Company Overview
Founded in 1999 as the pioneer in enterprise instant messaging (EIM), Bantu was the first company to recognize that the rapidly growing use of IM among consumers would quickly and significantly impact the business world, opening a new door to real productivity gains - as well as new security threats.
Bantu developed the first enterprise-grade instant messaging and collaboration platform which met the requirements that business and government had for security, scalability, manageability, integration and speed of deployment. Since then, Bantu has become a leading provider of secure Instant Communication technology for the government, commercial and education markets. For example, the US Army, Navy, Air Force, and other agencies already depend on Bantu as the real-time collaboration platform for their enterprise-wide knowledge management portals.
Bantu recently began deploying new technology that enables these customers to communicate securely with one another across agencies at the enterprise level and enables the use of rapidly developing new social networking concepts including application enablement that brings the people and processes together to empower business and government social networking.
Management Team
Bantu is led by a strong executive team with proven success in growing and managing communications companies.
Larry Schlang, CEO
Larry is the Founder and CEO of Bantu, Inc., leading provider of real-time collaboration software and services to military and government customers. Larry drives the company’s strategic planning and direction and ensures that Bantu continues to maintain its position as a premier provider of information sharing and collaboration solutions.
Larry was given a 2006 Federal 100 Award by Federal Computer Week for the work Bantu did to provide a cross agency communication network across the three military services. This work also resulted in the US Army winning a nomination for the Industry Advisory Council's 2007 Excellence.Gov Award.
Prior to Bantu, Larry was CEO of IntraACTIVE (sold to EasyLink); VP & General Counsel of National Strategies, Inc.; and an Associate Attorney at Shea & Gould. Larry often presents at industry conferences including Radicati Group, Internet World, CTIA, Pulver.com and CommNet events. He is also member in a variety of government and industry organizations including AFCEA, and IAC. He received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia and a law degree from George Washington University.
Doug Dangremond, Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing
With over 20 years of leadership in the communications and technology industry, Doug Dangremond, is responsible for leading all sales, marketing and business development activities across all of Bantu’s market segments.
Prior to joining Bantu, Doug held a variety of senior management positions and was recently Vice President, sales and marketing for Command Information, a premier provider of next generation networking services. Before Command, Doug was Vice President, Public Sector for NeuStar, Inc., a provider of clearinghouse and directory services to the global communications and Internet industry.
Doug also spent a number of years with AT&T and its former subsidiaries, SBC Communications and Ameritech. In his last role with the company, Doug was Vice President, Federal Solutions, responsible for sales and business development efforts as well as strategic planning and marketing.
Doug also previously served on the Advisory Board for the Association for Service Disabled Veterans and is an active member in a variety of government and industry organizations including AFCEA, IAC and the TelecomHub.
Lara Langley, Vice President, Finance and Administration
As Vice President of Finance and Administration, Lara Langley is responsible for the administration of Bantu’s budget, oversight of all financial operations, human resources and office administration.
Lara has over 15 years of experience in finance/accounting working in private and public companies. She has over seven years of experience working as a consultant for a public company preparing SEC filings and managing quarterly reviews and annual audits.
Lara is a graduate of Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA where she earned a Bachelor of Science in Accounting. She also holds a CPA certificate from the state of Illinois and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA).
Wade Peckman, Senior Vice President, Client Services
As Senior Vice President of Client Services, Wade Peckman, is responsible for the customization, integration, and support of Bantu’s products and services across our customer base. Wade is also responsible for managing Bantu’s hosted EIM solution and as well as the corporate IT infrastructure. He brings to Bantu over 20 years of experience in IT operations, engineering, project management, and executive management.
Wade joined Bantu from Discovery Communications, Inc., where he was most recently Director of Operations responsible for deploying and maintaining Discovery’s business and web infrastructure. While at Discovery, his significant accomplishments included leading a major multi-million dollar storage consolidation effort, a global Active Directory roll-out, and served as the technical lead for Discovery’s corporate disaster planning initiatives.
Prior to Discovery, Wade held several lead technical and management roles at EDS, where he was responsible for the operations, engineering, and architecture of large scale database applications supporting AT&T’s business customers. He was also instrumental in securing and managing several large scale professional services contracts for EDS. Earlier in his career, Wade held various system, design, and engineering positions supporting the commercial and defense industries.