Infinera's Jagdeep Singh named E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year

Infinera (Nasdaq: INFN) President and CEO Jagdeep Singh has received the 2008 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year® Award for networking and communications in the Northern California program.  According to Ernst & Young, the award recognizes outstanding entrepreneurs who are building and leading dynamic, growing businesses in Northern California.  Mr. Singh was selected by an independent panel of judges, and the award was presented at a gala event at San Francisco’s Fairmont Hotel on June 21, 2008. 

In his acceptance speech, Mr. Singh told the audience of more than 450 guests that he was honored to receive the award and recalled Infinera’s beginnings: “Our goal was to develop a disruptive technology, photonic integration, and use that to change the fundamental economics of optical communications for our customers.  When we started the company, the experts told us it couldn’t be done. We didn’t know if we could do it. But we knew that if we could do it, we could change this industry forever.” Mr. Singh attributed Infinera’s success to the quality of the employee team, which he described as “world-class”, and which has grown to 800 worldwide. He thanked his fellow co-founders, Drew Perkins and David Welch, and added:  “Every one of our employees plays a key role every day in helping us achieve the success we have had so far.”

The Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year program is one of the most comprehensive, thorough, and respected programs of its type in the world, involving several months of study of hundreds of companies and entrepreneurs by a team of Ernst & Young professionals, independent consultants and independent judges. According to Ernst & Young, the program honors entrepreneurs who have demonstrated exceptionality in such areas as innovation, financial performance and personal commitment to their businesses and communities.  The team of judges includes previous winners of the award. This year, Patrick Lo, who won the award in 2006 for his achievements as CEO of leading networking solutions provider NETGEAR^®, served as a judge.

“Pure Entrepreneurial Spirit”

“Our panel carefully considered this year’s nominees, and Jagdeep stood out from the crowd for personifying pure entrepreneurial spirit,” Mr. Lo commented. “He truly defied the odds, leading a team that developed a highly complex product that is first of its kind. Despite technical uncertainties and entrenched competitors, he took Infinera public, made it profitable, and is now beating the competition. We commend Jagdeep for his company’s success, and are pleased to name him this year’s Entrepreneur Of The Year.”

“Ernst & Young is pleased to honor outstanding business leaders such as Jagdeep Singh,” said Rick Fezell, Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year Program Director for the Northern California program.  “Award recipients of the Entrepreneur Of The Year award build leading businesses and contribute a great deal to the communities around them.  Their success helps our area grow stronger.”

Recent Product Awards

In June, Infinera products won a series of significant industry awards. The organizers of trade show NXTcomm08 honored the new Infinera optical line system ILS2 with an EOS Award, while in Japan Interop Tokyo honored the Infinera DTN with a “Best in Show” award. In the cable industry the Infinera DTN received a 4-Diamond rating from industry publication Broadband Gear Report as a  product “ahead of its time.”

Also at NXTcomm08, Mr. Singh was invited to deliver a keynote speech. In his speech, he cited a lack of breakthrough innovation in the telecom and networking industries in recent years and called for a renewed focus on innovation to enable cost reduction and new applications in Internet and telecom infrastructure. 

Sourced From: Equator Communications