RALEIGH, N.C. -- CipherOptics Inc., a leading innovator of high-speed data encryption, announced today the addition of former Cisco executive Ron Willis as President and CEO, capping a flurry of recent activity that includes obtaining an initial round of funding and introducing the CipherOptics Security Gateway, a high performance data encryption network security appliance. Willis will take the reigns from company co-founder and former President Mike Doss. Doss will continue his primary roles in corporate strategic direction and operations guidance. "This has been a very pivotal time in the development of our company and the realizations of our dreams to introduce the first true Gigabit-speed data encryption product," said Mike Doss, CipherOptics co-founder and former president. "Ron is clearly the right person for this job as CipherOptics moves from product development to a more customer-focused, sales and marketing operation. We are extremely pleased to have someone of his caliber and experience to lead CipherOptics into its next phase as the market leader in the high-performance network security marketplace." Willis brings over 20 years of experience in sales and marketing management in information technology and networking markets. Most recently he was vice president of worldwide commercial marketing for Cisco Systems where under his direction a number of key programs were developed, including programs that made secure, high speed Internet and intranet access from public access facilities possible. CipherOptics