WASHINGTON, Jan. 12, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- FiberZone Networks, the leading provider of remotely managed Automated Fiber Management (AFM) solutions for datacenters and networks, today announced the appointment of Dr. Hemant Kanakia as Chairman of its board of directors. Dr. Kanakia has over 20 years of experience in the communications industry as an entrepreneur, executive, and most recently as an investor in early stage startups in India. Previously, Dr. Kanakia was a General Partner with Columbia Capital, a well-known U.S.-based venture capital firm.
"Dr. Kanakia's global expertise and knowledge is well aligned with FiberZone's focus on delivering advanced fiber infrastructure automation to networks and datacenters in developed countries as well as in emerging markets," said Yosi Lahad, CEO of FiberZone.
"We welcome Dr. Kanakia to our Board of Directors and will look to benefit from his industry leadership, insight and experience in successfully commercializing innovative communications products," said Tom Scholl, General Partner at Novak Biddle Venture Partners. "Dr. Kanakia's contribution will be extremely valuable and timely, as FiberZone continues to expand its sales and marketing," he added.
"I am excited to join FiberZone because they have the best technology and team," said Dr. Kanakia. "The migration from a manual mode-of-operation to automation and virtualization of the fiber infrastructure is happening now, and FiberZone, with its proprietary AFM product line and vision, is best positioned to benefit from this global shift," he added.
Dr. Kanakia has been on the Board of Directors of Enpirion, Teranetics, WiNetworks, and Tilera. He was previously founder and CEO of Torrent Networking Technology (acquired by Ericsson) and co-founder of Photuris (acquired by Meriton) and Gemplex, Inc. (acquired by Tata Telesystems). Prior to joining Columbia Capital, Hemant served on the Board of Directors of Photuris, Viagate, Price Hawk, Gemplex, and Torrent Networking Technology. Prior to founding Torrent, Hemant worked at AT&T Bell Laboratories and Tata Consultancy Services, India. Hemant received his B.Tech. degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, his M.S. degree from Case Western Reserve University, and his Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. Dr. Kanakia is a member of the board of Trustees at Case Western Reserve University. He also has been a trustee at Virginia Polytechnic, and on several other non-profit boards in past.
About FiberZone Networks
FiberZone Networks delivers remote fiber connectivity solutions to datacenters and networks with its Automatic Fiber Management (AFM) product line, delivering reliability, flexibility, fault tolerance and management to the fiber infrastructure. FiberZone's AFM significantly increases network reliability and availability, reduces operating costs, minimizes network faults and human errors, and prevents revenue losses & SLA (Service Level Agreement) penalties. FiberZone's AFM product line utilizes patent-pending Latched Optical Coupling (LOCTM) technology that delivers reliable passive connectivity in a remotely-managed automated fiber management system. FiberZone's AFM product line has been deployed by leading datacenter and network operators in the U.S., Asia, and Europe.
http://www.fiberzone-networks.com
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