SAN RAMON, Calif. -- Kodiak Networks today announced that John Vice, former Nortel senior executive and CEO of Geyser Networks, has joined the company as president and CEO, effective immediately. He will also become a member of the company’s board of directors.

Vice has more than 26 years of telecommunications experience which includes an excellent track record of achievement. Most recently, Vice has been a strategic management and investment consultant to companies ranging from small startups to Fortune 500 size corporations and has also served as CEO for Geyser Networks, Inc., a privately held supplier of optical network systems in Sunnyvale, Calif. Previously, Vice had a distinguished, 19-year career at Nortel Networks, where he advanced to President and General Manager, Mobility Solutions, in Richardson, Texas. Vice led a 2,600-person organization that expanded sales of CDMA, GSM, and TDMA platforms to network operators in 40 countries across the Americas, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. He was a key member of the leadership team that drove Nortel’s annual wireless revenues from $1.5 billion to $4.5 billion over a three-year period in the late 1990s. Vice holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Western Ontario and a master’s degree in business administration with a marketing concentration from McMaster University.

“I am very enthusiastic about joining Kodiak Networks and thank the board of directors and management team for this opportunity to apply the experience I’ve gained over nearly three decades in the telecom industry,” Vice said. “I look forward to leading the company through new levels of growth and building upon its successes in delivering innovative mobile solutions.”

Vice succeeds F. Craig Farrill, who co-founded Kodiak Networks in 2001 and has led the company since that time. Farrill will continue as a member of the Kodiak Networks board of directors. During Farrill’s tenure, Kodiak Networks has completed 19 commercial deployments with wireless network operators on four continents and has expanded its global sales, and customer support organizations to meet strong customer demand for revenue-producing wireless applications.

“Kodiak Networks has a huge opportunity to grow its business to new heights,” Farrill said. “I am very pleased that John Vice has joined Kodiak Networks as CEO. He is a talented general manager who is extremely customer focused and deeply knowledgeable about the global wireless market and operator customers. He is an energetic, high-integrity leader who can help take Kodiak Networks to a new level of business performance and geographic expansion.”

Kodiak Networks Inc.