Alcatel-Lucent Names Robert Vrij as Head of the Americas Region

Alcatel-Lucent has appointed Robert Vrij as head of the Americas Region. Vrij will report to Alcatel-Lucent CEO Ben Verwaayen and will be responsible for overseeing all of the company's sales and operations in North America and CALA (Caribbean and Latin America.) He will be a member of the company's management committee and his office will be in Murray Hill, New Jersey, the headquarters for the Americas region.


Most recently, Vrij was president and chief executive officer of Openwave Systems where he reduced total expenses in excess of 30%, improved gross margins, rationalized the portfolio, delivered new technology leading products to market and put the company on a path to profitability. From 2004 to 2007, he was the Senior Vice President of Worldwide Sales and Marketing Solutions with Genband, a provider of IP solutions to service providers. He also held senior sales positions with Nextiraone (now Blackbox) a reseller of converged telephony products for the enterprise market. Vrij also held leadership positions with Lucent Technologies from 1999 to 2002 including responsibility for the company's wireline business in the Europe and Middle East Region. And from 1993 to 1997 he held a number of sales, marketing and management positions with AT&T's global and regional joint ventures including as director of worldwide voice and data services and channel management operations.
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