Tellabs makes executive changes, looks to international

Tellabs today announce a major restructuring of its executive ranks aimed at boosting customer relationships and growing the company’s international business. No layoffs were associated with the restructuring.

Effective August 5, Edward Kennedy, who came to the company as senior vice president of the metro networking group with the acquisition of Ocular Networks, will add to his responsibility the Tellabs 5000 digital cross-connects. Stephen McCarthy, previously senior vice president of global marketing, was named senior vice president of the optical networking group and will lead the development of the Tellabs 6500 transport switch and the Tellabs 7100 optical transport system.

“The changes are to a great extent recognition that the industry is different today,” said Michael Birck, chairman and CEO of Tellabs. “There are two separate markets for us: international and North America. And they are separated by more than just standards.”

While Tellabs has relationships with most of North America’s largest service providers, the company primarily serves the second tier providers in international markets. It is the very different needs of those second-tier providers that Birck believes needs individual attention. “It’s not that the international markets hold greater opportunity. It’s that we can do better internationally if [it] is addressed specifically,” Birck said.

“We are dealing with both the present and the future with these changes,” Birck said. “We can’t ignore certain realities. Things aren’t likely to return to the glory days, but things will return to some level of activity and when it does we’ll be out of the gate fast with this new structure.”

Additional changes at the company include:

Robert Pullen being named senior vice president of marketing and sales for North America. He also has responsibility for global strategy and product portfolio planning.

Anders Gustafsson, president of global sales, has been named president of Tellabs International, a new organization that will focus on international product development, marketing and sales for the Tellabs 6300 transport switch, the Tellabs 7200 optical transport system and the Tellabs 8000 managed access series.

Thomas Gruenwald has been named senior vice president of operations for Tellabs International, and is responsible for development of the Tellabs 2000 telephony distribution system, the Tellabs 3000 voice-quality enhancement systems, the Tellabs 6300 and 7200 SDH platforms in Copenhagen, and the Tellabs 8000 managed access systems in Finland.

Joan Ryan, executive vice president and CFO, adds responsibility for the global information systems organization.