Solarflare Names New CEO

IRVINE, Calif. -- SolarFlare Communications Inc., a developer of high-performance semiconductor products for physical layer connectivity and the leader in 10 Gbit/s Ethernet over copper development, has appointed Russell R. Stern, 48, as President and Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Stern succeeds Ron Cates, SolarFlare’s Vice President of Marketing, who served as interim CEO for the past six months.

“We are pleased to welcome Russell to Solarflare”, said Ron Cates, “he has exhibited a solid track record of leadership, and has a deep understanding of product development and company building”.

“Ron has done an excellent job as interim CEO and leading the successful search process”, said George Zimmerman, SolarFlare’s founder and CTO, “We are all looking forward to working with Russell. His experience in manufacturing operations, product development, strategy and organizational development will benefit our shareholders and our future customers.”

Mr. Stern has over 25 years of experience in the electronics industry and was most recently President and CEO at JNI Corporation (was Nasdaq:JNIC) in San Diego, California, where he orchestrated a successful turnaround and sale to industry leader AMCC (Nasdaq:AMCC). Prior to JNI, Russell served as General Manager and COO at Quantum Corporation (NYSE:DSS) and CEO at Escrow.com. Prior to that, and for over 13 years, Russell held a number of increasingly responsible positions in the disc drive industry including five years at Western Digital Corporation (Nasdaq:WDC) in Irvine, CA where he served as Co-Chief Operating Officer. He has also been with Seagate Technology (Nasdaq:STX) and Adaptec (Nasdaq:ADPT). Russell started his career at IBM (NYSE:IBM) after obtaining his Bachelor of Technology in Electrical Engineering from the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, NY.

Solarflare Communications Inc.