Bill has 30 years of experience in the communications industry and will be a great addition to the Opnext board, stated Harry Bosco, chairman of Opnext’s board of directors. His understanding of networks and their associated technologies will be extremely valuable in helping to guide Opnext’s future.
Before his current position, Smith was executive vice-president of shared services at AT&T, in charge of mass market and enterprise operations, corporate real estate, procurement, regional wireline planning, and business planning and integration.
Smith started his career with the former BellSouth Corp. (BellSouth) in 1979, where he held numerous positions in technology, operations, marketing and public policy. He was engaged in BellSouth’s advanced technology efforts and was responsible for the BellSouth’s DSL, Internet and wholesale business units. Most recently, he served as chief technology officer for BellSouth, where he was responsible for setting the overall technology direction for BellSouth’s core infrastructure. In that position, he was responsible for network and operations technology, Internet Protocol applications, new strategy, and BellSouth Entertainment, LLC.
Smith graduated with honors from the North Carolina State University at Raleigh in 1979, where he now serves on the board of advisors for the graduate school. He is the ex-chairman of the board of the Make a Wish Foundation of Georgia and Alabama and has served on numerous other non-profit boards.
