SINGAPORE (IndoTelko) – Ribbon Communications announced that Franklin (Fritz) W. Hobbs, a director of the Company, has been appointed President and Chief Executive Officer.
Hobbs is a highly-experienced executive who has led company transformations across multiple industries. The appointment follows the resignation of Ray Dolan, as President and Chief Executive Officer and as a director of the Company.
Richard J. Lynch, Chairman of the Board, said, “With Fritz leading the Company forward as CEO, there is strong alignment with the Board on the vision and path to capture value for all of our shareholders. Fritz has been a director at Ribbon since it was formed from the merger of Sonus Networks and GENBAND. He brings strong CEO, board-level, operational, integration and change management expertise. We are pleased to appoint Fritz as CEO and think his experience and leadership abilities will accelerate the realization of our vision. We look forward to the results of his leadership as we position Ribbon for its next chapter.”
Mr. Hobbs said, “Ribbon is at the forefront of real-time communications, dedicated to serving our customers as an innovative and secure global real-time communications organization. Following the successful merger, and as we accelerate the synergies which are resulting from bringing together the talents of the teams, Ribbon is well-positioned to execute and capitalize on our many opportunities. I look forward to leading Ribbon, with the incredible support and guidance from the Company’s Board and deep bench of highly skilled technical and management talent. Working with all of our employees around the world, we will continue focusing on creating value for our shareholders, customers and partners as we deliver market-leading real-time communications and security solutions across the globe."
Mr. Dolan added, “It has been an honor working alongside our talented employees around the world as we focused on the needs of our customers in this rapidly changing marketplace. I am proud of all that we accomplished at Sonus Networks leading up to the recent merger with GENBAND. Ribbon now has the talent, scale and global reach to continue leading the transition to the emerging cloud architecture. This is the right time for me to transition overall leadership of the Company, and I wish everyone at Ribbon continued success.”
Mr. Lynch added, “Ray has achieved our goal of setting Ribbon on a clear path to success and he rightfully deserves credit and thanks for both his vision of combining Sonus and GENBAND and execution of the merger.”
The Company noted that today’s announcement is not related to the Company’s financial performance for the current quarter or progress to-date on the Company’s merger integration efforts.(es)