Gary B. Smith

President and Chief Executive Officer

Gary B. Smith

President and Chief Executive Officer

Gary B. Smith began serving as Chief Executive Officer of Ciena in May 2001, in addition to his existing responsibilities as President and Director, positions he has held since October 2000. Prior to his current role, his positions with the Company included: Chief Operating Officer and Senior Vice President, Worldwide Sales. Mr. Smith joined Ciena in November 1997 as Vice President, International Sales.

From 1995 through 1997, Mr. Smith served as Vice President of Sales and Marketing for INTELSAT. He also previously served as Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Cray Communications, Inc.

Mr. Smith is a member of the President's National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee, and serves on the board of directors for CommVault Systems, Inc. He is a Commissioner for the Global Information Infrastructure Commission; serves on the Wake Forest University Advisory Council for the Center for Innovation, Creativity and Entrepreneurship; and, participates in initiatives with the Center for Corporate Innovation. Mr. Smith received his M.B.A. from Ashridge Management College, United Kingdom.

Insights from Gary Smith

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India’s mobile strategy sets pace for connecting everyone

Ciena CEO Gary Smith describes how the “greenfield” nature of India’s digital revolution is allowing it to use mobile access to leapfrog more advanced economies. This article was originally published on Techonomy.

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India’s mobile strategy sets pace for connecting everyone

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Reflecting our People’s Passion for Good: Gary Smith on the Revolution of our Ciena Cares Program

Ciena CEO Gary Smith details the efforts of Ciena's volunteer groups around the world, and how the company's Ciena Cares program is being revolutionized to reflect their passion for community giving.

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Ciena CEO Gary Smith: Creating a Platform for Disruption

Ciena CEO Gary Smith delves into the constant state of change that people and businesses must face, and how the confluence of the internet, mobile connectivity, and virtualization is creating a “utility platform” that is capable of facilitating

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Openness: Ciena’s guiding principle for customer choice

Ciena CEO Gary Smith details how the guiding principle of openness drives Ciena's innovation agenda and how we solve the challenges of network transformation for our customers.

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Realizing the Digital Age: Why connecting the planet may not be enough…

As techno optimists, most of us share the firmly-held belief that by connecting the planet we will truly transform the world and deliver a step-function improvement in both productivity and the quality of life globally. But is a connected planet

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The Global Connectivity Divide: How we’re doing and what’s next to fix it

Ciena CEO Gary Smith: While the connectivity of things may promise tremendous advancements in a multitude of applications with massive benefits, we need to be careful not to lose sight of what is really important about the Internet: connecting