CIENA Corp., provider of intelligent optical networking systems and software, today announced the opening of its mainland China representative office in Beijing. Mike Holmes, vice president and general manager, China, will head the office, which is presently staffed with sales, systems engineers, and program management employees.
"The opening of a Beijing representative office is a significant step on our strategic roadmap in mainland China," contends Gary Smith, CIENA's president and chief executive officer."Today, mainland China shows tremendous potential in terms of uptake of next-generation optical networking infrastructure. We recognize the need for the highest level of flexibility and responsiveness in meeting the demands of our customers in China, and are confident that having a mainland operation will provide the ground level support we need to best respond to emerging opportunities."
The announcement comes two years after the launch of the Company's Asia Pacific headquarters in Hong Kong. Since then, CIENA has developed a joint venture with CEC-IDN in Beijing. The two companies will continue to work together on the mainland market both to serve existing clients and to grow the business. CIENA and CEC-IDN also jointly launched a research and development center in Shanghai earlier this year. In addition to the Beijing office, CIENA currently has Asian offices in Hong Kong, Singapore, Korea, and Japan.
Holmes is a twelve-year veteran of the telecommunications and data networking industry. Prior to joining CIENA and taking up this post, he was with ONI Systems, responsible for network rollout for Qwest across Europe and Asia. He has also worked with major telecommunications equipment providers such as 3Com and Cisco Systems.
The opening of the Beijing representative office is a further example of CIENA's commitment to Asia, and the Company's focus on ongoing strategic investment in its business. "We've seen solid progress since the launch of our Asia Pacific headquarters," asserts Smith. "As we continue to navigate through this difficult period, we consider it critical to our future to continue to invest in Asia, and in our business overall."
For more information about CIENA (Linthicum, MD), visit the company's Web site at www.ciena.com.