Infinera Names Chris Champion VP of Sales, EMEA
SUNNYVALE, CA on 6 November 2009
Infinera (Nasdaq: INFN) has named Chris Champion Vice President of Sales, EMEA with responsibility for leading Infinera’s sales activities in the Europe, Middle East, and Africa markets. Since joining Infinera in 2003, Mr. Champion has played a key role in building Infinera’s European business. He was integral in securing Infinera’s initial European customers such as Flag Telecom (now Reliance Globalcom). Since then, with Mr. Champion playing a key role, Infinera has been awarded networks by leading Tier One operators including Deutsche Telekom, OTEGLOBE, Telefonica International Wholesale Services, and TeliaSonera, as well as some of Europe’s fastest-growing alternative operators like COLT and Carphone Warehouse Networks. As reported on Oct. 20th, Infinera’s international revenue reached a new peak in Q3 of 37% with success in the EMEA market driving much of that growth.
“I am pleased to announce that Chris Champion has taken on the responsibility of leading our sales effort in Europe, Middle East, and Africa,” said Infinera CEO Jagdeep Singh. “We look forward to his continuing to drive growth and success in these crucial markets.”
Mr. Champion’s previous experience includes sales, marketing, and business development roles at Corvis Corporation and Nortel Networks. He started his career at the Yankee Group Europe as a telecommunications market research analyst. Chris has an MBA from the EDHEC business school in France and a BSc and BA from the University of Manitoba.
“Forward-looking telecom operators in Europe are looking for innovative ways to be faster, more agile, and more competitive, and that’s why Infinera has enjoyed such success in this market,” said Chris Champion. “I look forward to the opportunity to continue to drive growth and success in EMEA, and deliver excellent service to our customers.”
The Infinera family of optical solutions includes the Infinera DTN, the first optical system based on large-scale photonic integrated circuits, and the Infinera ATN, a compact metro edge platform that extends the benefits of Infinera’s Digital Optical Networks to the metro edge.
About Infinera
Infinera provides Digital Optical Networking systems to telecommunications carriers worldwide. Infinera’s systems are unique in their use of a breakthrough semiconductor technology: the photonic integrated circuit (PIC). Infinera’s systems and PIC technology are designed to provide customers with simpler and more flexible engineering and operations, faster time-to-service, and the ability to rapidly deliver differentiated services without reengineering their optical infrastructure. For more information, please visit http://www.infinera.com/.
This press release contains certain forward-looking statements based on current expectations, forecasts and assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties. These statements are based on information available to Infinera as of the date hereof; and actual results could differ materially from those stated or implied, due to risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements include statements regarding Infinera’s expectations, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future. Such forward-looking statements can be identified by forward-looking words such as “anticipated,” “believed,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “should,” “will,” and “would” or similar words. The risks and uncertainties that could cause our results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements include aggressive business tactics by our competitors, our dependence on a single product, our ability to protect our intellectual property, claims by others that we infringe their intellectual property, our manufacturing process is very complex, product performance problems we may encounter, our dependence on sole or limited source suppliers, our ability to respond to rapid technological changes, our ability to maintain effective internal controls, the ability of our contract manufacturers to perform as we expect, a new technology being developed that replaces the PIC as the dominant technology in optical networks, general political, economic and market conditions and events, including war, conflict or acts of terrorism; and other risks that may impact Infinera’s business are set forth in our annual report Form 10-K, which was filed with the SEC on February 17, 2009, as well as subsequent reports filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission. These statements are based on information available to us as of the date hereof and we disclaim any obligation to update the forward-looking statements included in this press release, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
