Management Team

Eric D. Stonestrom joined Airspan as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer in January 1998. From May 1998 to January 2022 he was President and Chief Executive Officer as well as a member of the Board of Directors, in February 2022 he was named Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. From 1995 to January 1998, Mr. Stonestrom was employed by DSC Communications Corporation, a provider of telecommunications equipment and services (“DSC”), as a Vice President of operating divisions, including the Airspan product line. From 1984 until 1995, Mr. Stonestrom worked at telecommunications corporations Bell Laboratories and AT&T in a variety of positions. He received B.S., M.S. and M. Eng. degrees in 1982, 1983 and 1984, respectively, from the College of Engineering at the University of California at Berkeley.

Eric D. Stonestrom is a founding member of Airspan.

David Brant joined Airspan in January 1998 as Finance Director. He became Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer in January 2007. Between July 2000 and December 2005 Mr. Brant served as Vice President Finance and Controller. In December 2005 Airspan transferred its Finance function to the United States, and he assumed an operating role leading Airspan’s AS.NET division, broadening his experience across the operational functions of Airspan. From 1990 to 1998, Mr. Brant was employed by DSC in various financial roles, the last post as Director of European Accounting. He received a B.A. in Mathematical Economics in 1984 from Essex University and is a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants.

David Brant is a founding member of Airspan.

Henrik Smith-Petersen is Airspan’s Chief Sales and Marketing Officer. Mr. Smith-Petersen joined Airspan in February 1998 as Senior Director in Sales. He became Regional Vice President for Asia Pacific in April 2000, in February 2001 became President, Asia Pacific, and in February 2009 became President, Global Business Development. Prior to joining Airspan, from July 1997 he was with DSC as Director of Business Development. In DSC he gained extensive experience developing new business and partnerships worldwide in the wireless telecommunication market. Before joining DSC, he worked for four years for AT&T’s Network Systems Group in Italy, where he developed AT&T’s operation systems business and later became Key Account Manager for Italtel, AT&T’s local partner in Milan, developing the Telecom Italia business. He received his B.Sc. in Business Economics degree from Copenhagen School of Economics in Denmark in 1990, and an M.B.A. from SDA BOCCONI University in Milan in 1992.

Henrik Smith-Petersen is a founding member of Airspan.

Uzi Shalev is Airspan’s Chief Technical Officer. Prior to being appointed Chief Operating Officer in August of 2008, Mr. Shalev was Chief Technical Officer of Marconi. Mr. Shalev joined Airspan in January 2001 as Vice President of Engineering and was appointed as Vice President and General Manager of Airspan Israel at the acquisition in 2002. Prior to joining Airspan, he served as Senior Vice President Engineering with RADVision, developing Voice and Video over IP products. From 1985 until 1993, Mr. Shalev worked in various projects in the Israel Aircraft Industries. He has 23 years of experience in telecommunications and wireless products, in managerial and technical roles. Mr. Shalev holds a BSc. degree in Mathematics and Computer Science from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Eli Leizerovitz joined Airspan Networks in July 2018 as Head of Products, responsible for leading the Airspan’s Product innovation, strategy and technology. Eli has a wealth of experience in the Telecommunication Industry, most recently six years as Senior Director of Business Development at Qualcomm, heading business development for Qualcomm’s Cellular Infrastructure Products. Prior to joining Qualcomm, Eli spent a combined 11 years as Vice President of Sales at DesignArt Networks and Vice President of Sales and Business Development at Provigent. Eli has also held Sales, Business Development and Project Management positions at Nice Systems and Tadiran Spectralink. Eli holds a BSc degree in Electrical & Computer Engineering from the Technion and an MBA degree from Tel-Aviv University.

Glenn Laxdal joined Airspan as President and Chief Operating Officer of the company in January of 2022 and has responsibility for the product portfolio, global operations and services.

Mr. Laxdal comes to Airspan from Infinera where he served as senior vice president and general manager of products with responsibility for all operational aspects of Infinera’s product business.  Prior to joining Infinera, Mr. Laxdal was senior vice president of Ericsson North America’s multi-billion dollar network products business overseeing strategy, product management and solution development.  Mr. Laxdal also served as chief technology officer and head of strategy for Ericsson North America.

Prior to Ericsson, Mr. Laxdal served as vice president of global product management at BlackBerry and prior to that held executive roles in product management and operations at Airvana and Nortel. 

Mr. Laxdal holds an MBA from the University of Toronto and a BA in Economics and Bachelor of Commerce degrees from the University of Saskatchewan.