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Ciena Announces Government Advisory Board

Former Senior Officials from Government and Industry to Provide Insight into Application Requirements of Government Customers and Support New Ciena Subsidiary

Ciena® Corporation (Nasdaq: CIEN), the network specialist, today announced the formation of a Government Advisory Board, a group of senior-level executives and former government officials who will provide guidance to the Company as it strategically aligns its solutions and services to serve the unique application requirements of the government marketplace. Ciena will utilize the knowledge and insight provided by this Advisory Board to drive timely market and technology decisions that will fuel the Company’s business and product strategies in the complex and growing government market.

Ciena’s new Government Advisory Board will provide guidance in the expansion of the Company’s business with the Department of Defense (DoD) and intelligence community, and will capitalize on new opportunities with both civilian agencies and research and education organizations. The Board will also serve as a valuable resource for the newly-formed Ciena Government Solutions, Inc. (CGSI) subsidiary (see related announcement: “Ciena Expands Focus on Government Customers with New Subsidiary”).

Government Advisory Board Members
The Ciena Government Advisory Board is comprised of respected senior-level executives and former government officials renowned for their leadership in solving the complex technical and operational challenges facing government agencies. Patrick Nettles, Ph.D., executive chairman of the board of directors at Ciena and co-founder of the Company, also serves in an active role with the Advisory Board. The initial members of the Ciena Government Advisory Board include:

• The Honorable Arthur L. Money, with more than thirty years of management and engineering experience with the defense electronics industry and intelligence community, including five years as president of ESL, a subsidiary of TRW. Mr. Money served as the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence (ASD (C3I)) from October 1999 until April 2001. He also held the senior-most civilian position with the Office of the ASD, serving as the Department of Defense (DoD) Chief Information Officer (CIO). Additionally, Mr. Money served as both the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Research, Development and Acquisition and as its CIO.

• Lt. Gen. Kenneth Minihan (Ret) was the 14th Director of the National Security Agency/Central Security Service. During his military service at the national level, Lt. General Minihan demonstrated his commitment to making new technologies operational, implementing critically important services and products in a competitive environment in which lives were often at risk. Since leaving government service in 1999, Lt. General Minihan has served as Chairman and President of the Security Affairs Support Association, and also serves on several public and private boards. Lt. General Minihan received numerous awards and decorations during his career, including the National Security Medal, the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, the Bronze Star, the National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal and the Legion of Merit.

• Larry D. Spilman has provided advanced information services and technology solutions to business and government for more than 30 years, as head of AT&T’s Federal division, and most recently through his consulting practice, The Dalton Group, Inc. Throughout the 1990s, Mr. Spilman managed the provision of vital technical services to civilian and defense agencies, including the delivery of specialized capabilities to support national command authorities and national security and intelligence agencies. As Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of AT&T’s Federal sector, Mr. Spilman was responsible for managing a business of nearly $1 Billion in revenue while leading more than 3,000 highly technical professional associates.

“Government organizations are experiencing an increased need for high levels of flexibility, reliability and value when supporting voice, video, storage and data applications,” said Gary Smith, Ciena’s president and CEO. “Ciena’s network specialist approach requires in-depth knowledge of the markets and customers we address, and this Government Advisory Board ensures we provide focused expertise on this key market and facilitate constructive relationships with our government customers.”

Leveraging a successful track record of supporting advanced networking applications for the commercial market, Ciena extends same proven technologies and systems to support the unique applications of the government market. For example, Ciena’s FlexSelect™ Architecture is ideal for government networks and applications with the Adaptive WAN solution set, which provides the necessary foundation for transitioning to network-centric operations, and enables network consolidation to provide high throughput and low latency for strategic applications. This flexible communications architecture provides Ciena’s government customers with high-performance network connectivity for emerging applications prevalent in government networks, such as networked storage replication, Web services, and distributed computing to enable applications such as continuity of operations and disaster recovery.