Press Releases

2006

FORCE10 NETWORKS BUILDS EUROPEAN SALES TEAM TO DELIVER HIGH PERFORMANCE NETWORKING SOLUTIONS

SAN JOSE, Calif., October 9, 2006 – Force10 Networks®, the pioneer in building and securing high performance networks, today announced that it is increasing its presence in Europe with several key additions to its sales team. To direct its overall sales strategy for the region, Force10 has appointed Marshall Bartoszek vice president of sales, Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). Force10 has also named Michael Frey sales director for central Europe to more effectively pursue opportunities with service providers and enterprises that require high performance networks.

“Force10 has established a solid customer presence with European service providers, research centers and enterprise data centers, and the expansion of our sales team will enable the company to build that foundation into a wider EMEA presence,” said Mark Cooper, senior vice president of worldwide sales at Force10 Networks. “Marshall and Michael both have decades of experience in building long-term channel and partner strategies as well as helping customers solve their most complex networking problems.”

Prior to his appointment as vice president of sales, EMEA, Mr. Bartoszek was senior director of strategic accounts at Force10, where he helped secure several of the company’s earliest customers. Before joining Force10, Mr. Bartoszek served as a major account manager at Cisco Systems. Earlier, he held sales and business development positions at EQUANT Network Services, Cingular Wireless and CompuCom Systems. Mr. Bartoszek holds a BA with honors in forensic studies and sociology from Indiana University.

Mr. Frey has more than 15 years of sales experience building customer, channel and partner relationships in Central and Eastern Europe. Prior to joining Force10, Mr. Frey was a sales director for the EMEA region at Infinera, where he developed a service provider customer base and built out a channel across the region. Earlier, he directed EMEA sales efforts at CoSine Communications, Ericsson and Madge Networks. Mr. Frey is based out of Frankfurt.

“Force10 has a unique value proposition in reducing the total cost of network ownership while simplifying architectures that cuts across the service provider and enterprise markets,” said Bartoszek. “Throughout EMEA there is an evolution towards the network as a strategic asset, and Force10 is well positioned to provide organizations with the high performance networking solutions they require to make this a reality.”

Over the last year, Force10 has continued to expand its customer presence in Europe. At CERN, the world’s largest particle physics laboratory, the Force10 TeraScale E-Series® anchors Europe’s largest 10 Gigabit Ethernet campus network. Additionally, Force10 networking equipment is at the core of the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, which is home to the world’s 11th largest supercomputer. Hosting provider True is also using the TeraScale E-Series to provide Europe’s first 20 Gigabits per second link to the Amsterdam Internet Exchange.

About Force10 Networks
Force10 Networks is a global technology leader that data center, service provider and enterprise customers rely on when the network is their business. The company’s high performance Ethernet switching and routing solutions virtualize and automate Ethernet networks to deliver new and distinct economic advantages by increasing network availability, agility and efficiency while reducing power and cooling costs. Force10 provides 24x7 service and support capabilities to its global customer base in more than 60 countries worldwide. For more information on Force10 Networks, please visit www.force10networks.com.

Contact:
Kevin Kimball
Force10 Networks Inc.
+1 408 571-3544
kkimball@force10networks.com

Force10 Networks, the Force10 Networks logo, Force10, E-Series, Traverse, and TraverseEdge are registered trademarks and ExaScale, S-Series, TeraScale, and FTOS are trademarks of Force10 Networks, Inc. All other company names are trademarks of their respective holders.