Zhone Makes Senior Appointments

OAKLAND, Calif. -- Zhone Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq:ZHNE - News), the first company dedicated to building total-delivery solutions for voice, data and video content services worldwide, today announced several key additions to its leadership team. Effective immediately, Larry Orr will serve as Zhone Technologies' vice president of operations. Michael Fischer has joined the company as vice president of independent carrier and channel sales. Doug North, has joined as director of Canadian Sales. Lori Martin has joined as director of information technologies, Paul Castor has joined as director of legal affairs and Stephen Klein has joined as director of triple play marketing.

"Zhone's newest team members are proven leaders in their fields," said Mory Ejabat, chairman and chief executive officer, Zhone Technologies. "The substantial insight and industry expertise that each bring in their respective fields will further strengthen Zhone's leadership position in core markets, enabling Zhone Technologies to continue to define the next generation of delivery solutions for voice, data and video content services." Larry Orr joins Zhone from Isomax Corporation where he served as vice president of manufacturing. Mr. Orr joins the Zhone team in the newly-created position of vice president of operations. In this role, Orr assumes management responsibility for all of the company's operations functions, including manufacturing, supply chain management, distribution and 'back-end' transactional activities. Mr. Orr will report directly to Mory Ejabat.

Michael Fischer has joined the Zhone management team as the new vice president of independent carrier sales, reporting directly to Mory Ejabat. Bringing in-depth experience in the U.S. independent carrier market, Mr. Fischer will be responsible for management of Zhone's IOC sales force and lead liaison to those major carriers that have deployed Zhone's Single-Line, Multi-Service (SLMS(TM)) network architecture. Fischer comes to Zhone from Petaluma, California based Advanced Fiber Communications, Inc., (Nasdaq:AFCI - News) a manufacturer of digital loop carrier products. During his tenure at AFC, Mr. Fischer held positions of increasing responsibility including the title of vice president for U.S. independent carrier sales. Prior to AFC, Mr. Fischer held numerous engineering and management positions with carriers including HickoryTech and GTE/Contel.

Doug North joins the Zhone team as director of Canadian sales. Based in Toronto, Mr. North will focus on identifying and generating new business, as well as further penetrating existing accounts throughout the Canadian territories. Mr. North joins Zhone from ADC (Nasdaq:ADCT - News) and brings over 10 years experience managing strategic accounts and cultivating business relationships for Canadian networking and communications companies. Mr. North will report to Mike Scheck, vice president of carrier and international sales.

Lori Martin will head up a number of critical areas for Zhone, including implementing and managing Zhone's unique, Web-based customer service, financial, and ERP systems. Prior to Zhone, Ms. Martin was Corporate IT Director for Network Equipment Technologies (NYSE:NWK - News). While at N.E.T, Ms. Martin developed strategy and architecture for global enterprise wide business applications and managed worldwide IT organization worldwide information services. Ms. Martin will report to Kirk Misaka, Zhone's chief financial officer.

Paul Castor joins Zhone from Rutan & Tucker in Costa Mesa where he was chair of the firm's Sarbanes-Oxley Task Force, and member of the Technology and Life Sciences Groups. Previously Mr. Castor worked in Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati's Palo Alto office where he specialized in emerging growth and high-technology companies. Mr. Castor joined the Zhone management team as lead corporate counsel, reporting directly to Kirk Misaka, Zhone's chief financial officer. Bringing in-depth experience with emerging growth and high-tech companies, Mr. Castor will be responsible for all matters pertaining to Zhone's legal affairs, including its corporate governance, as well as all merger and acquisition activities.

Steve Klein joins Zhone with more than 23 years of experience in the telecommunication industry, and is considered a leading authority in DSL technology and switched digital video technology. Prior to Zhone, Mr. Klein held senior positions in sales, marketing and business development with Corecess, Tut Systems, Next Level Communications, NEC and Pacific Telesis. Mr. Klein played an active role in the ITU FS VDSL Working Group from 2000 to 2002. He has worked with Telco's and PTT's around the world, conducting a number of workshops and seminars for operators. Mr. Klein will report to David Markowitz, vice president of marketing.

Zhone Technologies Inc.