Several members of the optical communications community have found themselves with new jobs this month. There’s new leadership at a pair of test equipment companies, an international network services provider, and a submarine networks consultancy.
Eric Updyke is set to become CEO and member of the board of directors at test instrument developer Spirent Communications. Updyke joined the company April 1 and is expected to assume his new duties on May 1, 2019, after Spirent holds its annual general meeting. He joins the company from Amdocs, where he served as group president, services at Amdocs Ltd., a role in which he had global oversite for the company’s Managed Services, Testing, and SI businesses. The Spirent CEO job opened when current CEO Eric Hutchinson, a 37-year veteran of the company, announced plans to retire. He will do so May 1.
Spirent is the second test equipment vendor to announce new leadership. As previously reported, Donn Mulder became president and CEO of Anritsu Co., the U.S. operations of Anritsu Corp., at the beginning of this month (see “Donn Mulder named new president and CFO at Anritsu Co.”).
Pathmal Gunawardana is the new Head of Americas at Tata Communications. He is charged with accelerating customer adoption of Tata Communications’ hybrid WAN, cloud enablement, and business collaboration services across North and South America. Gunawardana joined Tata in 2015 and steps into his new role after serving as vice president of sales for the Americas. He also has experience with Juniper Networks. He has also held positions at Nokia Siemens Networks, Alcatel Lucent Technologies, and Bell Labs.
Bertrand Clesca has joined Pioneer Consulting, which provides a variety of services to the submarine cable industry, in an unspecified senior role. Clesca was a victim of staff turnover at Xtera Communications due the company’s bankruptcy in late 2016 (see “Xtera Communications files for Chapter 11, seeks sale” and “Xtera emerges from bankruptcy with new ownership”). Clesca subsequently established his own consulting firm through which he worked with Pioneer on several projects. According to Pioneer Managing Partner Howard Kidorf, Clesca will augment the company’s delivery of engineering, business planning, project, and management advisory services. Clesca states he looks forward to working with Pioneer’s clients, “particularly in the EMEA region and beyond.”