Pat DiPietro, operating partner at Marlin Equity Partners, replaces Shaygan Kheradpir, who, in the traditional phrase, “has stepped down from his role to pursue other opportunities”.
Kheradpir joined Coriant in September 2015 and has not updated his LinkedIn profile to reflect his changed position.
DiPietro will be joined by Reza Ghaffari, an existing Coriant executive, who will be the company’s first chief operating officer. Ghaffari is a former Verizon executive who, says Coriant, “has a long track record of success and global exposure as a serial entrepreneur building companies from the ground up with over 25 years of telecom-related experience ranging from enterprise network solutions, regional distribution, and provider of cloud communication services”.
Kheradpir is also a former Verizon executive and the reasons for his departure are unclear. He was CIO and CTO at Verizon for a decade until 2010, after which he spent three years as CIO of UK-based Barclays Bank, followed by only 11 months as CEO of Juniper Networks. He joined Coriant 10 months after leaving Juniper.
Coriant was created five years ago by the merger of three businesses, Sycamore Networks, Tellabs, and the optical networking operations of the former Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN). The first CEO after the merger was Herbert Merz, a former Siemens executive: initially he was president and CEO, then just president, and then a strategic adviser.
As a private-equity owned company, Coriant does not publish financial results. A year ago Light Reading said that the company was firing 100 of its 2,500 staff, a report Coriant refused to comment about.
DiPietro, who has been vice-chairman of the board, said: “I’m thrilled to take the helm of Coriant as it transforms to drive new value for its global customers with cost-disruptive innovations in open, software-driven, and revenue-enhancing products and technologies.”
Coriant said that Ghaffari “will continue to lead Coriant’s global service and support organisation, while assuming responsibility for the company’s global IT, human resources, and facilities functions”.
It added that he has “a proven track record of driving operational excellence and outcome-based results”, and is “uniquely qualified to drive further improvements in the support we provide our customers by strengthening functional alignment and in-region resource”.
