New CEO at Avaya

Avaya says that Kevin Kennedy will join the company as president and CEO effective January 2009.

Kennedy is currently CEO of JDS Uniphase Corporation, and a member of its board of directors. He will remain with JDSU until joining Avaya. Avaya also said Charles Giancarlo will become Chairman of the Board when Kennedy assumes the CEO position.

"Kevin Kennedy brings to Avaya a deep understanding of the enterprise communications industry and extensive senior management experience," said Charles Giancarlo, president and CEO, Avaya. "He will join Avaya at a time when we are strongly positioned in our industry. Kevin will lead Avaya to even greater success and further our strategy and execution to be the premier enterprise communications partner for our customers."

Before joining JDSU, Kennedy served as Chief Operating Officer of Openwave Systems. He also spent eight years at Cisco, most recently as Senior Vice President of the Service Provider Line of Business and Software Technologies Division.