Ciena (NYSE: CIEN) has appointed Kazuyasu  Takahashi as Vice President and  General Manager of its Japan business. His extensive industry expertise will  help network providers adapt and scale as they continue to innovate and extend  their leadership.

Kazuyasu Takahashi joins Ciena after spending 14 years  at Cisco, where he most recently served as Managing Director of Service  Provider Operations in Japan. As head of Ciena Japan, he will be responsible  for continuing to build an ecosystem of innovation, overseeing sales and implementing channel development strategies  with the goal of providing the best experience and solutions for customers.

“Japan is at the forefront of 5G, artificial intelligence  and IoT, and it has some of the most voracious consumers of mobile broadband,”  said Rick Seeto, Ciena’s Vice President and General Manager of Asia Pacific and  Japan. “The country’s focus on innovation underpins a need for highly adaptive  and intelligent networks, which is the reason that Japan is such a strategic  market for Ciena. With Kazuyasu Takahashi’s  leadership, we will execute on the next phase of our promise to  deliver high quality experiences to our customers to strengthen their position  in market.”

“Japan is at the forefront of 5G, artificial intelligence and IoT, and it has some of the most voracious consumers of mobile broadband. The country’s focus on innovation underpins a need for highly adaptive and intelligent networks, which is the reason that Japan is such a strategic market for Ciena. With Kazuyasu Takahashi’s leadership, we will execute on the next phase of our promise to deliver high quality experiences to our customers to strengthen their position in market.”

-Rick Seeto, Ciena’s Vice President and General Manager of Asia Pacific and Japan

Ciena  currently serves more than 1,500 customers worldwide. In Japan, Ciena’s customers include several  major service providers, a number of large enterprises across the financial,  government, research and education sectors, as well as over-the-top (OTT)  content providers and submarine cable operators.

Kazuyasu Takahashi will work  closely with Hiroyuki Kume, previously President of Ciena Japan, who will continue  to focus and drive customer relationships in a newly established role as Senior  Executive Advisor.

About CienaCiena (NYSE: CIEN) is a networking systems, services and software company. We provide solutions that help our customers create the Adaptive Network™ 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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