9:45 AM -- Just when Nortel Networks Ltd. was getting its public image back in shape...

Joel Hackney, part of the new senior management team at the Canadian vendor, has pleaded guilty to assaulting a woman in a parking lot in Chapel Hill, N.C.

Hackney, the firm's senior VP of global operations and quality, was one of a number of executives brought in by CEO Mike Zafirovski at the beginning of 2006. (See Zafirovski Adds Another GE Exec to Nortel.)

For more details, see the News & Observer report, Nortel exec admits guilt in assault.

— Ray Le Maistre, International News Editor, Light Reading