Accedian Networks' management is a dedicated, telecom-savvy team of seasoned executives with a unified focus: delivering innovative, customer-driven High Performance Service Assurance solutions that simplify the creation and quality assurance of packet-based services and applications.

With diverse functional and management experience in telecommunications companies ranging from start-ups to multinationals, the Accedian Networks leadership team drives sustained growth through agile business practices, lean-development and devoted customer support, backed by extensive experience in the test and measurement and packet networking industries.

With diverse functional and management experience in telecommunications companies ranging from start-ups to multinationals, the Accedian Networks’ leadership team drives sustained growth through agile business practices, lean-development and devoted customer support, backed by extensive experience in the test & measurement and packet networking industries.

Patrick Ostiguy, Founding President & Chief Executive Officer

Patrick Ostiguy co-founded Avantas Networks in 1999 and launched the industry's first portable Ethernet and SONET field-services test-set. In 2001, Avantas Networks was acquired for $100M by EXFO Electro-Optical Engineering where he continued his role in product management and participated in several M&A activities at the corporate level. In 1995, Patrick was also part of the initial Positron Fiber Systems (PFS) team that commercialized the industry's first Ethernet over SONET Multi-Service Provisioning Platform (MSPP). This was later acquired, first by Reltec in 1997, and subsequently by Marconi for $200M.

With over a decade of pertinent telecom industry experience, Patrick was responsible for filing of several Patent Applications (patents pending) and publishing dozens of industry conference proceedings and technology articles. Patrick brings to Accedian Networks a solid background in Product Management and Marketing, a proven track-record managing product development programs, and a strong understanding of service provider needs.

Claude Robitaille, Chief Technology Officer

In 2000, Claude Robitaille co-founded Colubris Networks where he developed a leading edge line of WiFi Access routers and successfully held the positions of Operations Manager and Director of R&D. Prior to Colubris, Claude was part of EICON Technologies' core engineering team where he designed a broad Datacom access product portfolio and successfully held the positions of Product Architect, Project Manager and Team Leader. With over 18 years of relevant experience in the Telecom industry, Claude brings to Accedian Networks a solid background in R&D and Operations, including strong experience in designing for and managing contract manufacturers and high-volume operations.

Martin Lebeau, Vice President Finance and Chief Financial Officer

Martin Lebeau brings extensive operational and financial experience to Accedian Networks, with proven leadership in early-stage companies as an entrepreneur, in venture capital and in corporate finance. Prior to joining Accedian, he was a co-founder and Vice President Finance of a venture-backed company in the satellite telecommunications industry, as well as Financial Executive at iPerceptions, a venture-backed company servicing Fortune 500 clients in the software/web analytics industry. Previously Martin held positions as a Senior Associate at Telesystem Capital (now Propulsion Ventures), an early-stage venture capital fund focused on IT and telecommunications, and as Manager of Corporate Development for a publicly-traded multimedia Company. Martin also provided consulting services to Garage Technology Ventures Canada—a early stage venture capital fund—as its part-time Chief Financial Officer. He began his career at Ernst & Young in the audit and corporate finance groups.

Martin is a Chartered Accountant and is a member of the Ordre des comptables agrées du Québec since 1996. He has a Bachelors degree from École des Hautes Études Commerciales (HEC) and an MBA from McGill University in Montréal.

Bill Balmer, Vice President Business Development

Bill Balmer brings more than 25 years of Telecom and Management experience to Accedian Networks. From his initial roles as a PBX Switch Design Engineer at Hitachi Telecommunications, and Product Management in digital speech packet technology with Nortel, Bill founded FiberLAN, one of the first companies to develop optical Ethernet Products. As Vice President of Marketing at Telco Systems, Bill managed the introduction of the Route24 IAD products which included one of the first Customer Access platforms to support Frame Relay.

Previously, he was Regional Vice President for ADC Telecommunications, where he won prestigious awards from both Pacific Tel and GTE as Vendor of the Year while managing $100+ million in annual sales. Bill was also part of a team that turned around Premisys Corporation's declining revenue through restructuring channel partners, and helped setup an M&A acquisition. His most recent experience was President of Flexsys Group where he oversaw the successful business development and introduction of a wireless Ethernet product for the European Market.

Francois Marineau, Vice President Operations

Francois Marineau has over 15 years of operational experience with high-technology companies in the Telecom and Contract-Manufacturing fields, including 10 years of management experience. Prior to joining Accedian as Director of Operations, he structured the operational team of EXFO Electro-Optical Engineering in Montreal (formely Avantas Networks), a start-up company that included Supply Chain, Manufacturing, Service Centre, Information Technology, Software Verification and Quality Assurance. Over the course of his tenure at EXFO, Francois also held the position of Director of Contract Manufacturing where he identified, qualified and managed outsourced manufacturers in Asia-Pacific. Other rolls during his time at EXFO included involvement in due diligence and the merger and acquisition of several companies.

Previously, François was a member of the management team at SCI Canada (now Sanmina-SCI), a Tier-1 Electronic Contract Manufacturer, where he held positions as Test Engineering Supervisor and Director of Engineering. His background also includes roles at SR Telecom and Nortel.

Francois holds a bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from Polytechnique de Montreal and a Masters degree in Engineering Management from Universite de Sherbrooke, in Canada. Francois has been an APICS member since 2002.

Craig Easley, Vice President Marketing and Product Management

Craig Easley has over 20 years of experience in the information technology and telecommunications industries with such notable companies as Nortel Networks, Bay Networks, Extreme Networks, and Actelis Networks.

Craig has experience designing and launching telecommunications equipment and element management solutions for access, aggregation and core transport networks designed to meet the needs of both enterprise and service provider markets. This broad range of experience provides him with unique insight into the requirements for successfully building networking equipment that is deployed in a variety of networks and applications. Through his participation with the Metro Ethernet Forum and IEEE 802 standards organizations he is recognized as one of the pioneers of the Carrier Ethernet industry.

Craig has served seven terms on the Metro Ethernet Forum's (MEF) Board of Directors, is currently the Co-Chair of the Marketing Committee, and is leading the MEF's new Professional Certification initiative. He has also been a long-time participant in the IEEE and has contributed to the development of numerous telecommunications standards including Ethernet in the First Mile. He earned a Masters of Science degree in Computer Science from the University of Maryland where he graduated Summa Cum Laude

Doug Smidl, Vice President Sales North America

Doug Smidl brings to Accedian Networks more than 25 years of sales and sales management experience in the telecom and enterprise markets. A proven leader with a strong pedigree in developing successful, high performance sales teams, Doug has closed many multi-million dollar contracts with industry leading customers including Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, Cisco, HP, IBM and Google, to name a few. Most recently Doug was Vice President of North America Sales at Alvarion, a global leader in 4G wireless communications for service providers and enterprise. Prior to Alvarion, Doug served as Vice President of Sales at JDSU, within the Optical Communications Group, where following the acquisition of Picolight, he scaled Datacom’s annual product sales to over $100M.

Doug also held several key leadership positions at ADC Telecommunications. As Vice President of Sales for ADC’s Broadband Access Transport Group, Doug led a sales and sales engineering organization that captured $800M in revenue from targeted North American carriers, wireless operators, MSO cable operators, and IOC’s. As Vice President of Marketing for the ADC Homeworx HFC / FTTH platform, Doug managed the Company’s global marketing, product management and customer service organizations, and generated over a $100M in revenue. Doug graduated with a BS in Business Administration from Iowa State University, and an MBA from the University of Minnesota.