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Telecommunications Americas, Dec, 2004 by Ted McKenna

As a 40-year veteran of the telecom industry, Amedia Networks CEO Frank Galuppo has seen a lot of changes since he started out as an installer of switching equipment for Western Electric in the New York metropolitan area. To begin with, equipment has a lot more oomph. A half a bay of equipment, on two cards, has the capacity of three bays of equipment from 15 years ago, Galuppo says.

More generally speaking, email, wireless phones, and the Internet are of course all major innovations. Since Holmdel, N.J.-based Amedia specializes in providing technology for delivering Internet, video and other services to homes and businesses, Galuppo perhaps not surprisingly says that interactive video is likely to be the next big thing. One application, online gaming, is drawing huge interest, and in the Far East its popularity has become nothing short of amazing. "It seems that some of these online gamers are having incomes of $300,000-$400,000 a year now, just playing online games," Galuppo says.

At a recent SUPERCOMM show, Galuppo had his first experience with online games, with a X-Box set up to use an Amedia VoIP product. "I put the headset on and suddenly there was someone in the earphone talking to me. It was some guy in Tennessee using VoIP who was giving me a hard time because I picked a little car instead of a Corvette to race against!"

Why did you make the jump to Amedia? Did you want to try life at a smaller company?

Lucent was going through a significant downsizing, and that was very stressful. Plus, 38 1/2 years at the same company is a long time and I thought maybe this is a good time to look to do something different. I have two small children--they're 7 now--who were born in Germany, and I thought maybe it was time to take some stress out of my life.

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Are there longer hours, more traveling in the industry compared with the past?

People's lives were perhaps a bit more stable 15 years ago; they knew what to expect when they came to work everyday. I think in the last 15 years that's changed pretty dramatically. We've all become more responsive to what customers demand and what technology offers, and I do think that's led to longer hours. Clearly, the world is a lot smaller today. Fifteen years ago, I can't tell you what the approval process was to make an international trip. For that matter, you had to explain international calls 15 years ago. Now we pick up the phone or get on an airplane as if it were Ohio, to travel over to China or someplace.

What things do you like to do to relax--any particular hobbies or interests?

I've been very active athletically all my life, so I use running or some other aerobic access as a way of relaxing and trying to collect my thoughts for the day. I've also been an avid reader my entire life and take a great deal of interest in U.S. and world history. I recently finished a biography on Ben Franklin and am currently reading a biography of Alexander Hamilton.

Ben Franklin was a scientist, so I'm sure he would have been interested in the telecom industry.

He certainly would. What I think is remarkable about him and Alexander Hamilton is how visionary they were, to be able to project the country as they wanted to see it 20 years ahead of the time they lived in. I find that as you grow older, you become very aware of the fact that people in corporate life face the same kind of challenges that people face in public life or other professions. Every day is a day of decisions, and some days you make good ones and other days you make ones that you wish you could have back.

Frank Galuppo

Title: CEO and Director, Amedia Networks

Age: 58

Resides: Howell, N.J.

Length at Current Position: Nine months

Education: Bachelor's in Business Administration, Pace University