Metaswitch Networks Names Kevin DeNuccio its New CEO

By Gary Kim

Contributing Editor

 

Metaswitch Networks has named Kevin DeNuccio (News - Alert) its new CEO.

Historically, Metaswitch Networks made its name as a supplier of IP communications features delivered using a softswitch, especially for independent telcos, much as Nortel (News - Alert) originally did, in the U.S. market, with its earlier move into digital Class 5 switches. At the same time, Metaswitch is well aware of what happened to Nortel.

 

But Metaswitch Networks now is expanding in Latin America, the Asia-Pacific region and Europe. That calls for a global profile much different from what the company has had in the past, when it focused on North America.

 

'The opportunity is to navigate a global expansion, something that I have been through two times,' says DeNuccio.

 

DeNuccio, who has served on the Metaswitch board for two years, is known for building Redback Networks into a major player in the edge router business prior to its acquisition by Ericsson AB. DeNuccio earlier had been at Cisco (News - Alert) Systems, in charge of service provider sales.

 

Current CEO John Lazar becomes chairman, replacing Metaswitch founder Ian Ferguson, who remains on the board of directors.

 

“We have three product threads today, softswitch being one, where we are an industry leader, and then the applications space and the protocol division,” DeNuccio says. Metaswitch believes it can double that portfolio, for starters.

 

Immediate areas of expansion are into the mobile arena, through expansion of existing products into that space, and into broader global sales.

 

Another key effort will center on helping service providers capitalize on the information they already have to design and implement new services, DeNuccio says.

 

“We have been innovative at the applications layer, being one of the players that understand that subscribers are now looking at things from a plethora of different devices,' he notes. That likely is a message Metaswitch Networks will want to, and must, get across as it makes its next moves.

 

At the same time, because of its own culture--and what it believes it has learned from Nortel's spectacular collapse--the company is unlikely to go on wild acquisition sprees, though DeNuccio says that is a possibility, though it prefers organic growth.

 

In other words, Metaswitch wants to continue to be a financially sound provider of a greater range of products, but with no intention of becoming 'the biggest' firm in the global space.