Sonus Networks Appoints Stephen Collins Vice President, Marketing
Former Lucent Executive and Spring Tide Founder Brings 20 Years Experience in the Networking Industry
WESTFORD, Mass., December 11, 2000 – Sonus Networks (Nasdaq: SONS), a leading provider of voice infrastructure solutions for the new public network, today announced that it has named Stephen A. Collins as its vice president of marketing. In this role, Collins will have responsibility for all marketing functions, including product management and marketing communications. Collins will report directly to Sonus president and CEO, Hassan Ahmed.
"As vice president of marketing, Steve will drive all strategic, product and outbound marketing activities, and will fill a critical role in building Sonus' industry visibility and establishing brand preference for Sonus' solutions," commented Ahmed. "Steve brings to Sonus significant expertise in directing the marketing operations for high-growth networking companies, and we're looking to him to continue building our leadership in the highly competitive market for next-generation voice solutions."
"Sonus is positioned to become a powerhouse in one of the telecom industry's largest and fastest growing markets," said Collins. "Based on my Spring Tide experience, I have an appreciation for the issues facing carriers as they move to the new public network, and understand what it takes to succeed in this extremely dynamic environment. I am truly thrilled to join the Sonus executive team and look forward to working with them to make Sonus the premier franchise in voice."
Collins comes to Sonus from Lucent Technologies, where he was vice president of business development. Collins joined Lucent in September, when it acquired Spring Tide Networks. Collins founded Spring Tide in 1998, conceiving the market vision for a new class of product for network service providers: the IP service switch. Spring Tide became a leader in carrier-class solutions supporting network-based services such as virtual private networks (VPNs) and other value-added IP services. In addition to founding Spring Tide, Collins served as vice president, leading the company's marketing and business development initiatives.
Prior to Spring Tide, Collins was the vice president of marketing at StarBurst Communications, a leading provider of content distribution software. Before joining StarBurst, Collins was director of product marketing at Bay Networks (formerly Wellfleet Communications). Collins was a founding engineer at Wellfleet and spent nearly ten years with the company, holding a number of engineering and marketing positions. Collins began his career at AT&T Bell Laboratories and has also held engineering roles at BBN Communications and Motorola Codex.
Collins holds an M.S. in computer engineering from the University of Michigan and a B.S. in computer engineering from the University of Massachusetts.
About Sonus Networks
Sonus Networks, Inc. is a leading provider of voice infrastructure products for the new public network. Sonus' solutions enable service providers to deploy an integrated network capable of carrying both voice and data traffic, and to deliver a range of innovative, new services. The Sonus Open Services ArchitectureTM (OSA) and award-winning Packet Telephony suite cut the time-to-market for competitive new service products, allowing carriers and third-party developers to expand marketshare and build important new revenue streams. Its highly scalable products fully interoperate with and extend the life and utility of today's public network. Sonus embodies in its management and staff decades of experience in developing carrier-class voice, data and multimedia solutions for implementation in the world's largest networks. Sonus, founded in 1997, is headquartered in Westford, Massachusetts. Additional information on Sonus is available at http://www.sonusnet.com.
This release may contain projections or other forward-looking statements regarding future events or the future financial performance of Sonus that involve risks and uncertainties. Readers are cautioned that these forward-looking statements are only predictions and may differ materially from actual future events or results. Readers are referred to Sonus' Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2000, filed with the SEC, which identifies important risk factors that could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements. These risk factors include, among others, the Company's ability to grow its customer base, dependence on new product offerings, market acceptance of our products, rapid technological and market change and manufacturing and sourcing risks.
Open Services Architecture is a trademark of Sonus Networks. All other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.
