Brian McCormack, the former worldwide sales boss for
Avici Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: AVCI; Frankfurt: BVC7), has turned up at
TelOptica Inc. as its senior vice president of sales,
Light Reading has confirmed.
Light Reading’s interest was piqued when McCormack’s name and bio turned up on TelOptica’s Website just as quietly as McCormack slipped out of Avici (see
Sales Chief Sneaks Out of Avici). A TelOptica spokesperson later confirmed that McCormack had been hired.
Avici never made a formal announcement of his departure, and it's not known whether a replacement was hired. When
Light Reading inquired about McCormack’s departure last month, a spokesperson said the company didn’t consider losing its worldwide sales boss “a material event.”
Prior to his post at Avici, McCormack held a variety of positions with DSC Communications (now
Alcatel SA [NYSE: ALA; Paris: CGEP:PA]). Earlier, he was a regional manager for
Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) and a sales vice president at
Nortel Networks Corp. (NYSE/Toronto: NT). He also worked at
IBM Corp. (NYSE: IBM) for 12 years.
McCormack’s new employer, Richardson, Texas-based TelOptica, is a sleepy startup that makes software that helps carriers build and speed up optical and Sonet networks. One job of TelOptica’s software is to model network gear and fiber so that carriers can build more efficient networks based on the amount of traffic they’re expecting (see
Teloptica Launches New 'DesignIQ').
McCormack worked with Michael Bernique, TelOptica's CEO, during their days at DSC Communications. Reporting to McCormack will be Claire Gonet, TelOptica's vice president of sales, who was the top sales boss until McCormack was hired.
TelOptica is backed by
Austin Ventures,
Center Point Venture Partners,
StarTech Early Ventures, and
SSM Ventures, which started a Texas-specific telecom fund late last year (see
Texas Startups Tap Another Fund). TelOptica’s raised $19 million in venture funding to date, including a $13.2 million round that it announced on March 16. The most recent funding round was led by
Trellis Partners, another Texas-based VC.
The company was founded in 1996 and has about 80 employees. Neither McCormack nor Avici returned calls for comment.
— Phil Harvey, Senior Editor,
Light Reading http://www.lightreading.com
