PITTSBURGH -- Laurel Networks, Inc., the first provider of high-performance service edge routers, today announced the appointment of Don Pyle to the position of Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Mr. Pyle has been an independent member of Laurel's board of directors since the fall of 2003 and brings over 20 years of business management experience in the telecommunications industry. He succeeds Laurel co-founder and CEO Atul Bansal, who has been named president and Chief Operating Officer (COO).
Most recently, Mr. Pyle was vice president of North American Sales at Juniper Networks. In six years at Juniper he was instrumental in winning key accounts, driving revenue growth and building the sales and systems engineering teams. At Cisco Systems, he managed one of the largest regions in the service provider division. He served in a similar capacity at StrataCom prior to its acquisition by Cisco. Previously, Mr. Pyle spent 10 years at Case Communications where he held sales and sales management positions focused on the service provider market.
"Laurel has industry-leading technology in one of the hottest segments of the telecom equipment market," said Atul Bansal, president and COO of Laurel Networks. "We're seeing significant opportunities for our technology in 2004, and are poised to achieve considerable growth. By expanding our management team with a strong leader who has successfully managed through rapid growth, we are positioned to maximize our growth opportunity."
"Service providers are resuming capital expenditures in 2004 to evolve their data service architectures toward IP. Laurel has delivered the ideal edge platform for carriers to converge their data networks onto an IP core," said Don Pyle, CEO of Laurel Networks. "With a proven product and improving market, 2004 is set to be a breakout year for Laurel leading to significant revenue and market share growth. I am extremely pleased to lead the company through this exciting time of growth and expansion."
"Laurel has taken a very positive step in its selection of Don Pyle as CEO," said Tom Nolle, president of CIMI Corporation, a Voorhees NJ market consultancy. "His experience in the IP side of the industry is obviously critical in a market that's moving decisively toward IP infrastructure, and his position as a director means he understands both Laurel and its current opportunities. It would be hard to find someone with better credentials, someone better equipped to leverage what's already an excellent product."
Laurel Networks Inc.