RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. -- Overture, the preferred Carrier Ethernet edge and aggregation partner for service providers and network operators worldwide, today announced the appointment of Mario Velez to the position of vice president of sales, Caribbean and Latin America. Velez joins Overture after having recently led the Andean and Southern Cone operations for ECI Telecom while living in Bogota, Colombia. Velez’ prior experiences include sales and executive management positions with BT, Worldcom, UUNET, Facturnet, Grupo ONO and Telkonet.

“Our Caribbean and Latin American team has done a tremendous job this past year establishing Overture in the region and acquiring new tier 1 customers for the company. We continue to see a strong demand from CALA service providers for Overture’s solutions and want to ensure that we have strong leadership in place to scale our presence in the region to support our growing customer base,” said Scott St. John, senior vice president of sales. “Mario brings a wealth of experience to us and we’re proud to have him on the team.” The regional market is forecast to experience continued long-term growth as service providers look for reliable and simple ways to scale and differentiate their Ethernet services. In support of its regional expansion, Overture will be speaking and/or exhibiting at four events in 2012, including Carrier Ethernet World Americas and Futurecom in Brazil and MEF educational seminars in Chile and Colombia. The company’s website includes a complete listing of Overture events.

“Overture has done a great job establishing several marquis accounts in the region and I am extremely fortunate to be joining the team at a time where we see a lot of opportunity to help the region’s service providers more easily create revenue generating Ethernet services,” Velez said. “I’m looking forward to leading the sales efforts in the CALA region and working with our existing customers and partners, while also introducing new service providers to Overture solutions.”

Overture Networks Inc.