Colin Doherty's plan: Stay the course but step on the gas.

Mitch Wagner, Executive Editor, Light Reading

April 11, 2014

4 Min Read
New BTI CEO's Mandate: 'Scale the Business'

As new CEO Colin Doherty takes the reins at data transport infrastructure vendor BTI Systems, his mandate is simple: Ramp up revenues.

"The mandate I have is to grow the footprint of customers and grow the top line," Doherty told Light Reading in a phone interview Thursday, after BTI Systems Inc. announced earlier this week he was taking charge of the company. "It's to scale the business. I've been involved in scaling business globally before." (See BTI Names Former Arbor Boss as CEO.)

Doherty was most recently CEO of network security system specialist Arbor Networks , and was at the helm when that company was acquired by Danaher Corp. group company Tektronix Communications. Prior to that he worked at a variety of vendors, including Mangrove Systems and Nortel Networks, so he has plenty of experience in the communications technology industry, the networking sector, Tier 1 global carriers, data center operators, cloud operators, and the market for data center connectivity.

It's a growing market -- traffic volumes for cloud service providers are set to grow at an annual rate of 35% between 2012 and 2017, according to the statistics at Doherty's fingertips.

Figure 1: BTI CEO Colin Doherty

BTI is a privately held company with $60 million funding, including a $27 million round that closed in December. It makes hardware and software for connecting metro data centers and was among the first transport infrastructure vendors to develop support for SDN. Recent customer wins include Equinix Inc. (Nasdaq: EQIX), Digital Realty Trust Inc. , and top-tier carriers. The company introduced Intelligent Cloud Connect, its SDN-ready data center interconnect platform, in early 2013. (See BTI Raises Cash, Embraces SDN.)

Doherty doesn't plan changes to the company strategy -- he is totally focused on growth, particularly internationally. The company now relies primarily on direct sales, but has some partner relationships, primarily in Asia/Pacific. It also has a strong OEM relationship with Fujitsu, which private-labels packet optical equipment from BTI. The company will lean more heavily on partners for international sales.

What about an IPO (a recurring rumor with BTI -- see Is BTI Heading for an IPO?) or an acquisition by a bigger company (a natural exit strategy for a niche vendor like BTI)? Doherty skirts past those questions. "I'm looking to make the company more successful in the top line, and increase the stable of customers. That's the short-order direction. As we get that under our belts, we'll see what direction to take us."

Doherty is Scottish by birth. He grew up outside St. Andrews, where golf was invented. "I happen to believe that haggis is a delicacy," he confessed. "It needs some marketing support, but I'm a big fan of haggis."

Figure 2: Haggis It tastes better than it looks. Then again, it would have to. (Source: Kim Traynor) It tastes better than it looks. Then again, it would have to.
(Source: Kim Traynor)

He has lived in London and Miami and currently resides in Newton, Mass., a suburb of Boston. He's been in the US since 1991, and his accent seemed entirely American to my ears -- although Doherty says his burr returns when he talks with BTI CTO Robert Keys, a fellow Scot who hails from Glasgow. (That makes Keys a Glaswegian: I'm just throwing that in there because it's a cool word.)

When not working, Doherty spends a lot of time on lacrosse and soccer pitches with his two teenage boys. He also, of course, plays golf.

— Mitch Wagner, Circle me on Google+ Follow me on TwitterVisit my LinkedIn profileFollow me on Facebook, West Coast Bureau Chief, Light Reading. Got a tip about SDN or NFV? Send it to [email protected].

Want to learn more about SDN and the transport network? Check out the agenda for Light Reading's

Big Telecom Event (BTE), which will take place on June 17 and 18 at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel and Towers. The event combines the educational power of interactive conference sessions devised and hosted by Heavy Reading's experienced industry analysts with multi-vendor interoperability and proof-of-concept networking and application showcases. For more on the event, the topics, and the stellar service provider speaker lineup, see Telecommunication Luminaries to Discuss the Hottest Industry Trends at Light Reading's Big Telecom Event in June.

About the Author(s)

Mitch Wagner

Executive Editor, Light Reading

San Diego-based Mitch Wagner is many things. As well as being "our guy" on the West Coast (of the US, not Scotland, or anywhere else with indifferent meteorological conditions), he's a husband (to his wife), dissatisfied Democrat, American (so he could be President some day), nonobservant Jew, and science fiction fan. Not necessarily in that order.

He's also one half of a special duo, along with Minnie, who is the co-habitor of the West Coast Bureau and Light Reading's primary chewer of sticks, though she is not the only one on the team who regularly munches on bark.

Wagner, whose previous positions include Editor-in-Chief at Internet Evolution and Executive Editor at InformationWeek, will be responsible for tracking and reporting on developments in Silicon Valley and other US West Coast hotspots of communications technology innovation.

Beats: Software-defined networking (SDN), network functions virtualization (NFV), IP networking, and colored foods (such as 'green rice').

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