 28 years of investment and merchant banking experience. He was Managing Partner of Sciens Capital Management, LLC. He founded Zilkha & Company and was involved in all of its investments. Before founding Zilkha & Company in 1986, Mr. Zilkha spent five years at James D. Wolfensohn, Inc. from 1982 to 1986 with various responsibilities from mergers & acquisitions to general partner of the venture capital fund. Prior to joining Wolfensohn, Mr. Zilkha begun work at Morgan Guaranty Trust Company in 1973 where he assumed positions of increasing responsibility working in Brazil, France and Germany, eventually sharing responsibility for the mergers & acquisitions department of the Bank in London. He serves as Chairman at New Colt Holding Corp. Mr. Zilkha has been Director of Electronic Retailing Systems International Inc. since 1993. He serves as a member of the Board of Directors of Wesleyan University. Mr. Zilkha served as a Director of Advanced Interactive Systems, Inc. He earned a BA from Wesleyan University in 1973, where he studied economics, philosophy and history.

Paul Johnson, Chief Executive Officer

Paul Johnson is an international executive with an extensive career in business development, revenue generation, and contract management. With expertise in telecommunications, government, aerospace, media, and satellite systems, Paul has demonstrated both a breadth of knowledge and business trust with key executives and partners. His proven ability to leverage system technologies and a special skill for international deal-making has always ensured pathways to growth.

Paul joined Babtel in January 2018, supporting business development initiatives. He was promoted to CEO in July 2018. In this capacity, Paul is restructuring corporate governance and positioning the company for future growth. He is also working closely with the management team to build on the model established for providing reliable and secure communications with the highest quality of service, security and privacy at Al Udeid Air Base and Camp As Sayliyah in Qatar.

In 2016, Paul established BPK Consulting Inc., where he provides advisement and consulting services for major clients, both domestically and internationally. He currently serves as a board advisor at Entropy, Inc., a data media platform, and provides business development services at STS Global Inc., an international satellite and telecom services provider. He was Executive Vice President at Cloud Constellation Corp, Spacebelt, a global satellite network for next-gen data management, where he was instrumental in the startup of this company and development of strategic partnerships. He also provided global sales services for Primestream, a media asset management company, and Goppion S.p.A. that designs, develops and builds display cases and museum installations.

In his corporate career, Paul served as Senior Vice President, Business Development and Corporate Secretary & Contracts at Globecomm, Inc. in Hauppauge, NY where he managed worldwide programs for secure communications, broadcast media, and mobile switched platforms, in partnership with national government entities, multinational organizations and commercial enterprises. Paul’s career included Director of Contracts at California Microwave’s STS Division, where he structured major efforts for joint ventures, teaming, product licensing, and agreements that grew revenue and international reach. As Contract Manager at Eaton Airborne Instrument Laboratories (AIL), he oversaw all U.S. Navy Electronic Warfare contracts and served as Senior Contract Administrator at Fairchild Industries-Fairchild Republic Company, where he supervised bid and proposals all the way through contract execution.

Paul has a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from St. Bonaventure University and has completed the Certified Professional Contract Manager (CPCM) certification program at Hofstra University, and courses in International Business from Adelphi University. He is a member of SSPI, NCMA, AFCEA, and a juror advocate for the Intelligent Community Forum, a think-tank based in New York City.

Christopher Catranis, Chief Operating Officer

Chris is a seasoned entrepreneur who began his career in 1979 by founding an international trade company with warehousing, freight forwarding, satellite telecommunications and civil engineering operations in Europe, Asia and Africa.  In 1995, having spent close to 20 years abroad, Chris returned to the US to found Skyway Partners, the first in the US triple-play building-centric Local Exchange Carrier Network, which serviced apartment communities in New Jersey and Pennsylvania and which was eventually taken over by one of the largest landlords in the region.  2001-2003 he owned and operated Subscriber Networks, an early Application Service Provider for property owners of multiple dwelling units (MDUs) that operated their own voice, video and data networks.  In 2003, Chris traveled to Iraq in search or a new business venture and in a short period of time formed BABTEL, a company which won an AAFES contract to build a managed IP network on one of the largest US military installations in Iraq.  Chris managed that network until the withdrawal of the US troops in 2008. Chris’ activities in Iraq have been detailed in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, and he has been featured on the Voice of America Radio network. Chris spent most of 2012-2014 working independently as a consultant for several companies in Afghanistan.  During that time, has also developed a menu of new commercial applications for Cloud-based network services, which BABTEL has deployed in CAS and AUAB Qatar. Chris remains a COO of BABTEL; while splitting his time 50/50 between Qatar and US. Chris received his BS in International Trade and Export Marketing from Syracuse University in 1978.

Megan Johnston, Controller

Megan Johnston began her finance career at Bank of America’s credit department while working through college. She comes to us with a degree in general studies and a minor in finance. In addition to her education and experience she has numerous accounting software certifications, and audit training. Based on Megan’s finance experience she became Operations Manager for a telecom company, directing all finance and operations. She left the telecom company to work for a publicly traded media company as Director of Operations. In Megan’s director position she managed the company’s financial and operational tasks, including all financial reporting and audits required for public companies. After leaving the media company Megan spent eight years as a controller and financial consultant for multi-million dollar businesses. Megan lives with her husband, daughter and two dogs in Kennett Square, PA.

Peter Catranis, VP Technology

Mr. Catranis is responsible for network and solutions architecture. Most recently he led the design of the Al Udeid Air Base, USAF and the Camp As Sayliyah, US Army commercial internet networks, both located outside of Doha, Qatar. Mr. Catranis worked for Brandywine Technology Partners during 2012-2014 as a Senior Network Engineer  in a consulting role handling network infrastructure related design, implementation, and troubleshooting as well as on-boarding and ongoing network management of managed services clients. He worked for Babtel starting in 2005, beginning at the Lebanese Regional Office. During the Iraq War he installed and maintained over 16 bases with VSAT networks and oversaw Babtel’s construction of the Telos Corp’s WLAN for the US Air Force at LSA Anaconda. From 2008 to 2011 he served as the lead Network Engineer for a ISP contract at Joint Base Balad, heading up network design and operations for one of the largest bases in Iraq, 40,000 troops and contractors at its height. Mr. Catranis holds the CCNP, CCDP, CCNA-Voice, ITIL, VSP and VTSP certifications.