CommScope CTO Morgan Kurk is running Ruckus on interim basis following recent departure of unit's former president, Ian Whiting.

Jeff Baumgartner, Senior Editor

August 13, 2019

2 Min Read
CommScope Seeking New Leader for Ruckus Unit

Additional leadership changes have occurred in the few short months after CommScope polished off its acquisition of Arris.

CommScope confirmed that Ian Whiting, previously the president of Ruckus Networks, left the company in June. Whiting was promoted to president of Ruckus Networks in June 2018 (he had been serving as its chief commercial officer), not long after Arris acquired Ruckus. At the time, Whiting succeeded Dan Rabinovitsj, who has since joined Facebook.

CommScope didn't elaborate on Whiting's exit (Whiting's LinkedIn profile mentions that he's "taking time off" after the CommScope/Arris deal) but said Morgan Kurk, CommScope's EVP and CTO, is leading that business on an interim basis until a new segment leader is named.

Kurk was appointed to his current post at CommScope following the closing of the Arris acquisition in April. Kurk had been serving as the company's EVP and COO, and previously was the SVP of CommScope's Wireless segment. He joined CommScope in 2009 following more than a decade with Andrew Corp. (CommScope acquired Andrew in 2007.)

"Morgan brings a deep enthusiasm for the Ruckus business and the value it brings to CommScope," CommScope said in a statement. "As CTO and the company's innovation champion, Morgan respects and appreciates how Ruckus embraces innovation and uses it as a market differentiator."

Ruckus has been focused on IoT and WiFi technologies and products and has been pursuing opportunities in the shared 3.5GHz CBRS band, which will support both licensed and non-licensed use cases. Ruckus's CBRS product line fits well with Comsearch, a unit of CommScope that has developed a Spectrum Access System (SAS) for CBRS networks to ensure that new users in the band don't interfere with traffic originating with incumbent users such as the US Navy.

The interim leadership move at Ruckus follows some other changes involving former Arris executives and represents another example of how CommScope is trying to streamline its executive operations in the wake of the Arris deal.

Last week, CommScope announced that Bruce McClelland, the former CEO of Arris, had left amid the decision to eliminate the COO position and to disseminate those duties to company president and CEO Eddie Edwards and other top execs. Dan Whalen, the former head of Arris's Network & Cloud unit, also left the company soon after the merger was completed. Kevin Keefe, who joined Arris in 2013 following Arris's acquisition of Motorola Home, is now in that role.

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— Jeff Baumgartner, Senior Editor, Light Reading

About the Author(s)

Jeff Baumgartner

Senior Editor, Light Reading

Jeff Baumgartner is a Senior Editor for Light Reading and is responsible for the day-to-day news coverage and analysis of the cable and video sectors. Follow him on X and LinkedIn.

Baumgartner also served as Site Editor for Light Reading Cable from 2007-2013. In between his two stints at Light Reading, he led tech coverage for Multichannel News and was a regular contributor to Broadcasting + Cable. Baumgartner was named to the 2018 class of the Cable TV Pioneers.

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