Following the April 2nd announcement of their proposed merger transaction, Alcatel and Lucent Technologies today named additional members to the senior leadership team for the combined company.

 

The two companies announced on Wednesday that Olivier Baujard will serve as chief technology officer (CTO) for the combined company. Baujard currently serves as CTO for Alcatel (News - Alert).

 

Jeong Kim will remain president of Bell Labs. Helle Kristoffersen, who currently vice president of corporate strategy for Alcatel, will now become the vice president of corporate strategy for the combined company.

 

Baujard, Kim and Kristoffersen will now report to Mike Quigley, who will serve as president, Science, Technology and Strategy, in the combined company. Quigley currently serves as president and chief operating officer (COO) of Alcatel.

 

“Alcatel and Lucent are fortunate in the depth and breadth of the talent each company is bringing to our proposed merger,” said Patricia Russo, currently chairperson and CEO of Lucent, in a statement.

 

Russo will become CEO of the combined company.

 

“Our experienced international management team will give our combined company an enormous advantage as we face the dynamic market in which we will compete,” Russo added.

 

The companies also announced that John Giere, currently chief marketing officer for Lucent, will assume that post for the combined company. Lucent's chief information officer, Elizabeth Hackenson, has been named to lead the combined company's Information Systems/Information Technology organization.

 

Giere and Hackenson will report to Frank D'Amelio, who will oversee a number of key corporate and cross company functions for the combined company. D'Amelio currently serves as COO for Lucent.

 

“We are putting together the combined organization with a balanced representation of talented leaders from both companies to fully leverage the significant advantage of the cultural diversity that our global teams will bring to every customer and business need,” stated Serge Tchuruk, chairman and CEO of Alcatel, who will now become non-executive chairman of the combined company.

 

Alcatel and Lucent expect to complete their merger transaction by the end of calendar year 2006, within the six to 12-month timeframe originally announced on April 2nd.

 

Lucent made news Monday when it announced that it was chosen by Manx Telecom to support an array of "blended" VoIP, data and video services over a converged network that combines 3G wireless technology and the latest wireline broadband access capabilities. The deal called for Lucent to supply the telecom with additional elements of its IMS system to support advanced multimedia services.

 

Lucent will also increase the capacity of Manx Telecom's wireless network and upgrade the carrier's broadband wireline network with the Lucent Multimedia Access Platform (MMAP), an all-IP system that enables service providers to deliver high-bandwidth video/IPTV (News - Alert), VoIP and multimedia services to the mass market.

 

Alcatel

Lucent Technologies (News - Alert)