Technology >> CEO Interviews >> October 19, 2000
LOUISE BELL is Chief Financial Officer and Vice President of
Administration & HR at Sphera Optical Networks, Inc. Ms. Bell, a former
investment banker, joined Sphera in April 2000. Prior to joining the
company, Ms. Bell had been a Managing Director in the Leveraged Finance
Group of CIBC World Markets Corp. and was Head of Project Finance. Ms.
Bell has specialized in international financing transactions with a
particular emphasis on project finance for telecommunications companies.
She was responsible for structuring the financing for the Atlantic
Crossing, Pacific Crossing and Mid-Atlantic Crossing undersea cable
systems for Global Crossing and more recently has been involved in
arranging financing for numerous start-up CLECs. Ms. Bell's career in
investment banking spans 15 years, six of which were spent in the London
project finance market with CIBC World Markets Corp. as well as the
long-term Credit Bank of Japan. Profile
HAROLD GROSSNICKLE joined Sphera Optical Networks, Inc. as its Chairman
and CEO in February 2000. Mr. Grossnickle's 30 year career in the
telecommunications industry began at AT&T where he was responsible for
network operations, network engineering, product development/management
and sales. He has held senior executive positions at AT&T as Vice
President of a strategic business unit and he was the President of a
Global Crossing strategic business unit. While at Global Crossing, Mr.
Grossnickle established a worldwide operations and maintenance
organization, Global Crossing Network Center, Ltd. (GCNC), to support
the sub-sea and terrestrial networks comprising Global Crossing's end-
to-end network. GCNC included a Customer Care and Billing Operations
organization headquartered in Bermuda and consisted of a staff of 600
people at GCNC and its UK subsidiary, Global Crossing Network Center
(UK), Ltd. Mr. Grossnickle earned a Bachelor of Science degree in
Industrial Engineering at Iowa State University and a Master of Business
Administration degree at the University of Missouri. Profile
Networks?
Mr. Grossnickle: The company was founded in 1999 by Peter Tierney. Peter
had a background in building
