'Godfather Of ProCurve' Resurfaces At Nortel

John McHugh, former worldwide general manager of Hewlett-Packard's ProCurve Networking by HP, has joined the ranks of Nortel Networks.

Toronto-based Nortel on Friday confirmed that McHugh signed on as its new vice president and general manager of enterprise solutions last month. In that role, he will help drive market leadership for Nortel's struggling enterprise business. Based in Nortel's Raleigh, N.C., office, he will oversee Nortel's entire portfolio of data networking products for the enterprise market and also offer expertise and resources for Nortel's development of Ethernet technologies for Nortel's carrier business.

McHugh also will focus heavily on energy efficiency, Nortel said. He is responsible for the end-to-end data portfolio, including research and development, operations, marketing and business development.

He could not be reached for comment.

McHugh, who brings nearly 30 years of industry experience to Nortel, has been tapped to help right Nortel's focus. Last month, Nortel filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection following a third calendar quarter loss of $3.4 billion, its largest quarterly loss in seven years. In the wake of the losses, Nortel announced plans to chop more than 1,000 jobs, freeze salaries, halt hiring and review its real estate holdings.

Dubbed by many as the "Godfather of ProCurve," McHugh is credited with building the ProCurve networking brand from a startup to a $1 billion-plus business during his 26 years at HP. Throughout his run at ProCurve, McHugh was responsible for the networking unit's global operations, strategic and tactical planning, business development and the creation and introduction of many networking solutions and services. He grew ProCurve to be a solid contender in the networking marketplace, where it is now the No. 2 switching vendor behind Cisco Systems.

McHugh also built ProCurve's channel organization from the ground up as a separate independent unit within a dedicated specialized network infrastructure force of 4,500 registered reseller partners.

McHugh left his post as ProCurve's vice president and worldwide general manager in June. Details of his departure were not disclosed.

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