Meriton Networks Ramps Global Expansion To Meet Increasing Demand For Agile Optical Networking Solutions

Source: Press Release
February 6, 2006 - Ottawa, Canada

Industry Veteran Hubert Whyte Named as Managing Director of EMEA; Meriton Establishes Operations in CALA, South Korea

Meriton Networks Inc., specialists in Agile Optical Networking, announced today that it is expanding its global operations to meet the increasing demand for its portfolio of next-generation optical transport products. In the Europe , Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region, Meriton has named industry veteran Hubert Whyte as managing director.  Whyte, who is based in the UK , is responsible for Meriton’s growing sales and support in the region, and reports directly to Meriton president and CEO, Mike Pascoe.

Prior to Meriton, Whyte was the president and CEO of Network Equipment Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: NWK), provider of broadband aggregation and service creation solutions. Previously, Whyte was president and CEO of access equipment firm Advanced Computer Communications (ACC), which was acquired by Ericsson AB in September 1998. Prior to ACC, Whyte was the general manager of access products at Newbridge Networks, and before that held a variety of senior management positions at incumbent industry suppliers such as Ericsson, Mitel Networks Corp., and Siemens AG.

"Bert Whyte is a tremendous addition to our management team. He brings the critical management skills and breadth of knowledge necessary to seize the immense market opportunity that exists in EMEA for our Agile Optical Networking portfolio ,” said Mike Pascoe. “An essential element of success is to have strong leaders who can combine the experience of past successes with the passion and energy to do it again. Bert is such a leader, and I’m delighted that he has joined Meriton Networks.”

To accommodate the strong demand for Meriton products in the Caribbean and Latin America (CALA) region, Meriton has established operations based in southern Florida . The CALA team is led by Manuel Andrade, who is vice president of sales for the region. Andrade has more than 20 years of experience in the telecommunications market, and prior to Meriton, he was the president of the CALA Regional Business Unit for ECI Telecom Ltd.

In Asia Pacific, Meriton has established a base office in Seoul , South Korea . Meriton opened the office late in 2005 to provide improved support for the community of Tier 1 and alternate carriers in Korea . The team in Seoul is led by Korean telecommunications executive DY Hwang, who is part of the Asia Pacific organization headed by Steve Robinson, vice president of sales - APAC. Robinson joined Meriton in 2005, and brings 27 years of experience in senior management positions at companies including Avidia Networks (PairGain Technologies now ADC), Newbridge Networks (acquired by Alcatel) and Mitel Networks.

About Meriton Networks Inc.
Meriton Networks Inc. has developed the industry’s first unified end-to-end Agile Optical Networking (AON) architecture, a crucial element for carrier and enterprise migration to next-generation IP services networks. A flexible, scalable, future proof infrastructure capable of multi-mission, multi-topology support, the Meriton AON architecture equips telecommunications networks with the capabilities needed for the Broadband Revolution, including rapid service deployment with one-time node engineering and zero-touch, automated provisioning under a unified control plane. With metro access, metro core and regional extension products, all fully managed by a best-in-class suite of network planning and management tools, Meriton Networks gives network operators a single source for the rapid, cost-effective delivery of high-speed services.