on the move

Intense Photonics appointed Neil Weston president of sales and marketing. Previously with JDS Uniphase and Agilent Technologies in senior commercial roles, Weston brings nearly 20 years' experience in the optoelectronics industry to Intense, whose staff has grown from 20 to 50 over the last two years. "The company's technology and capabilities continue to gain acceptance in our original market of telecommunications and are now helping us accelerate our growth in the new markets of printing and defence," contends Weston. Intense has raised funding totalling EUR33.6 million from various venture capital firms.

51 Degrees (51°), the telecommunications infrastructure business for London, refocused its management team, including two internal promotions, the creation of a new post called strategy and regulation director, and a new sales and marketing director. Neil Smith has been promoted to head of engineering with overall responsibility for presales, design, construction, and service delivery. Another internal promotion has been awarded to Richard Welch, who will control the network operations centre, operations and maintenance field force, and service contracts. Sophie Graham will join 51º as director of strategy and regulation, moving from parent company EDF Energy. Graham had worked at ntl for seven years where she was responsible for establishing the wholesale switched voice product portfolio as well as overall interconnect strategy. Ty Smith is the company's new sales and marketing director.

Professor Charles Kao has been awarded an honorary doctor of science by the University of Greenwich, London. Kao is chairman and CEO of ITX Services, specialising in technology transfer and outlook projects. Former student of the university's precursor Woolwich Polytechnic, Kao is internationally recognised as "the father of fibre optics" and has achieved world recognition as one of the architects of fibre-optic technology. He began experimenting in London in 1963, culminating with proof that strands of glass fibres can transmit near-limitless amounts of digitised data on pulses of laser light. His pioneering research enabled the use of fibre optics in telecommunications and led to the development of the Internet, videoconferencing, and electronic commerce.

Stewart Davies, chief executive of BT Exact's research, technology, and IT operations business, has been elected a Fellow of the United Kingdom's Royal Academy of Engineering. Davies joined BT as an apprentice technician in 1968 and since then has worked on a range of developments at the vanguard of technology with responsibility for several BT businesses. He was named BT Exact's CEO last April following the merger of BTexact Technologies with BT Computing Partners. During the 1980s, Davies developed designs for early digital-switching systems and in 1994 was promoted to department manager responsible for the integration of BT's national networks and associated customer service systems. In 1996, he led systems delivery across the whole BT Group and later was promoted to director of BT's network strategy, architecture, and design.

Marconi announced that Jürgen Beer, managing director of Marconi Communications GmbH since February 2000, has retired, with Stefan Kindt taking over his responsibilities. Kindt joined Marconi in June 2000 and has worked most recently as vice president for optical-network product strategy. Kindt came to Marconi from Siemens AG, where he had performed a number of senior roles for the company since 1984, most recently as president of worldwide sales for the optical networks division.

Global IP and data services provider Equant announced that its chief operating officer, Daniel Caclin, has been promoted to president and chief executive, replacing Didier Delepine, who has left the company. Caclin has served as Equant's COO since June 2001. Shortly before the merger, he was the CEO of Global One, and before that, the CEO of Transpac. "Now the restructuring is almost done, we will be focusing on developing new business opportunities and further strengthening our market leadership," notes Caclin, who will be based in Reston, VA.