Ed Kennedy joins Hatteras board

Former Tellabs executive Edward Kennedy has joined the board of directors for Hatteras Networks, a vendor of Ethernet access equipment, the company announced today.

Once considered a likely candidate to become chief executive of Tellabs, Kennedy resigned his post as president of the equipment vendor's North American division in January 2004. Analysts praised Kennedy for bringing fresh ideas to Tellabs after joining the company through its acquisition of Ocular Networks.

Upon his resignation, Kennedy told Telephony he wanted to take a break and "decompress" after years of hard work. Days later he joined the board of Visual Networks, a network management vendor.

Hatteras sells Ethernet-over-copper equipment based on the IEEE's Ethernet First Mile standard, which was finalized last summer. Its board of directors previously consisted of four partners from venture capital firms, the former head of Verizon Communications' Advanced Services Group, Fred D'Alessio, and Hatteras president and CEO Kevin Sheehan.