Avanex names VP, CFO

Jan. 1, 2000

Jessy Chao has been promoted to vice president of finance and chief financial officer of Avanex Corp. Previously, he was head of accounting and finance for E-TEK Dynamics Inc., where he successfully negotiated and completed a $120-million capital restructuring prior to its public offering. Chao also structured a $10-million international joint venture to expand E-TEK's manufacturing capacity and managed the growth of the company from annual sales of $4 million to $74 million without external equity financing. He has also been a staff auditor at KPMG Peat Marwick in San Jose, CA and a senior accountant at Valid Logic and Destiny Technology, two high-technology companies in San Jose, CA.

Michael J. Losch has been appointed chief financial officer of Tellium Inc. He will be responsible for the company's finance and administrative functions, including accounting, financial planning, taxation, investor relations, and human resources. Losch joins the company with more than 20 years of experience in the financial and telecommunications operations arena. Prior to joining the company, he was chief financial officer and chief operating officer at IDF International Inc. Losch has also served as chief financial officer in other public and private telecommunications companies, including Bell Atlantic-NJ and Bell Atlantic Investment Development Corp.

Thomas J. Tauke, senior vice president for government relations at Bell Atlantic, has been named chairman of the United States Telecom Association. Before joining Bell Atlantic, he served in the U.S. House of Representatives, representing Iowa's Second Congressional District from 1979 to 1991 and served as a member of the Iowa General Assembly from 1975 to 1979. Tauke replaces outgoing USTA chairman Bob Orent, president and chief executive officer of Hiawatha Communications Inc.

Blake Fennell has been appointed chief operating officer of Melles Griot Photonics Group, which includes the Photonics Components Division in Irvine, CA, the Optical Systems Division in Rochester, NY, and the company's European and Asian operations. He joined the company in 1990 as director of operations for the Laser Group and in 1995 became vice president and general manager of the Optical Systems Division. In 1997, Fennel returned to the Laser Group as vice president and general manager.

Clive Wilson has been appointed operations director of Kymata. He will be responsible for initiating commercial manufacturing operations at the company's new optical-wafer fabrication facility. Wilson joins the company from Ericsson Components in Sweden where he was general manager of ICs and sourcing, responsible for running three IC fabrication facilities, for conventional submicron semiconductor devices, and indium-phosphide lasers for photonic applications. He brings over 30 years' experience in managing cleanroom manufacturing operations to the company, having previously worked for Motorola, General Instruments, STC, BT, SGS-Thomson, and Uniphase.

Robert Barron has been named president and chief operating officer at Chromatic Networks Inc. Barron will oversee all of the company's global operations, including scaling the sales, marketing, engineering, manufacturing, and support teams for volume product delivery. Previously, he was vice president of operations and corporate officer at Nokia/Diamond Lane Communications, where he was instrumental in bringing their XDSL DSLAM products to market and developing core business processes. Barron has also been vice president of operations in the telecommunications sector of Harris Corp. and general manager and group vice president at Stanford Telecom. He has also held executive positions at Autek Systems Corp. and Zitel Corp.

Barton Shigemura, formerly vice president of marketing for Lucent Technologies' Data Networking Systems Division, joined Alidian Networks Inc. as president and CEO. He came to Lucent in 1998 when the company acquired publicly held ATM equipment vendor Yurie Systems, where he served as senior vice president of sales and marketing. From 1993 to 1996, he had been vice president of marketing and services, and a corporate officer for Premisys Communications. Shigemura also has held marketing and sales positions with Nortel, General DataComm, and IBM.

Rodman A. Nichols has been hired as regional vice president of Unisource Network Services Inc.'s Chicago offices. Nichols will be responsible for overseeing the technology staff, developing and implementing overall corporate strategy, and client relations and sales to provide Midwest entities with successful implementation of consulting services. Prior to joining the company, he was vice president of Protégé Systems Inc. Mason Taylor has been named regional vice president for the company's New York office. Prior to joining the company, he was with Bellcore/SAIC, a telecommunications information-networking software and professional services provider.

Jan-Erik Rottinghuis has been named president and chief executive officer of PubliCARD Inc. Rottinghuis has worked for VeriFone, a subsidiary and part of the Internet Business Unit of Hewlett-Packard Co. since 1993 and was most recently vice president of worldwide sales. Prior to joining VeriFone, he was responsible for sales, marketing, and business development with Polaroid Europe.

Ron Hardy has been appointed national sales manager for the Siemon Co., where he will be responsible for overseeing and strengthening the company's sales force to achieve strategic objectives. Hardy joined the company in 1997 as regional manager.

John R. Dillon, former senior vice president and chief financial officer at Cox Enterprises Inc., has joined Ciena Corp.'s board of directors. Dillion joined Cox Communications as vice president and chief financial officer in 1981 and was responsible for all corporate financial activities as well as planning and development. He was instrumental in taking the company private in 1985 and merging it with Cox Newspapers to form Cox Enterprises. Dillon retired from Cox Enterprises in 1996 although he continued to serve on the boards of both TCG and Cox Communications for two more years.

Steve Turley has joined Nortel Optoelectronics as director of strategic business development. He will be responsible for the leadership of the company's strategic analysis and planning for new business opportunities. In addition, Steve will become a company representative on the board of directors of Photonic Technologies based in Australia.

Fred Yentz, manager of embedded systems at IBM, has been appointed vice chairman of the board of governors of the MultiMedia Telecommunications Association (MMTA). He will complete the second year of the term for the previous vice chairman, Laura Skinner, who changed corporations mid-term. Yentz is chairman of MMTA's Computer-Telephone Integration Division and has focused on convergence-capable channels. He continues to be instrumental in establishing strategic positions for MMTA credentialing programs for the IT and telephony markets.

Kenneth L. "Chip" Wiltse has been promoted to president of International FiberCom Inc.'s Compass Communications subsidiary. From 1998 until joining the company as president of Compass, Wiltse was chief operating officer for Advanced Broadband Systems Services Inc. as an affiliate of Scientific Atlanta. From 1991 to 1998, he worked at Lucent Technologies and AT&T as executive director of operations for major infrastructure development projects.

Gary Winnick, company founder of Global Crossing, has been named chairman of the board. Winnick has been serving as co-chairman with Lodwrick M. Cook, former chairman and chief executive at ARCO. Winnick also serves as chairman and chief executive officer of Pacific Capital Group.

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