Salira Optical Network Systems, Inc., the first company to provide carrier-class IP/Ethernet systems for broadband access, has appointed former Lucent Technologies and AT&T sales executive Thomas J. Walsh as vice-president of sales and marketing.
At Salira, Walsh will lead efforts to develop the global market for Salira's Ethernet-based passive optical networking (EPON) equipment, and other access products that deliver broadband ervices to the business and the home. Because of the tremendous arket opportunity and veteran management team, Salira recently closed $17 million in series B financing led by SoftBank Venture Capital, bringing the total investment in Salira to $23.9 million.
"Tom has a stellar track record of building and managing successful sales and marketing teams in the networking and communications space in both large corporations and start-up environments," said Herb Martin, president and CEO of Salira. "His ability to generate and grow new business globally will help Salira attain its goal of delivering break-through access solutions to the marketplace."
As a vice president of sales at Lucent Technologies InterNetworking Systems division, Walsh was responsible for data networking product sales and support into the Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOC's) and GTE. In addition, he was responsible for developing the Caribbean and Latin America (CALA), PTT and emerging service provider markets. At AT&T, Walsh built a field sales and support team focused on selling Internet access, transport, web hosting and IP transaction services to AT&T's Global Business Market Customers. While with NCR Corporation, Walsh was responsible for selling LAN/WAN products into major enterprise accounts. Prior to joining Salira, he was the vice president of worldwide sales at Geyser Networks, a privately-held metro optical networking startup. Walsh also held director level positions in the strategic marketing organizations of Lucent and NCR. Walsh holds a BA in Economics from the University of California at San Diego.
Walsh's appointment rounds out an already seasoned and stellar management team. He will report to CEO Herbert J. Martin, an early IP pioneer and a seasoned executive of both start-up and public companies such as Ericsson, ESS Technology, Onyx and The Wollongong Group. Dave House, renowned for his leadership at Intel, Bay Networks, Nortel Networks and most recently Allegro Networks is Chairman of the Board.
Salira was founded by CTO Wei Gao, a veteran of Nortel's Bell Northern Research unit and developer of the first OC-192/SONET product. The technical team is led by Jian Song, Ph.d who developed Nortel's Passport 8250 ATM Mux and Optera LX Optical Cross-Connect, and Rick Li, the key architect of Cisco's MGX8850 Platform.
Salira Optical Network Systems, Inc. is developing systems that combine the simplicity of Ethernet with the power of optics to provide the first carrier-class, IP/Ethernet optical solution for high-speed broadband access.
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The company is headquartered in San Jose, CA and can be reached at (408) 382-0088 or via their Web site at www.salira.com.