EXECUTIVE MANAGEMENT

Rich Gitlin
Chief Technology Officer

Dr. Richard Gitlin joins Hammerhead Systems as CTO after a distinguished 32-year career at Bell Labs and Lucent leading pioneering research in digital communications, broadband networking, and wireless systems.  Rich was CTO of Lucent’s Data Networking Business Unit and Senior VP for Communications and Networking Research at Bell Labs. After retiring from Lucent, he was VP of Technology and CTO of NEC Labs America.  He was also a professor of Electrical Engineering at Columbia University.

Rich has conducted and led research and development that has resulted in many innovative products, including: the industry-leading ATLANTA ATM Chipset, the world’s first 20 gigabit/sec ATM switch, wire-speed and quality of service-aware IP switches, multicode CDMA (IS-95B), and the record-setting BLAST broadband wireless system based on advanced spatial domain (smart antenna/MIMO) processing. He also led the team that pioneered V.32/V.34 voice-band modems, and in 1986 he was co-inventor of DSL. His DSL work was instrumental in launching Globespan, an early DSL chip vendor.

Rich has been elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering, is a Fellow of the IEEE, and is a Bell Laboratories Fellow. He is also a co-recipient of the 2005 Thomas Alva Edison Patent Award.

Rich received a Bachelor’s degree with honors in Electrical Engineering from The City College of New York, and Masters and Doctor of Engineering Science degrees in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University.