Infinera announced that Tom Fallon will step down as CEO before the end of 2020, to be replaced by David Heard, who currently serves as Infinera’s Chief Operating Officer.
Fallon, in his 17th year with Infinera and 11th as CEO, will remain on the Board of Directors.
“I couldn’t be more pleased with the Board’s selection of David as Infinera’s next CEO and I have the utmost confidence in his ability to successfully lead the company in its next phase of growth,” said Mr. Fallon, Infinera CEO. “When David joined Infinera three years ago, our objective was to bring onboard a Chief Operating Officer who would be positioned to take over as CEO at the right time. David’s contributions since joining the company have been substantial, making us more scalable as he led us through a major acquisition, driving synergies through operational improvements, aligning our product and service portfolio and focusing our investments on the highest value areas for our customers and shareholders.”
Heard has served as Infinera’s COO since October 2018. Previously, he has served in executive leadership at JDS Uniphase, BigBand Networks (now part of CommScope), Somera (now part of Jabil), Tekelec (now part of Oracle), and Lucent Technologies (now part of Nokia). He holds an M.B.A. from the University of Dayton, an M.S. in management from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he was a Sloan Fellow, and a B.A. in production and operations management from Ohio State University.
Infinera is also announcing that Kambiz Hooshmand will be stepping down as Chairman of the Board on the same date as the CEO transition, while remaining on the Board. Mr. Hooshmand has served as Chairman since October 2010. George Riedel, a current member of the Board, will succeed Mr. Hooshmand as Chairman.
“Together with the entire Board, I want to thank Kambiz sincerely for his longstanding and dedicated commitment and service to Infinera,” said Tom Fallon. “We are very fortunate to have someone of George’s industry experience, knowledge and strategic leadership abilities step into the Chairman role and partner with David as he assumes the CEO mantle later this year. These succession changes have been thoughtfully planned and we anticipate a smooth transition. I am deeply appreciative of the opportunity to serve as CEO over the past decade and I look forward to helping Infinera in the next phase of our journey.”
