MORRISVILLE, N.C.-Tekelec named former Nortel executive Frank Plastina president, chief executive officer and board member.
Plastina replaces Fred Lax, who announced his resignation in October, saying for personal reasons he did not intend to move with the company when it relocated corporate headquarters from California to North Carolina at the end of last year.
Plastina’s experience at Nortel includes management roles in the company’s DMS-10 and Signaling Solutions Group, Wireless and Carrier business and its Metro and Enterprise Networks unit. He left Nortel during the company’s 2002 reorganization and joined private-equity firm Warburg Pincus L.L.C. Later he joined Wi-Fi equipment provider Proxim Corp., where he served as CEO until last year when the company’s assets were acquired by Terabeam Wireless.
Plastina is expected to start with Tekelec on Feb. 6.
Tekelec’s stock closed Monday at $14.66, unchanged from its Friday close. Shares in the company had been trading as high as $20 prior to Lax’s resignation announcement.
