SAN MATEO, Calif. -- June 27, 2006 -- Vyatta today announced it has named Kelly Herrell Chief Executive Officer. As CEO and member of the board of directors, Herrell will provide the vision and strategic leadership for Vyatta, and drive the company to its goal of global leadership in commercial-grade open-source networking products. With a proven track record for growing companies in the open source and networking industries, Herrell will work closely with company founder, Allen Leinwand, who remains in his current role as chairman.
Herrell joined Vyatta from MontaVista Software where he was the senior vice president of strategic operations at the world's pre-eminent embedded Linux supplier. At MontaVista, Herrell led the strategic focus into telecommunications equipment and mobile phones; today network operators around the world use MontaVista Linux in their network infrastructure as well as in tens of millions of mobile terminals. Prior to joining MontaVista, Kelly was vice president of marketing for Cobalt Networks, the dominant provider of open source-based server appliances for web hosting. He helped drive company growth through an explosive IPO, and played a key role in facilitating Cobalt's successful $2.3 billion merger with Sun Microsystems. Herrell has also held executive and management positions at CacheFlow, Oracle, Teradata, NCR, and AT&T.
"Vyatta has crafted the rarest of opportunities -- to deliver a large and lasting impact on the multibillion-dollar network products industry," said Herrell. "Over the past decade, proprietary networking products have stagnated. During the same period, open networking components such as Linux and others have blossomed. These conditions make the networking industry ripe for disruption by open source-based products. I look forward to building on the momentum the company has today, taking Vyatta to its next stage of growth, and helping to positively affect the future of the networking industry by offering a flexible, highly functional, and open alternative."
"Kelly has a rare combination of open-source and networking experience, along with an entrepreneurial spirit that makes him a natural fit at an emerging company like Vyatta," said Allen Leinwand, Vyatta founder and chairman. "As founder, I have tremendous pride in the company we have built and the thriving open-source networking community that we've fostered. I'm confident in Kelly's leadership and expertise and look forward to teaming with him as we bring our products and services to market and continue on our growth path."
Vyatta is developing the Open Flexible Router (OFR), a flexible, cost-effective, and secure alternative to the incumbent, closed-source solutions that dominate the market today. The company has cultivated a community that brings together users and developers to shape the product and advance the cause of open-source networking. A beta version of the Vyatta OFR is currently available for download. For more information on Vyatta, or to join the Vyatta community and participate in building the first open, flexible router, go to www.vyatta.com.
About Vyatta
"Vyatta" is the ancient Sanskrit word meaning "open" -- a fitting name for a company that was created to bring commercial-quality, open-source networking products to market. Open source has created a profound change in the market place, shifting the balance of power from large corporations back to the users of products. Open source is about cost savings, increased flexibility and choice, and better security. Vyatta is bringing those qualities to the world of network infrastructure products.
