Hammerhead Systems Appoints Rich Gitlin CTO

Senior VP for Communications and Networking Research at Bell Labs and Former Lucent CTO to Lead Product Vision, Network Architecture and Industry Standard Initiatives

Mountain View, CA – February 8, 2006 – Hammerhead Systems, Inc., the market leader in Layer 2.5 Aggregation solutions, today announced the appointment of Dr. Richard Gitlin as Chief Technology Officer. Dr. Gitlin joins Hammerhead Systems after a distinguished 32-year career at Bell Labs and Lucent leading pioneering research in digital communications, broadband networking, and wireless systems. Dr. Gitlin 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 where he taught courses and supervised research in networking and wireless systems. 

"The market has validated the key competitive differentiators of our HSX 6000 Layer 2.5 Aggregation Switch and as we continue to address our customers’ expectations and requirements for the  most innovative technologies, I am delighted to have someone of  Rich’s caliber, who pioneered many of the communication technologies that are indispensable tools for our business and personal lives today,  join us to lead the vision, architecture, and requirements for our next generation product family," said Peter Savage, CEO of Hammerhead Systems.

"Hammerhead is uniquely positioned as a leader in advanced networking edge products with its HSX 6000 ingeniously architected to scale with in-service software and capacity upgrades to support evolving customer needs in the wireline, wireless, and cable markets," said Dr. Richard Gitlin, Hammerhead Systems CTO. "This, plus the opportunity to work with a first-rate team, some of whom are colleagues from my days at Bell Labs, made joining Hammerhead's executive team a compelling proposition.”

Throughout his career, Dr. Gitlin has both personally conducted and led pioneering 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. Earlier in his career he 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.

Dr. Gitlin 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.

A prolific researcher, developer and  inventor, Dr. Gitlin has published more than 95 papers, is the recipient of three prize paper awards, has delivered numerous keynotes, and holds 43 US patents (with 8 more applied for and pending). He currently serves on the Editorial Boards of Mobile Networks and Applications and the Journal of Communications Networks (JCN) and is co-author of the text Data Communications Principles, with Jerry Hayes and Steve Weinstein, published by Plenum Press (1992).

Dr. Gitlin is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the IEEE, and a Bell Laboratories Fellow. He is also a co-recipient of the 2005 Thomas Alva Edison Patent Award. He has served as Chair of the Communication Theory Committee of the IEEE Communications Society, as a member of the COMSOC Awards Board, as Editor for communication theory of the IEEE Transactions on Communications, as a member of the Board of Governors of the IEEE Communications Society, and a member of the Nominations and Elections Board. He has served on the Advisory Committee for Computer Science and Engineering (CISE) Of the National Science Foundation.

About Hammerhead Systems
Hammerhead Systems, Inc. is the market leader in Aggregation, Interworking, and Migration to accelerate profitable delivery of new Ethernet and existing legacy services at a fraction of the cost and complexity of other solutions. The HSX 6000, the first purpose-built Layer 2.5 Aggregation Switch using MPLS Pseudowire technology, and the Pegador SOA Element Management System are both available today. Hammerhead has a strategic partnership with Fujitsu Network Communications in North America for distribution, joint marketing, product planning, and customer support and services. Hammerhead is located in Mountain View, California, is privately held, and has raised $80 million from Foundation Capital, Mayfield, Enterprise Partners, Pequot Ventures, Silver Creek Ventures and Apex Venture Partners. For more information about Hammerhead, visit www.hammerheadsystems.com.