Nortel hires second ex-GE exec this month

For the second time this month, Nortel Networks appointed a former General Electric employee to its executive ranks, as new Chief Executive Officer Mike Zafirovski continues to reshape the company’s management team.

Nortel named Dennis Carey its new executive vice president of corporate operations today. Carey’s duties include human resources, ethics, information services, environmental safety, business continuity, diversity and “the business transformation office,” specifics of which were not available at press time.

Like Zafirovski, to whom he will report, Carey comes directly from Motorola, where he was an executive vice president and CEO of the company’s Integrated Electronic Systems group. And he was once vice president and general manager for corporate productivity and M&A at AT&T.

Carey is also a 25-year veteran of GE, which also happens to be the former employer of Don McKenna, whom Nortel named as its new vice president of global manufacturing earlier this month.

“As I continue to strengthen the Company's leadership team, it's critical that we have individuals with global business experience working for world-class companies,” Zafirovski said in a statement issued today. “Dennis will play a key role in driving the cultural and business transformation at Nortel that will be essential to the company's future success."

Today’s announcement is the latest in a string of changes Zafirovski has made to Nortel’s management since becoming CEO in November. Weeks after he took the helm, longtime Nortel executives Sue Spradley and Brian McFadden resigned. And in December, the company announced the resignation, for “personal reasons,” of Chief Marketing Officer Clent Richardson.

Analysts have generally regarded the changes as promising, having long argued for an influx of new minds to the company’s management.