Ekinops taps former TrustBuilder, Corero exec Lionel Chmilewsky as its new CEO

Strategic growth focus

As CEO of Ekinops, Chmilewsky will focus on continuing the company’s Bridge initiative, which aims to consolidate its leadership in fast-growing market segments for its two product lines: access and optical transport.

He will work to reinforce Ekinops' positioning in data center interconnection (DCI) for Optical transport and Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) cybersecurity.

Building on its success in the Metro Optical Transport segment and its WDM products, Ekinops’ Compact DCI system--Ekinops360--which provides optical transport solutions for metro, regional, and long-distance networks with WDM for high-capacity point-to-point, ring, and optical mesh architectures, and OTN for improved bandwidth utilization and efficient multi-service aggregation.

Ekinops’ DCI focus is well-timed. Recent reports from Omdia, Cignal AI and Dell’Oro Group indicate that the DCI market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13%- 20%.

In the access market, Ekinops will build off its installed base with over four million routers deployed worldwide and its Tier 1 telco relationships. It will continue to push its “One Box, One OS” approach, providing connectivity service via a single router.

Ekinops' Bridge initiative can leverage Chmilewsky's experience to gain a broader stake in the network cybersecurity market, also known as SASE (Secure Access Service Edge). Ekinops plans to leverage its established SD-WAN solution and complement it with a Secure Service Edge (SSE) offering. Initially, Ekinops will enhance its OneOS6-integrated firewall with additional functions and then develop a SaaS (Software as a Service) solution. 

By having these combined technologies in place, Ekinops said it will have a product line that enables it to address the SASE market segment, which Omdia, Cignal AI, and the Dell’Oro Group report will grow at an annual rate of 13%- 28%.

"We are fortunate to welcome Lionel Chmilewsky, whose expertise and track record are major assets for Ekinops,” said Philippe Moulin, COO of Ekinops. “The executive team is fully engaged and looks forward to continuing the execution of the Bridge strategic plan and strengthening the company's growth drivers under his leadership.”

A challenging time

Chmilewsky assumes the role of Ekinops’ CEO at a challenging time for the French company. 

While the company said in its third-quarter earnings release that it expects a “gradual recovery” of the telecom market will happen in future quarters due to the advent of AI and cloud applications, “activity is expected to remain challenging through the end of the year due to a complex economic and geopolitical environment, and in the absence of a recovery from the Group’s largest customer before 2026.”

With these realities in hand, Ekinops expects it won’t meet its consolidated annual revenue forecast of $128 million to $140 million for 2025.

For the remainder of FY 2025, Ekinops aims to return to sequential growth in the fourth quarter, compared with the third quarter, while intensifying its cost-control efforts.

For related articles, visit the Business Topic Center.
For more information on high-speed transmission systems and suppliers, visit the Lightwave Buyer’s Guide.
To stay abreast of fiber network deployments, subscribe to Lightwave’s Service Providers and Datacom/Data Center newsletters.