Ciena appoints Infinera's Rick Dodd as VP of global marketing

Rick Dodd has traded in his Infinera (Nasdaq: INFN) duds to take up his new role as Ciena's (Nasdaq: CIEN) new senior vice president of global marketing. Reporting directly to Ciena's President and CEO Gary Smith, Dodd will oversee the field, product, solutions and global products group.

Dodd is perhaps best known for his work at optical competitor Infinera, where he served as that company's VP of Corporate Marketing and earlier as VP of Product Marketing. Before his tenure at Infinera, Dodd was an associate partner at venture capital firm Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield and Byers, overseeing the company's work with networking and semiconductor startups.

Dodd is not exactly a stranger to Ciena, however. He previously worked for Ciena after it acquired the former Lightera Networks in 1999.

His appointment comes during interesting transition times for both Ciena and Infinera. Ciena expanded its Ethernet and optical portfolio with the purchase of Nortel's MEN division in 2009, while Infinera saw one of its founders and CEO Jagdeep Singh step down.

For more:
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