Senior Advisor, Product and Technical Marketing, Ciena; Certification Committee Co-Chair, MEF

John Hawkins is Senior Advisor for Product and Technical Marketing at Ciena where he supports the company’s Packet Networking product line. Joining Ciena in 2009, John has held positions in business development and product management functions. He also led the business development and promotion of Ciena’s E-Suite family of packet switch modules. John is active in networking industry conferences and standards development, and currently serves as co-chair of the MEF’s Certification Committee.

Prior to joining Ciena, John was with Nortel where he was responsible for Carrier Ethernet product management. His projects included a number of innovative technology building blocks within Nortel’s Optical Ethernet portfolio. John began his career at GE as an IC designer, and later product manager in the Aerospace Division. 

With over 25 years of technical experience, John is a frequent contributor to the Metro Ethernet Forum and sought-after industry speaker. John holds a BSEE from North Carolina State, an MS in Telecommunications from Southern Methodist University, as well as an MBA from Duke University.