Company - Management Team

Co-Founder, President and CEO

Michael Hatfield is a veteran of three successful communications systems start-ups. Most recently Michael was founder and CEO of Calix, a privately held communication systems company. Calix is a leading producer of high-speed access systems for Communications Service Providers.

Prior to Calix, Michael was co-founder and COO of Cerent, a leading provider of high-speed fiber-optics systems acquired by Cisco Systems for $7B. Michael's initial start-up success came as an early team member and vice-president of marketing for Advanced Fibre Communications (AFC). During his tenure, AFC went from start-up to a publicly traded enterprise.

He has also served in management roles at DSC Communications and Ameritech. Michael has a BSEE in Electrical Engineering and Mathematical Economics from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and an MBA in Finance from Indiana University.

Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer

Steve is responsible for product development and product management at Cyan.

Steve has a track record of telecom development innovation with Cyan as his third communications systems start-up. He was previously a member of the founding team at Turin Networks, Inc. where he was responsible for product architecture. Steve was also an early employee at Advanced Fibre Communications Inc. (AFC) where as the Director of Engineering, he was responsible for development of all international features.

Prior to arriving in the US, Steve developed ASIC's for use in telecommunications and mining blasting. Steve has an MSc (Engineering) and BSc (Engineering) (Cum Laude) from The University of the Witwatersrand, in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Tom is responsible for product management and business development at Cyan.

Co-Founder and Vice President of Sales

Eric is responsible for sales and systems engineering at Cyan.

Eric has an extensive background ranging from sales to systems engineering and business development for companies including Ameritech, Caymas, Cerent, Cisco and DSC Communications.

Most recently, Eric was an officer of Caymas Systems where he managed sales and business development.

Prior to joining Caymas, Eric was a senior sales executive at Cisco Systems, leading a national sales operation selling all Cisco products. Eric joined Cisco through the acquisition of Cerent Corporation where he was the initial sales leader and helped drive customer requirements, secure Cerent’s initial design wins, and build the national sales team as the director of sales.

Prior to Cerent, Eric worked at DSC Communications in multiple sales and systems engineering roles. He started his career as an engineer at Ameritech in network planning and design. Eric holds a BSEE from Oakland University and a MSEE from the University of Michigan.
 

Vice President of Marketing and Market Development

Frank is responsible for marketing, international sales and market expansion at Cyan.

Frank has a diverse professional background ranging from engineering to product management, marketing, sales, business development, general management and executive management for companies including Nortel, AT&T / Paradyne and Calix.

Most recently, Frank ran product development for Calix – leading product strategy, engineering and product management. Prior to this role, Frank founded Calix's field marketing team, wrote the Calix publication The Book on Video and was the lead author of The Book on Network Transformation. His initial role with Calix was leading business development where he founded the CalixCompatible partnership program.

Prior to joining Calix, Frank lead marketing, product strategy, product management, engineering and sales teams for Paradyne Corp. and AT&T Paradyne. He started his career as a network engineer supporting fiber transmission systems for Nortel Networks. Frank holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of South Florida.

Co-Founder and Vice President of Business Operations and Customer Service

Rick is responsible for business operations at Cyan.

Rick has a long history in the region known as Telecom Valley, with roles ranging from customer service to business development and executive management with four highly successful communications start-ups.

Most recently, Rick was a co-founder and vice president of business development at Calix. His responsibilities included creating and fostering key partner relationships for Calix. He also served as the company's Chief Communications Officer where he was responsible for the company's communications, infrastructure, and personnel.

Prior to Calix, Rick was vice president of customer service at Advanced Fibre Communications (AFC). Rick joined AFC while it was still a young start-up and built a pre- and post-sales technical support organization. Rick was also an early participant in the first Telecom Valley start-up, Optilink Corporation. Optilink was later acquired by DSC and then Alcatel. Rick held management positions at DSC Communication and Rockwell Communications. Rick has a BS in Electrical Engineering from New Mexico State University.

Vice President of Manufacturing Operations

Norm is responsible for manufacturing operations at Cyan.

Norm Foust brings 20 years of general management, manufacturing, strategic sourcing, supply chain management, and quality experience from industry leading telecommunication companies.

Prior to joining Cyan, Norm was vice president of operations at Dilithium Networks, a leading 3G telephony equipment provider, where he was responsible for the design and implementation of manufacturing outsource solutions.

Prior to Dilithium Networks, Norm was the director of operations and director of supply chain at Calix, where he was responsible for the global manufacturing outsource strategy, including the scalable expansion of manufacturing operations internationally in China and Mexico.

Prior to Calix, Norm held various supply chain and operations management roles with Advance Fibre Communications (AFC), Digital Switch Communications (DSC), and Fujitsu (FNTS).

Norm started his career as a manufacturing engineer for Texas Instruments in the Defense Systems Electronics Group. Norm holds a BSIEE from Penn State University.