Lumen taps PacketFabric and Cisco alum Dave Ward as CTO
Lumen Technologies has appointed telecom and packet technology industry veteran Dave Ward as its new Chief Technology Officer (CTO), driving the company’s ongoing cloud and virtual service initiatives.
The service provider recently introduced Ethernet On-Demand and IP-VPN on-demand. These two offerings build on top of its NaaS and Internet On-Demand platforms.
In July 2023, Lumen introduced its Internet On-Demand capability for its Network as a Service (NaaS) cloud platform, creating a cloud-like experience to buy, consume and manage network services.
Reporting to Lumen’s CEO Kate Johnson, Ward will officially start in his new role next week and serve as an executive team member.
Johnson said that Ward’s presence as CTO will help the service provider advance its service delivery vision for enterprise customers.
"Throughout his impressive career, he has built network architectures that have advanced the capabilities of the Internet, focusing on delivering significant customer value. In particular, Dave's deep knowledge of Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) technology will accelerate Lumen's NaaS platform as we disrupt the telecom industry with new digital experiences for enterprise customers."
Ward comes to Lumen from PacketFabric, a NaaS sector provider, where he was the chairman and CEO. During his tenure with PacketFabric, the company expanded its portfolio and customer base and grew its network to become among the largest fully automated network providers on the internet.
Ward scaled PacketFabric’s technology to connect customers to an ecosystem of cloud service providers and data centers while simplifying customers' network connectivity. Earlier, he was a Senior Vice President, CTO-Engineering, and Chief Architect at Cisco Systems and served as a Fellow at both Cisco Systems and Juniper Networks.
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About the Author
Sean BuckleySean Buckley
Sean is the Editor-in-Chief of Lightwave. He establishes and executes Lightwave's editorial strategy across its website, email newsletters, events, and other information products. Before coming to Lightwave in July 2023, he served as editor of Broadband Communities. Earlier, he served as senior editor of FierceTelecom and the editor of the former Telecommunications Magazine. He got his start in the optical industry in 1998 when he became the editor of enterprise and optical networks at Information Gatekeepers. He has a BA in English from the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and lives in Dracut, Mass, with his wife, two sons, and his cat, Dove.
