Steven G. Akers, chief technology officer for the Integrated Network Solutions (INS) group at Lucent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: LU), is leaving his post March 1 to "pursue other opportunities," the company has confirmed.

Akers says, a bit rhapsodically, that he's out to "think new thoughts and dream new dreams." In an email note last night, he told Light Reading: "I am an entrepreneur... In my time at Lucent I was able tohelp define the 'Service Intelligent Networking' strategy... and help my team and product to realize its potential. I feelthat it is time to move on and accept new challenges."

The announcement is significant on two counts: First, Akers's job is a big one -- perhaps too big. It was formed after the establishment of the INS division in May 2001 under the leadership of INS president Janet G. Davidson (see Lucent Shuffles More Execs).

Akers, who reported directly to Davidson, oversaw product strategy for the range of businesses included in the INS division, including optical networking, multiservice switching, broadband access, edge access, convergent solutions, and network operations software.

Lucent won't say whether the company is looking for a replacement. But the resignation apparently leaves the division without a comparable CTO. At one point, the division had a CTO of optical networking, Rod Alferness. But he has since gone to work at Bell Labs as a senior VP of optical research, according to Lucent.

A second reason the departure is notable is that Akers was an established name at Lucent, having come aboard with the acquisition of Spring Tide Networks in September 2000, where Akers was cofounder and CTO.

Akers, who worked prior to Spring Tide at Shiva, Stratus Computer, and Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HWP), was reportedly well thought of by Davidson. And Spring Tide, while no bargain for Lucent at $1.3 billion, is generally considered one of the only decent acquisitions Lucent made in the boom timeframe of 1999 to 2000 (see Whatever Happened to X?, page 5).

Still, scuttlebutt has it that Davidson is tough to work for. Indeed, it's apparent that many former executives of startups bought by Lucent have left the building. The list includes: