Industry veteran and federal market expert to drive network technology growth for government organizations

Ciena® (NYSE: CIEN) today announced the appointment of George F. Holland as Vice President and General Manager of Ciena Government Solutions, Inc. (CGSI). George will lead the CGSI organization in alignment with Ciena’s continued focus on growing its leadership in optical networking while expanding into new opportunity spaces – packet networking, network automation and cyber operations – with government customers. His responsibilities include the assessment and development of CGSI’s go-to-market strategy and the execution of business plans in association with Ciena’s product lifecycle management, marketing, research and development, and services organizations.

Key Facts:

  • George has more than 40 years of sales, business development and delivery experience in both government and industry leadership positions, which brings a wealth of federal knowledge and a wide range of experience in the federal market to the CGSI team.
  • George will lead the strategy and execution plans to align Ciena’s portfolio with customer networking needs as government customers continue to focus on the convergence, consolidation, automation and protection of their networks and network assets.
  • Most recently, George was Vice President of the National Security Group at Juniper Networks. He started his career as a Defense Department Linguist and Intelligence Analyst for 17 years. After his government career, George held sales, business development positions at Bell Atlantic, Qwest, Northrop Grumman and Sybase.

Executive Comments:

  • “George’s background in government and leadership is precisely the pedigree we were seeking to lead Ciena Government Systems. He will bring that energy, experience and skills to take our already healthy government business to the next level and into new opportunity spaces.”
    –      Bruce Hembree, Vice President and General Manager, Ciena North America
  • “Ciena Government Systems is on a never-ending pursuit to serve as a true mission partner for its government customers. I look forward to working with Jeff Verrant, VP of Strategic Development, and the other talented members of the Ciena Government, North American and Corporate Team to provide our customers innovative solutions and services in the areas of networking most critical for their missions – optical and packet networking, network automation and cyber operations.”
    –      George F. Holland, Vice President and General Manager, Ciena Government Solutions, Inc.

About CienaCiena (NYSE: CIEN) is a networking systems, services and software company. We provide solutions that help our clients create the Adaptive NetworkÔ in response to the constantly changing demands of their users. By delivering best-in-class networking technology through high-touch consultative relationships, we build the world’s most agile networks with automation, openness and scale. For updates on Ciena, follow us on Twitter @Ciena, LinkedIn, the Ciena Insights blog, or visit www.ciena.com.

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