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Two of Nortel Networks Corp’s highest-profile executives have announced their intentions to leave the company. John Roth, president and CEO, has announced that he will retire in April 2002 after the company’s next annual general meeting. An executive search has already begun to find a successor. Clarence Chandron has decided to extend his medical leave indefinitely and has resigned his position as COO and director of the company. What was supposed to be a six-12 month leave of absence turned out to not be long enough and Chandron, a 15-year veteran with Nortel, said that it would be unfair to the company if the leave extended longer than a 12-month period. Roth said that since Chandron would be leaving the company, there was no natural successor and that one was needed well before his retirement. MDSI Mobile Data Solutions Inc continues it major restructuring efforts by making additional executive level changes. Peter Rankin, one of MDSI’s five original founders, returns to the company in the newly created position of executive VP operations. Under Rankin’s supervision, product development, product implementation and customer support will all be reunited in one department. He led these same functions from 1993 to 1998, the fastest growing period of the company. Rankin was responsible for these types of activities with previous employers, Mobile Data International and the Mobile Data Division of Motorola. Within Rankin’s team, Tommy Lee remains as senior VP product development and Paul Lui reclaims responsibility for the customer support operations. In the sales department, Douglas Engerman will assume the responsibility for sales activities to MDSI’s strategic accounts. He was previously senior VP operations within the company. Engerman was one of the founders and executive VP sales and marketing at Alliance Systems, one of MDSI’s primary competitors until the two companies merged in 1997. Glenn Kumoi has been named managing director for Europe. Previously, he was VP and chief legal officer where he successfully closed numerous contracts with large European customers. Gene Mastro, senior VP worldwide sales has assumed on an interim basis the role of director of sales in Europe until the post can be filled. Mastro has been relocated to Amsterdam to reinvigorate the sales forces on the other side of the Atlantic. MDSI has also accepted the resignations of its senior VP business development and VP and CIO. Joe Mosher, GM of the Interactive Television division with Innovatia, has been appointed to the board of directors of the Broadband Content Delivery Forum (BCDF). Innovatia was the first Canadian company to join the BCDF last year. Mosher will play an integral part in helping the BCDF develop a new broadband business model that meets both the technical and business challenges of content distribution to enable deployment of a new generation of content services. Industry veterans with experience in the wireless industry have made the jump to the optics industry and joined the executive team of BTI Photonics Inc, Ottawa. Lance Laking becomes president and CEO, Chris Egner takes over as VP business development and sales, while David Teed joins as VP product marketing. Laking founded the Canadian subsidiary of the Swiss-based wireless and optical component manufacturer HUBNER+SUHNER. He has more than 15 years in building and managing component sales companies. Egner comes over from Nortel Networks Corp where he was director of North American sales for emerging service providers. He oversaw the sales force handling the portfolio of converged Internet telephony and VoIP products and services. Egner brings more than 15 years of sales experience to the table. Teed co-founded broadband player Bridgewater Systems and was its product strategy leader. He has more than 20 years experience in strategic marketing and product positioning. Linn Piper has been elected chair of Motorola’s Mobile Data Users Group (MDUG). Piper has been a member of the MDUG since 1993 and was director of one of the first agencies in the U.S. to establish an integrated public-safety communications system. He has served on the group’s executive committee for the past four years. GDI Global Data Inc has appointment Mike Kedar and James Sardo to its board of directors. Kedar, who has more than 35 years experience in the telecommunications industry, was most recently involved with Sprint PCS to win spectrum in the PCS auction held earlier this year. Sardo is the former president and CEO at Firestone Canada Inc. Teleglobe has opened an office in Asia and named Andrew Kwok as its VP and managing director for the Asia-Pacific region including Hong Kong, Macau, the Philippines and Taiwan. He will also oversee operations in Australia, Brunei, China, Japan and many other surrounding areas. Prior to joining Teleglobe in 1997, Kwok held a series of sales and marketing management positions with MCI International and was deputy country manager responsible for MCI’s local and international business in Asia. Earlier, he served with Cable and Wireless in a series of sales and marketing positions. Ignition Point Technologies Corp has named Peter van der Gracht as its president and CEO replacing Michael Cytrynbaum who will remain as the company’s chair of the board of directors. Van der Gracht has led several companies through multiple rounds of financing, operations build-outs, mergers and acquisitions. He co-founded Nexus, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of satellite and cable TV head-end equipment. He is currently chair and CEO at Wavemakers Inc, a voice optimization software company, and will guide Ignition in its current transition into the broadband communications arena. William Treurniet has been appointed chief speech scientist and manager of the speech recognition group at VoiceIQ. He will be responsible for the development and project management of all the of the company’s speech recognition line of products. Treurniet has more than 25 years experience at the Communications Research Centre in Ottawa and most recently investigated aspects of new communications technologies that affect the user interface. Agilent Technologies Canada Inc has appointed Alan Lolacher president and CEO. He is currently global alliance business manager at Nortel Networks Corp, a position he will maintain. Lolacher replaces Alan Holdway, who has retired after 34 years with Agilent and Hewlett-Packard. Matt Milstead has been appointed president of 360Networks Latin American division. In this position he will be responsible for sales, marketing, network development and operations in that region. He has more than 10 years of telecommunications experience in Latin America.

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News | 05/14/2001 4:00 am EDT

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