Longtime insider named Lucent CFO

Lucent Technologies named John Kritzmacher its new chief financial officer today, filling a vacancy created in January when the company promoted its former CFO, Frank D’Amelio, to chief operating officer.

Previously Lucent’s controller, Kritzmacher is a longtime veteran of the company, having joined its former parent, Bell Labs, in 1982, immediately after graduating from Dartmouth College. Throughout the ensuing years, he served in various capacities, including sales, support, marketing, engineering and management. In 1998 he was named finance vice president of the company’s switching group. He was named controller in 2001.

Lucent has been criticized recently for not bringing enough outside talent into its management team while its nemesis, Nortel Networks, continues to bring in new blood under the reform initiatives of new CEO Mike Zafirovski. After appointing several alumni of his former employers, General Electric and Motorola, to Nortel’s executive ranks, Zafirovski this week hired another GE veteran, Joseph Flanagan, as Nortel’s new vice president of order management.