FRAMINGHAM (02/02/2004) - Service edge router maker Laurel Networks Inc. this week named a former Cisco Systems Inc. and Juniper Networks Inc. sales executive as its CEO.
Don Pyle has taken the reins at the young, privately held company. Pyle has been a Laurel board member since the fall of 2003 and he succeeds Laurel co-founder and CEO Atul Bansal, who is now Laurel's president and COO.
Most recently, Pyle was vice president of North American sales at Juniper, where he spent six years. Before that, Pyle was a regional manager in Cisco's service provider division. He held a similar position at StrataCom prior to Cisco's acquisition of the company eight years ago.
Pyle also spent 10 years at Case Communications Inc. where he held sales and sales management positions for the service provider market.
The appointment of a seasoned sales veteran as CEO is an indication that Laurel is ramping up an aggressive push of its ST-200 router into channels and bids. Spending among service providers is picking up again, and the edge of the network is where a lot of that money will go as they look to support new and existing Layer 2 and Layer 3 services while migrating to an IP/MPLS core network.
Laurel's ST-200 router specializes in legacy Layer 2 frame relay, ATM and Ethernet service aggregation over an IP/MPLS core. The company is generating revenue from a handful of customers, including Level 3 Communications Inc., KT Corp. and DACOM Corp., and has alliances with Ciena Corp. and Marconi Corp. PLC. Ciena has also invested in Laurel.