Marcus Weldon has been appointed president of Bell Labs, the research arm of Alcatel-Lucent. Weldon will combine this role with his existing role as Alcatel-Lucent’s corporate CTO.
Commenting on Weldon’s appointment, Michel Combes, CEO of Alcatel-Lucent, said: 'Innovation is a key pillar of The Shift Plan, our industrial program to reposition the company as a specialist in IP networking and ultra-broadband access. In his new, combined role as Bell Labs president and chief technology officer, Marcus will oversee the acceleration and unlocking of innovation in the company. In this role, he will strengthen cooperation with third parties and speed up the pace of R&D to ensure Alcatel-Lucent can respond to its customers' challenges with agility.'
Weldon has a strong track record of identifying opportunities for technological disruption, with recent breakthroughs including the application of vectoring in fixed access, championing the use of LTE overlay and small cells in wireless, and identifying the emergence of virtualisation and software defined networking as forces to profoundly change the industry.
Combes added: 'Marcus will combine this vision with the power of Bell Labs to create an unrivalled innovation engine for our company.'
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