Margaret Chiosi, a former AT&T Distinguished Network Architect and arguably one of the most influential voices in Carrier Ethernet, optical networking and virtualization during this century, has landed a new job with Huawei Technologies.

The appointment will undoubtedly be an industry talking point. Chiosi is a well-known and highly regarded executive who served for almost 17 years at AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) before retiring in mid-2016 and becoming a "consultant in the SDN and NFV ecosystem" (to quote her biography from a Light Reading event held in September). (See AT&T's Margaret Chiosi Retires.)

Chiosi's exact role at the Chinese vendor, though, is uncertain. She is currently in China and has so far been unable to respond to Light Reading's outreach. (Chiosi has always been a fastidious and timely responder to our communications in the past so we expect to hear from her soon...)

Figure 1: Big Name Signing Margaret Chiosi, ex-AT&T and now at Huawei.

Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. , though, is also staying silent on the hire, currently: It's possible that information about her appointment has not been widely disseminated within the vendor currently, though Chiosi is believed to have been working for the vendor on a contract basis for a while before taking a full-time post, so she's not totally new to the Huawei fraternity.

Whatever the role, the appointment is a significant coup for Huawei: Although the Chinese vendor is restricted in the business it can do with major US network operators (a situation unlikely to improve once President-Elect Trump takes office in 2017), Chiosi can bring not only years of Tier 1 operator perspective but a broad and global network of contacts through her past involvement in industry bodies such as the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) , NFV Industry Specifications Group (ISG), Open Platform for NFV Project Inc. , MEF and more.

And now, perhaps more than ever, senior and influential executives with operator experience will be highly sought after by suppliers seeking an edge over their rivals as service providers transform their businesses, networks and workforces.

For more background on Chiosi, see:

— Ray Le Maistre, , Editor-in-Chief, Light Reading