PLANO, Texas – DZS (Nasdaq: DZSI), a global leader of mobile, fixed broadband and enterprise access networking solutions representing 1,000+ communications service providers and enterprise customers, today announced the appointment of two accomplished leaders charged with expanding the adoption of the company's latest innovations and cultivating a customer-first culture. Jay Hilbert has been named Executive Vice President of Americas, Europe, Middle East/Africa (AEMEA) Sales and Bill Ko has been appointed Executive Vice President of Asia Sales.

A trusted access networking innovator and technology partner to many of the world's most admired communications service providers and enterprises spanning 100+ countries, DZS continues its relentless pursuit of a customer-first culture. The growing demand for Open-RAN and standards-based network architectures is fueling the pace and opportunity for fiber-enabled access networking solutions. 5G and 10 gigabit per second (10 Gbps) Fiber-to-the-Premises (FTTP) upgrade cycles, government-sponsored broadband initiatives such as the United States Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF), as well as current geopolitical market dynamics are stimulating growth opportunities.

"DZS is laser focused on the opportunity in front of us and exceeding expectations for our customers," said Charlie Vogt President and CEO of DZS. "The expanded sales leadership role for Jay and the new appointment of Bill bring extensive sales leadership experience to DZS. The opportunity for DZS to increase our market-share and cultivate valuable partnerships with current and prospective customers around the world is now. Jay and Bill amplify our customer-first culture and provide DZS with exciting growth prospects."

Mr. Hilbert, who joined DZS as Executive Vice President of Americas Sales earlier this year, brings proven expertise in driving sales force transformation, growing market share and maximizing performance in competitive and emerging markets to his expanded role. Prior to DZS, he was Senior Vice President of Global Sales at Airvana (acquired by Commscope) and Senior Vice President of Global Sales for Cambium Networks. Earlier in his career, Hilbert served as Vice President of Sales at DSC/Alcatel (today Nokia). Mr. Hilbert is based at DZS headquarters in Plano, Texas and will continue to report directly to Mr. Vogt.

Mr. Ko brings 25 years of telecommunications and cable industry experience across the Asia Pacific region to DZS. Most notably, he spent ten years as Vice President of Pan Asia Sales for ARRIS Group, Inc., where he delivered exponential sales growth spanning headend, cloud, transport and customer premises equipment solutions. Earlier in his career, Mr. Ko led Asia sales for ADC Telecommunications for 12 years. Mr. Ko will be based at the DZS Pangyo, South Korea Center of Excellence facility and will report directly to Mr. Vogt.

DZS