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FCC Appoints Ciena’s CTO to Technology Advisory Council

Stephen Alexander joins panel of industry experts providing technical guidance to government regulatory agency

Ciena® Corporation (Nasdaq: CIEN), the network specialist, today announced that Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer Stephen Alexander has been appointed to serve on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Technology Advisory Council (TAC), which recently published its renewed charter.

Established in support of the Federal Communications Commission, the Council provides technical advice to the FCC. Members make recommendations on technology issues and questions presented by the Commission, addressing how telecommunications services are provided and accessed by users. At the Committee’s first meeting under its new charter, scheduled for Friday, April 15, members will educate the FCC on new technology trends and advise it of potential regulatory obstacles to their development and deployment.
 
“The rate of advancement in the telecom industry and the convergence among categories of service – from broadband access to new Ethernet services – calls for the continuous evaluation of federal policies,” said Ciena’s Alexander.  “It is an honor to join my industry colleagues to help educate and advise government officials on the latest telecom technologies and their potential impact on the marketplace.”

Mr. Alexander joins an esteemed group of telecommunications executives and industry thought leaders on the TAC, including executives from Cisco, Microsoft, HP, Apple, BellSouth and MCI among others.

With more than 20 years of telecom experience, Mr. Alexander has served as Ciena’s senior vice president and chief technology officer since January 2000. In addition, he currently oversees Ciena’s Transport & Switching and Data Networking business units. Mr. Alexander joined Ciena in 1994 and has held a number of senior level positions during his tenure at the Company.

Prior to joining Ciena, Mr. Alexander was employed at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, where he last held the position of assistant leader of the Optical Communications Technology Group.  He also served as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Lightwave Technology and was a General Chair of the conference on Optical Fiber Communication (OFC) in 1997.  He received both his B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.