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Avaya Names New President-CEOAvaya Names New President-CEO

Avaya has named Kevin Kennedy, the CEO of JDS Uniphase and a Cisco veteran, as its new president and CEO. The release is in the jump:

Eric Krapf

October 30, 2008

3 Min Read
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Avaya has named Kevin Kennedy, the CEO of JDS Uniphase and a Cisco veteran, as its new president and CEO. The release is in the jump:

Avaya has named Kevin Kennedy, the CEO of JDS Uniphase and a Cisco veteran, as its new president and CEO. The release is in the jump:

BASKING RIDGE, N.J. - Avaya Inc. announces that Kevin Kennedy will join the company as president and CEO effective January 2009. Kennedy is currently CEO of JDS Uniphase Corporation, and a member of its board of directors. He will remain with JDSU until joining Avaya.

Avaya also said Charles Giancarlo will become Chairman of the Board when Kennedy assumes the CEO position.

"Kevin Kennedy brings to Avaya a deep understanding of the enterprise communications industry and extensive senior management experience," said Charles Giancarlo, president and CEO, Avaya. "He will join Avaya at a time when we are strongly positioned in our industry. Kevin will lead Avaya to even greater success and further our strategy and execution to be the premier enterprise communications partner for our customers."

Before joining JDSU, Kennedy served as Chief Operating Officer of Openwave Systems, Inc. He also spent eight years at Cisco Systems, Inc., most recently as Senior Vice President of the Service Provider Line of Business and Software Technologies Division. Kennedy spent 17 years with AT&T Bell Laboratories. In 1987, he was a congressional fellow to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space, and Technology.

Kennedy is a member of the board of directors of Polycom, Inc. and KLA-Tencor Corporation and a member of the Board of Regents of Loyola Marymount University.

He holds a B.S. in engineering from Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, as well as M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in engineering from Rutgers University.

Avaya also said Charles Giancarlo will become Chairman of the Board when Kennedy assumes the CEO position.

"Kevin Kennedy brings to Avaya a deep understanding of the enterprise communications industry and extensive senior management experience," said Charles Giancarlo, president and CEO, Avaya. "He will join Avaya at a time when we are strongly positioned in our industry. Kevin will lead Avaya to even greater success and further our strategy and execution to be the premier enterprise communications partner for our customers."

Before joining JDSU, Kennedy served as Chief Operating Officer of Openwave Systems, Inc. He also spent eight years at Cisco Systems, Inc., most recently as Senior Vice President of the Service Provider Line of Business and Software Technologies Division. Kennedy spent 17 years with AT&T Bell Laboratories. In 1987, he was a congressional fellow to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space, and Technology.

Kennedy is a member of the board of directors of Polycom, Inc. and KLA-Tencor Corporation and a member of the Board of Regents of Loyola Marymount University.

He holds a B.S. in engineering from Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, as well as M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in engineering from Rutgers University.

About the Author

Eric Krapf

Eric Krapf is General Manager and Program Co-Chair for Enterprise Connect, the leading conference/exhibition and online events brand in the enterprise communications industry. He has been Enterprise Connect.s Program Co-Chair for over a decade. He is also publisher of No Jitter, the Enterprise Connect community.s daily news and analysis website.
 

Eric served as editor of No Jitter from its founding in 2007 until taking over as publisher in 2015. From 1996 to 2004, Eric was managing editor of Business Communications Review (BCR) magazine, and from 2004 to 2007, he was the magazine's editor. BCR was a highly respected journal of the business technology and communications industry.
 

Before coming to BCR, he was managing editor and senior editor of America's Network magazine, covering the public telecommunications industry. Prior to working in high-tech journalism, he was a reporter and editor at newspapers in Connecticut and Texas.