Ciena ramps up Australian operations with new account director

SYDNEY, Australia – July 22, 2010 – Ciena Corporation (NASDAQ: CIEN), the network specialist, has followed up its official launch and senior management appointments in Australia last month with the announcement of a significant new staff appointment.

Stephan Wagner has joined the company as Account Director for the Northern Region, responsible for all major customer accounts north of the Victorian border. These include the likes of Optus and AAPT, and any new customers in that region attracted to Ciena’s leading optical and Ethernet networking portfolio through Wagner’s business development activities. 

Prior to this appointment, Wagner successfully started, grew and sold his own business – Telstra Licensed Shop, Connect 2 You – in Bowral, New South Wales.  Before launching the business, Wagner was General Manager, Sales, at Telstra. He also held senior sales and marketing roles with Cisco, Nokia and Optus during his 30-year career in the Australian telecommunications industry.

“We believe we’re on the verge of a significant upgrade cycle in the industry, driven by the explosion in demand for broadband capacity that may seriously test the network infrastructures of Australia’s service providers and enterprises, large and small,” says Wagner. “Add to this the positive effect of the NBN, not only for the end-user but for the industry as a whole, and 2010 is shaping up to be a landmark year for Australian telecommunications.

“The biggest challenge for Australian service providers is the sheer pace of the technology advancement that is driving up demand,” he adds. “Just this week, one of the world’s leading online retailers announced that electronic book sales surpassed print sales for the first time, due in large part to the availability of electronic readers. Add high-definition video, IPTV and music streaming to the mix, and the relentless march of almost every content/service provider toward secure ‘cloud computing’ services, and we have a perfect storm of capacity demand at a time when carriers are still trying to cope with relatively modest usage.”

Wagner says Ciena, as a new entrant in the Australian market, brings with it the freshness of ideas with the strength of a proven global product portfolio that’s seen it become a top-three global supplier of converged optical Ethernet solutions.

“Optical networking and Carrier Ethernet comprises our core business. We’re not a generalist like many of our peers, and our attention to customer relationships, depth and breadth of our product portfolio and time-to-market with the latest innovation sets us apart. For example, no other vendor has commercialised 100 Gbps coherent optical solutions,” he says. “My goal is to take this value to our existing customers in Australia, and educate new customers and prospects on the benefits of working with Ciena to enable them to be more competitive by achieving their network infrastructure and business model goals.”

Wagner was a member of the Bowral and Mittagong Business Chambers of Commerce and is currently an associate member of Creatortech consulting group, which assists organisations in establishing a successful channel presence in the APAC region with new IT&T products. He has a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering (Telecommunications) with first class honours (University Medal), and an MBA from the University of Technology, Sydney. Wagner’s sport of choice is orienteering, and he is married with two children.

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About Ciena

Ciena specializes in practical network transition.  We offer leading network infrastructure solutions, intelligent software and a comprehensive services practice to help our customers use their networks to fundamentally change the way they compete. With a global presence, Ciena leverages its heritage of practical innovation to deliver maximum performance and economic value in communications networks worldwide. We routinely post recent news, financial results and other important announcements and information about Ciena on our website. For more information, visit www.ciena.com.