Dr. Niel Ransom

Former CTO
Alcatel

Dr. Niel Ransom is the ex-CTO of Alcatel. There he managed an organization encompassing corporate and product strategy, corporate research, R&D investment, M&A strategy, participation in venture funds, patents and intellectual property. Recent M&A activities included the acquisition of TiMetra, Spatial Communications, eDial, PacketVideo, Thirdspace, iMagicTV, Right Vision, Telera, Aravox, WaterCove, and Native Networks. Previously he held various general management roles including managing Alcatel access and metro optical business in North America. He joined Alcatel from BellSouth where he directed an organization responsible for expanding BellSouth’s offerings into PCS wireless, IP services, video entertainment, and advanced intelligent networks. He started his career at Bell Labs where he was a member of and eventually managed an applied research organization that gave birth to a number of highly successful products in data and voice switching including the 5ESS system.

Dr Ransom currently serves on the Board of Directors of Teknovus and of Overture Networks and on the Advisory Board of NetDevices. He has served as a member of the Technological Advisors Council of the U.S. Federal Communication Commission. He is co-author of book, Broadband Access Technologies, published by McGraw-Hill.

He holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Notre Dame and an MBA from the University of Chicago.