Harmonic has hired former Cisco sales executives Frank Montalto and Spencer Hodson.
Montalto is now Harmonic’s regional vice president for North American cable and telco while Hodson joined the company as vice president of sales strategy, operations, and enablement.
Cisco and Harmonic compete against each other across various product lines, including the cable industry’s converged cable access platform (CCAP) and edge QAM sectors. Earlier this year, Cisco said it was cutting about 4,000 jobs, or about 5 percent of its work force.
Montalto joined Harmonic following a 15-year tenure at Cisco, where he worked first in the enterprise market and then in the service provider industry. Most recently, Montalto served as director of sales operations at Cisco for the North American MSO segment.
Hodson most recently served as director of sales strategy and operations for Cisco’s worldwide information security business. He spent more than 15 years with the company, with most of that time in the service provider business. Prior to his tenure at Cisco, Hodson served in product marketing and sales roles at Bell Canada and AT&T, respectively.
“Both Spencer and Frank have industry experience that is essential for implementing our strategy for driving additional revenue opportunities within the broadcast, cable, satellite, telco, and media markets,” said George Stromeyer, senior vice president, worldwide sales at Harmonic. “Frank has demonstrated the ability to generate creative strategies for the successful and significant scaling of businesses, and he is known as a highly effective leader in driving that growth. Spencer brings energy, critical thinking, and a breadth of business understanding to his role at Harmonic. He will be a strong partner and advocate for the worldwide sales organization as we embark on a new growth phase.”
