Executive Suite: On First Anniversary of Agreement to Acquire Bay Networks, Nortel Networks Announces Dave House to Leave Company - Company Operations

Cambridge Telcom Report, June 21, 1999

Nortel Networks Monday announced that Dave House, president, Nortel Networks, will leave the company by the end of August, 1999. Dave House will remain on Nortel Networks' board of directors. Nortel Networks also announced that Bill Hawe has been appointed chief technology officer (CTO), Nortel Networks. These announcements come exactly one year after the signing of the definitive merger agreement between Nortel Networks and Bay Networks.

John Roth, vice chairman and CEO, Nortel Networks will assume Dave House's operational and management responsibilities as the company currently has no plans to fill the post of president, Nortel Networks. Since the acquisition of Bay Networks on August 31st 1998, John Roth and Dave House have jointly overseen the successful integration of the two companies.

"The successful integration of Bay Networks and Nortel Networks is complete," said Roth. "Over the past year Dave has played a critical role in integrating Bay Networks and Nortel Networks people, technology and products. They have come together to create a new company at the heart of the Internet Revolution -- Nortel Networks. We thank Dave for his tremendous contributions in creating the new Nortel Networks."

"One year later, it is clear that the merger has been a resounding success, and I'm proud of what we've accomplished," stated House. "John and I have executed a textbook merger, creating billions of dollars in shareholder value and the new world leader in building next-generation Unified Networks. Nortel Networks is now extremely well positioned to serve customer needs for integrated voice and data solutions. Having completed that assignment, it's the right time for me to explore other opportunities."

Results of Merger Continue to Reach Market Since Nortel Networks first announced plans to merge with Bay Networks a year ago, their organizations, technologies and product families have come together. Nortel Networks has integrated Bay Networks award winning Internet Protocol (IP) technologies with its industry leading telephony capabilities. New products, and significant enhancements to existing products have resulted, providing customers with the opportunity to create networks that unify voice, video and data irrespective of whether they are voice or data centric.

Last week, Nortel Networks announced its new Internet Telephony strategy for enterprises, and the first major milestones -- 11 new products and numerous enhancements to classic Nortel Networks products that unify the worlds of telephony and data. Recently, Nortel Networks also introduced Succession Networks, the first non-proprietary solution to enable carriers to transition from circuit to packet networks, and established lead customer trials. This transition will leverage the trillion dollar infrastructure investment network operators have made in their networks, creating new strategic customer opportunities for Nortel Networks to deliver Telephony solutions.

Appoints Industry IP Visionary Chief Technology Officer Nortel Networks also announced that Bill Hawe has been appointed senior vice president and chief technology officer (CTO). Hawe will be based at Nortel Networks campus in Billerica, Massachusetts. He will play a key role in driving Nortel Networks technology strategy and vision; including acting as the chief technical spokesperson, guiding technology investments and acquisitions, and mentoring of Nortel Networks 20,000 person engineering community.

"In the last year we have firmly established Nortel Networks as the leader in Unified Networks," said Roth. "During this period Bill Hawe has demonstrated tremendous leadership and the depth of technology knowledge across Nortel Networks that is required to propel our technology efforts into the next millennium. Hawe has a critical role to play as the steward of our technologies and ensuring we are delivering the technology breakthroughs that create value for our customers, be they end users or service providers."

"Networking today is on the verge of the greatest breakthroughs in speed, capacity and reliability," said Hawe. "We are changing the way both business and society communicates -- be it wireline or wireless. That is why I am so excited about the future at Nortel Networks."

Hawe joined Nortel Networks in 1998 at the time of the merger with Bay Networks, where he was vice president of architecture directing network architecture strategies and guiding technology development, direction and alliances. He has spent a significant part of his career in the networking industry including roles with Digital Equipment Corporation where he was chief technical officer for the Network Product Business.

He holds 30 patents in networking and encryption technology and has published more than 30 technical papers. As an engineer in Digital's corporate research, Hawe played a key role in the Digital/Intel/Xerox project, which invented the original Ethernet technology and brought 10 Megabit-per-second Ethernet to market. Hawe holds a Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering and a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Massachusetts. He also serves on a variety of professional boards and committees.