The man with the title of Chief Technologist at Tellabs Inc. (Nasdaq: TLAB; Frankfurt: BTLA), Andrew G. Malis, has figuratively put away his Echo Boomer-branded incense burner and skateboard so he could go to work for Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ).

Malis left Tellabs in November and now holds the title Director of Packet Network Architecture at Verizon, where his job is to become the resident expert in telecom and data networking protocols including IP, MPLS, Ethernet, ATM, Frame Relay, and others.

To say Malis is well traveled in the telecom world is understatement. His 30-plus year career has included stops at Cascade Communications, Ascend Communications, Lucent Technologies, Vivace Networks, and Tellabs.

He is also President and Chairman of the Board of the MFA Forum . He's the MPLS/Frame Relay Alliance 's founding Technical Committee Chair. He's chaired a number of working groups in the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and the ATM Forum . Yes, he can even bend spoons with nothing but mental energy. And a pair of pliers.

Malis was one of very few Vivace Networks execs left at Tellabs. Tellabs bought Vivace in 2003 and has since seen the departure of Vivace's two founders and its marketing VP. But, when reached via email, Malis says things were good at Tellabs and he is happy with the Vivace product line, now the Tellabs 8800. (See Vivace Founder Leaves Tellabs, Tellabs Snags Vivace for $135M, Headcount: Family Time, and Tellabs Edges Into GPON.)

One thing you won't find on Malis's extraordinary resume: a stop at a service provider. Yes, Malis confirmed via email today that Verizon is indeed his first job at a service provider of any sort, despite being in the telecom business since Tellabs was a hip company.

"I'm already enjoying the opportunity to be the basher rather than the bashee," Malis gleefully writes from the IPsphere Forum in London. "I've had three vendor meetings already in my first two weeks."

Cheers to Andy "The Basher" Malis. Apparently being that close to New Jersey is already rubbing off.

— Phil Harvey, News Editor, Light Reading