Management Team

William (Bill) Simmelink, CEO

Bill is an industry veteran with experience in executive management, sales, marketing and business development in the telecommunications industry. Prior to joining Fiberzone as CEO, he served as President of Coppergate Communications, a semiconductor networking company acquired by Sigma Designs. Previously Bill was President and General Manager of the Texas Instruments’ Voice-over-IP business unit. Before Texas Instruments, Bill served as Vice President Business Development at Telogy Networks, a pioneer in Voice-over-IP software, acquired by Texas Instruments in 1999. Bill began his career at AT&T and was an Assistant Vice President at Hughes Network Systems. Bill has extensive international experience and a proven track record of growing new businesses and companies. He received a B.Sc. degree in Mathematics from Purdue University.

Richard (Ricky) Burn, WW VP Sales and Marketing

Richard leads Fiberzone’s global sales organization and is responsible for the strategy and execution of field sales, channel partners and technical sales teams. Richard brings over 28 years of experience in product marketing and sales. He joins Fiberzone Networks from Sanmina Corporation where he held a position as Vice-President of Business Development. Prior to Sanmina, he held a number of leadership positions in sales and marketing at Texas Instruments. With a very strong customer focus, Richard has lead and delivered over $1B in technology solutions around the globe. Richard holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Puerto Rico and a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Texas.

Jim Lang, VP Sales Americas

Jim Lang brings over 25 years of sales and business development leadership to FiberZone via several telecom equipment companies. Before joining FiberZone Networks, Jim was the Vice President of Global Sales and Customer Service at Aktino. Prior to Aktino, Jim was with Meriton Networks (Mahi Networks), where he held the positions of Vice President of Global Sales Development and Vice President of North American Sales. Before joining Mahi, Jim was with Transmode Systems based in Stockholm, Sweden where he was North American Vice President Sales & Business Development. Previously, Jim was Vice President Sales World Wide Sales with Astral Point Communications, acquired by Alcatel, and Vice President North American Sales for Pirelli Optical Systems and played a key role in its acquisition by Cisco. Jim holds a B.Sc. in Business Administration and B.A. in Psychology from Metropolitan State University.

Chani Shanweter

Chani has over 20 years of experience in financial management in fields such as biotech, telecommunications, and business intelligence. Prior to joining FiberZone, Chani worked at the telecom company Tdsoft as Controller and Director of International Finance and Operations. In addition, Chani established and operated five international subsidiaries, managed several investment rounds, prepared TdSoft for an IPO and managed a reverse merger with VocalTech (NASDAQ: VOCL). Chani previously served as Director of Finance at Business Events, a business intelligence company, where she established the accounting, reporting controlling, and operating systems. She led private investment funding through venture capital and venture lending. Chani managed her own accounting firm for about 10 years across a wide variety of industries. She currently serves on the board of ITGI Medical (TASE: ITGI). Chani holds BA degrees in Accounting and Social Science from Bar Ilan University (Israel) and is a Certified Public Accountant and a qualified arbitrator.

Hai Pedut, VP Research & Development

Hai brings more than 24 years of experience developing challenging, multi-disciplinary electro optical systems. Before joining Fiberzone, Hai led both professional teams and program managers at KLA-Tencor US developing Scatterometry Critical Dimension metrology systems in the Semiconductors market. Previously at Rafael, Hai led the development of sophisticated systems, including missile seekers, thermal imaging systems, and Electro Optical algorithm product. Hai holds a B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering, Cum Laude from the Technion and an MBA from Haifa University (Israel).

Omer Regev, VP Operations

Omer has more than 25 years of experience in hi-tech manufacturing, engineering, and outsourcing management. Before joining FiberZone, Omer served as VP of Operations at OREX, a Kodak company, where he was responsible for production, procurement, logistics, manufacturing, engineering, IT, sales administration and QA. He previously served as VP of Operations at Lumenis, formerly ESC Medical Systems, and VP Operations at IDC a provider of automation systems. Prior to that he held a number of senior management positions at Kulicke & Soffa and at Elbit. Omer holds a B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering and an MBA, both from the Technion.

Emi Scliar, VP Human Resources

Emi has 22 years of experience in Human Resources and in career, organizational and management consulting. She has spent over 11 years managing Human Resources of high-tech companies, from start-ups to multinational corporations. Prior to joining Fiberzone, Emi was VP of HR at Radlan, and after working on the company's 2003 acquisition by Marvell Semiconductors, served as Director of HR at Marvell. Emi has vast experience in recruiting, compensation and benefits, training, management coaching, crises resolving, and internal organization consulting. Emi holds a BA in behavioral sciences from Ben Gurion University (Israel) and an MA in sociology from Tel Aviv University.