Tellabs reorganizes N.A. operations

Tellabs has reorganized its operations in North America and appointed Edward Kennedy president of Tellabs Operations.

Kennedy previously served as senior vice president of metro networking for Tellabs. He came to Tellabs through its 2002 acquisition of Ocular Networks, a metropolitan optical networking company that he founded and led as CEO.

Under the new organizational structure, Kennedy will oversee all aspects of Tellabs’ North American operations, including sales, marketing, engineering, strategic and product planning and manufacturing. The new organizational design replaces Tellabs’ earlier structure around product lines. It mirrors the change the company made in its international space last year.

According to Kennedy, the reorganization will help bring the company closer to its customers, allowing Tellabs to better respond to their needs.

“We want to make sure we understand what the next-generation architecture looks like in order to maximize R&D,” he said. “To do that we need to make sure that we’re listening to what our customers are planning.”

Reporting directly to Kennedy will be: Gregory Nulty, senior vice president of technology planning; Jeffre Schmitz, senior vice president of product line management; Stephen McCarthy, senior vice president of operations; Robert Pullen, senior vice president of sales; and John Kohler, senior vice president of engineering.