POET appoints Don Listwin to Board
Cisco veteran brings over 30 years of technology experience to the company
POET, a developer and manufacturer of optical light source products for the sensing and data communications markets, has appointed Don Listwin to its board of directors, including roles on both the compensation and audit committees. Concurrently, Todd DeBonis, who served as a director since April 2015, resigned from the board and has transitioned to a non-fee based strategic advisory role.
Listwin has over 30 years of technology investing and management experience, highlighted by a decade at Cisco Systems, where he served as executive vice president.
During his tenure at Cisco, he built several multi-billion-dollar lines of business, including the company's Service Provider line of business that underpins much of today's global Internet infrastructure. More recently, Listwin served as chief executive officer of both Sana Security and Openwave Systems.
POET's executive chairman, David Lazovsky, commented: "It is a pleasure to add a senior technology industry veteran of Don's caliber to POET's board as the Company continues the development and commercialisation of its next-generation photonic solutions. Don's broad experience in networking and telecommunications is extremely relevant and applicable to both our technology and product roadmaps. Additionally, I'm confident that his deep network of relationships will prove valuable as the Company seeks to achieve increased commercial visibility and adoption of its technology."
Commenting on his appointment, Listwin, said: "I am very pleased to be joining POET's board of directors at this exciting time for the company and having the opportunity to work with such a deeply experienced team. Integration is the clear path to delivering meaningfully differentiated solutions and economic value in next-generation data communications applications. POET's unique optical dielectric technology has the potential to revolutionise the photonics market, and I am highly motivated by the opportunity to contribute as the Company works toward commercialising its leading-edge technology."
"On behalf of the entire management team, I am very pleased to have Don join POET's board and become a part of our committed pursuit toward innovating photonic solutions for the datacom and sensing markets," said Suresh Venkatesan, CEO of POET. "Additionally, we greatly appreciate the valuable perspective and insight that Todd has provided to the company over the last few years, and I personally look forward to working with both Don and Todd in their respective roles going forward."
In addition to Listwin founding and holding the role of chief executive officer of the Canary Foundation, a non-profit research organisation focused on the early detection of cancer, Listwin currently serves as a director on the boards of AwareX, Calix, D-wave, ischemaView, Robin Systems and Teradici. Previously, he has also served on the boards or been an advisor to well-known companies, including JDS Uniphase, PLUMgrid, Redback Networks, E-TEK Dynamics, the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association (CTIA) and the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC).
Listwin received a BSEE from the University of Saskatchewan, where he remains active with student engineering entrepreneurial programs. He is also a consulting professor in the School of Medicine at Stanford University.
