Rick Thompson

Rick Thompson brings 14 years of industry experience from leading technology start-ups, incumbent networking and communications companies, and technology market research firms. Most recently, Rick was senior analyst at Heavy Reading, the market research arm of Light Reading, the dominant online media company in the telecommunications market. CMP bought Light Reading in 2005. Prior to Heavy Reading, Rick was a principal at PointEast Research, where he led market analysis and strategic consulting across a wide range of network communications market segments.

Rick previously served as the vice president of marketing at PanGo Networks, a wireless software company, and as director of product management and marketing at Sycamore Networks Inc. At Sycamore, he defined the product strategy and executed the launch of the industry's first intelligent optical switching platform. Under his leadership, Sycamore deployed several of the world's largest intelligent optical network infrastructures for global wired and wireless service providers. Prior to joining Sycamore, Rick held similar product management positions with Packet Engines, a pioneer of Gigabit Ethernet switching that was later acquired by Alcatel, and FORE Systems, a leader in ATM networking that was later acquired by Marconi and, subsequently, Ericsson. Mr. Thompson earned a bachelor's degree in industrial engineering from the University of Pittsburgh.