News: Optoelectronics
6 August 2020
Infinera’s chief operating officer Heard to succeed Fallon as CEO
Infinera Corp of Sunnyvale, CA, USA, a vertically integrated manufacturer of digital optical network systems incorporating its own indium phosphide (InP)-based photonic integrated circuits (PICs), has announced a succession plan to transition its leadership in the coming months.
Tom Fallon will be stepping down as CEO, to be succeeded by chief operating officer David Heard, by the end of 2020 (on a date to be determined). Fallon, in his 17th year with Infinera and 11th as CEO, will remain on the board of directors.
“When David joined Infinera three years ago, our objective was to bring onboard a chief operating officer who would be positioned to take over as CEO at the right time,” notes Fallon. “David’s contributions since joining the company have been substantial, making us more scalable as he led us through a major acquisition, driving synergies through operational improvements, aligning our product and service portfolio and focusing our investments on the highest-value areas for our customers and shareholders.”
Having served as COO since October 2018 and led a publicly traded company as CEO in the past, Heard has over 25 years of industry experience in executive leadership roles that span a breadth of technology companies, including JDS Uniphase, BigBand Networks (now part of CommScope), Somera (now part of Jabil), Tekelec (now part of Oracle), and Lucent Technologies (now part of Nokia). He holds an M.B.A. from the University of Dayton, an M.S. in management from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he was a Sloan Fellow, and a B.A. in production and operations management from Ohio State University.
In conjunction with this transition, Kambiz Hooshmand will be stepping down as chairman of the board on the same date as the CEO transition, while remaining on the board. Hooshmand has served as chairman since October 2010. He will be succeeded by existing board member George Riedel.
“We are very fortunate to have someone of George’s industry experience, knowledge and strategic leadership abilities step into the chairman role and partner with David as he assumes the CEO mantle later this year,” comments Fallon. “These succession changes have been thoughtfully planned and we anticipate a smooth transition.”
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