Procket Hires Roland Acra

MILPITAS, Calif. -- Procket Networks, a leading provider of high performance Internet Protocol (IP) technology and products, announced today the appointment of Roland Acra to the position of President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), effective immediately. Mr. Acra brings to the position unique knowledge of the router market and of the networking industry, building on nearly two decades of experience in general management, product marketing, technical sales and support, and software engineering. Mr. Acra will also be appointed to Procket's Board of Directors.

Most recently, Mr. Acra served as Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Cisco Systems, focusing on its Service Provider market. Prior to this, as Group Vice President and General Manager of the Public Carrier IP Group, he led Cisco's recovery in its multi-billion dollar high-end routing business resulting in significant market share gains. He previously established Cisco's market share leadership position in Remote Access as Vice President and General Manager of the Dial Access Business Unit. He had earlier established Cisco's technical field operations in Europe, starting in 1991. Mr. Acra's earlier career was in software development in networking and operating systems, including at 3Com Corporation and Interphase Corporation.

According to Stuart Phillips, General Partner at US Venture Partners and a member of Procket's board of directors, Acra's strong portfolio of management, sales and technology expertise will play a critical role in the next phase of Procket's growth. "Roland's leadership skills and credentials are outstanding and will clearly be an asset in his effort to move Procket into a position of both technical and marketing leadership in the core and high-speed provider edge router market." Phillips added, "In addition to taking Procket to the next level of its development, we expect Roland to play a key industry leadership role in the movement towards IP at the core of networks for telecommunications and data services."

Mr. Acra chose Procket because of its potential to play a critical role in building the next phase of IP networking infrastructure. "I'm excited about the opportunity to lead a company that uniquely combines a talent pool that's among the best in the networking industry, technology and products that are significantly ahead of the incumbent offerings, and an exciting market in which the economics are set to recover. Procket's product offering, built on cutting edge concepts in hardware, software and systems design, can radically alter the reliability, performance and cost equation of networking customers, offering them unprecedented prospects for network profitability" said Acra.

Procket Networks Inc.