After almost a year-long search, digital transformation specialist CENX has appointed optical industry veteran Ed Kennedy as president and CEO. Kennedy will take over from interim CEO and CFO Kim Butler, who will resume her post as the company's chief financial officer.

CENX Inc. , which makes service orchestration and analytics software for telcos, has been without a permanent CEO since last July when Ed Ogonek retired from the post. Kennedy has been serving on the Canadian company's board for the past nine months as head of the operating committee. He had to conclude the sale of his previous company, Tollgrade Communications, before he could assume the CEO position at CENX.

He says his priorities for the company as CEO include expanding its global footprint, serving its current telco customers while scaling the business and growing its software business through partnerships. Get to know more about Kennedy, his background and priorities for CENX in the following video recorded for JaymieScottoTV:

While he may not be of the presidential Kennedy lineage, the new CENX boss is royalty in the optical networking space. He's been an executive in the space for 30 years, most recently serving as CEO and president of Tollgrade Communications, which was acquired by Enghouse Systems Limited for $23 million in April.

Going back even further, the company Kennedy founded in 1999, Ocular Networks, was acquired by Tellabs in 2001, kickstarting Kennedy's rise to prominence at the network technology company. He became senior vice president of Tellabs' metro networking group in 2002 and was later appointed president of operations in 2003, only to resign in 2004. He then worked in venture capital and joined startup Rivulet Communications in 2008. (See Tellabs Nabs Ocular, Tellabs Regroups, Promotes Kennedy, Edward H. Kennedy, Tellabs Names Kennedy President, Ed Kennedy Leaving Tellabs and Rivulet Hires a Kennedy.)

For more on digital transformation, visit Light Reading's partners site Telco Transformation.

CENX was a 2017 Leading Lights award winner in the category of Outstanding Digital Enablement vendor for its platform that gives service providers a real-time unified view of network operations. CENX, founded in 2009, brought in $12.5 million in funding from new investors in 2015. (See Leading Lights 2017: The Winners and CENX Adds Investors, $12.5M to Funding.)

— Sarah Thomas, , Director, Women in Comms