About
Built from experience.
Founded in 2015, Tokay Systems develops advanced spread-spectrum wireless technologies for industrial, infrastructure, defense, and related communications applications.
Ashley Michaels
Co-Founder | COO
Ashley started her career in corporate financial planning and analysis in the electric utility industry at Southern Company. She next worked in budgeting and supporting operations and maintenance onsite at two power plants. After about a decade in the utility industry, she transitioned to the defense/communications industry at L3Harris corporation supporting IT budgeting and manufacturing engineering. In 2015, Ashley and Alan started Tokay Systems. Ashley transitioned to working part time and supporting the business operations including accounting, contracts, and business development. Ashley has an industrial engineering degree from Georgia Tech and an MBA from Florida State University.
Alan Michaels
Co-Founder | CEO
Alan serves as Tokay’s CEO and technology lead. He is a multi-discipline researcher/educator at Virginia Tech with specializations in spread spectrum, SIGINT, SATCOM, and applied cybersecurity, who balances roles as a tenured Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering, the College of Engineering’s Northrop Grumman Senior Faculty Fellow, and VT National Security Institute’s Chief Technology Officer. Career highlights include a decade of industrial research and department head experience at L3Harris; Ph.D. / three M.S. from Georgia Tech and an MBA from Carnegie Mellon; and a nearly $200M portfolio of research efforts for the US Government, leading to early-stage contributions to three startups, 47 U.S. patents, and >100 peer-reviewed academic papers. He was elected Fellow in the National Academy of Inventors in 2021.
Two perspectives. One company.
Tokay combines deep wireless engineering with practical business, manufacturing, and operational experience to move communications technology from research concepts toward deployable systems and products. Additional expertise comes from a team of faculty member consultants from Virginia Tech’s National Security Institute
Tokay TeamU.S. patents
Peer-reviewed publications
Years of delivering RF/wireless solutions to the DoW/IC.