Alcatel-Lucent Names New Enterprise President

Alcatel-Lucent on Friday named Michel Emelianoff its new president, enterprise, effective Feb. 1. Emelianoff replaces Tom Burns, who is departing Alcatel-Lucent for what the telecom giant described as "personal reasons."

In his new role, Emelianoff will oversee all of Alcatel-Lucent's global enterprise business. He was most recently vice president and general manager for Alcatel-Lucent's Data & Security Solutions business, and has been at the company since 1998.

Previously, Emelianoff was vice president, business development for North America, and then from 2003 to 2007 led the company's enterprise voice business unit. Earlier in his career, Emelianoff worked in sales, marketing and business development roles at Siemens.

Ben Verwaayen, Alcatel Lucent's CEO, praised Emelianoff's longevity with the company and also cited Burns' contributions. Burns was a member of Alcatel-Lucent's management committee.

"I am sad to see Tom go," Verwaayen said in a statement. "He has made an enormous contribution to our company. I will miss him and wish him all the best in the future."

Alcatel-Lucent said in October it would sell its Genesys contact center unit to European private equity firm Palmira, but retain its enterprise networking unit, ending several months' worth of speculation that it would sell off the enterprise unit.

Alcatel-Lucent's enterprise business encompasses not only Genesys but also many of its IP telephony, unified communications, interactive whiteboard, communications management, mobility, network infrastructure and security products.