SUNNYVALE, Calif. -- Big Bear Networks, delivering intelligence into the Optical/Electrical interface for enterprise, metro and carrier networks, today named Amit Jain as its president and chief executive officer. Jain was recently vice president and general manager at Vitesse Semiconductor. He succeeds Mark Thompson, who left Big Bear to join Fairchild Semiconductor. Thompson remains on Big Bear’s board of directors.

“Big Bear Networks has achieved significant engineering breakthroughs in the development of electronic dispersion compensation (EDC) PHYs in silicon, enabling innovative IC solutions that meet the demanding requirements of 10Gb transport for Enterprise, Metro and SONET applications,” Jain said. “Big Bear has leveraged its core competency into a strong module business, which includes the full range of 10Gb Ethernet in XENPAK, XFP and X2 MSA applications, from the wide area network of 120km over single mode fiber to enterprise class 300m over multi-mode fiber. I am very pleased to be able to lead Big Bear at this exciting time in its history.”

“Amit has a superb track record of successfully leading communications companies and is the right CEO to lead Big Bear Networks through its next phase of growth,” said Thomas H. Bredt, venture advisor with Menlo Ventures and a member of Big Bear’s board of directors. “Big Bear Networks has revolutionized the interface between electrical and optical transmission, and the market opportunity for its EDC PHY technology is tremendous.”

Big Bear Networks