Wireless and telecommunications industry veteran Dr. Rajiv Laroia comes aboard Sonus Network as SVP and CTO. In his new role, Dr. Laroia will lead the team and also be responsible for managing not only the internal development of Sonus' global technology, but also for partnership efforts for existing and new products. As far as new areas of development are concerned, Dr. Laroia will advise the CEO and the Board of Directors.

Dr. Laroia graduated in 1985 from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi in electrical engineering and received his Master's degree and PhD from the University of Maryland, College Park in 1989 and 1992 respectively. He has over 100 issued patents with over 200 pending and has been the recipient of many industry awards. In 2006, Dr. Laroia was inducted to the Innovations Hall of Fame, University of Maryland, College Park and received the IIT Delhi Distinguished Alumni Award in 2007. He is a fellow of the IEEE.

He is credited with the founding of Flarion Technologies in 2000 that was later taken over by Qualcomm (News - Alert), where he served as Senior Vice President, focusing on advanced technology research. His diverse technology background in wireless and communications networks and related fields will enhance his instinct for the trends in communications and networking.

In a press release, Ray Dolan, President and CEO of Sonus Networks (News - Alert) said, "I am thrilled to welcome Rajiv to Sonus. He is a brilliant technologist and leader of people, and has a terrific instinct for the trends in communications and networking. I look forward to his help in defining our future technology roadmap and accelerating our development in all key areas of our current product roadmap."

Commenting on his appointment, Dr. Laroia said, "This is an exciting opportunity for me. Sonus has successfully led the transformation of large carrier networks to IP, and has established visible traction in the Session Border control space as part of that transformation.”

Dr. Laroia added that the recent launch of the ConnexIP Platform for IP-to-IP session management provided an excellent basis for innovation and as wireless and broadband networks truly converge, this would be an exciting space for solving real world business problems. He praised the excellent team, strong customer relationships and solid balance sheet that Sonus had and said that they provided the required footing to innovate and address what customers expected from a market leader.