SUNNYVALE, Calif. -- Tom Schmitt has joined Infinera as Vice President of Sales, EMEA with responsibility for leading Infinera’s sales, customer service, and customer support activities in the Europe, Middle East, and Africa markets.

Infinera’s Digital Optical Networks architecture has significant advantages for European telecom operators and service providers, offering services in densely populated markets with customers located in many cities. The Infinera DTN, based on the industry’s first large-scale photonic integrated circuits (PICs), enables operators to offer services economically at many more locations than conventional DWDM systems.

Infinera’s customers in the EMEA region include the pan-European network of Level 3 Communications, an international communications company with one of the world’s largest Internet backbones, FLAG Telecom, a global carrier based in London, and German Internet service provider freenet, based in Hamburg, Germany. With sales teams in the UK, Germany, and France, Infinera already provides service and support to those customers from European facilities. Mr. Schmitt will lead the expansion of all sales and support activities in western Europe and other EMEA markets.

Mr. Schmitt, 40, has extensive experience working with telecom operators and service providers in sales and sales management roles. Most recently, he ran sales in EMEA for Laurel Networks. Previously, he held senior sales positions at Cisco Systems and Juniper Networks. Early in his career he worked at international service provider Cable & Wireless. Born and educated in Germany, Mr. Schmitt speaks fluent German and English.

“Tom is a talented executive with a great knowledge of the European market,” said Scott Chandler, Infinera VP of Worldwide Sales. “Infinera is making a significant investment in sales, service, and support in the EMEA market because we see a great opportunity there for us to replicate the success we have enjoyed in North America over the past twelve months.”

“We have a strong base of European customers and I am thrilled to join the Infinera team,” said Mr. Schmitt. “With its unique Digital Optical Networks architecture, Infinera is the most innovative optical solution on the market today, and as we grow our salesforce in Europe, we plan to continue to expand upon our customer base.”

Infinera Corp. (Nasdaq: INFN)