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Surya Panditi is chairman of Avici Systems

Ela Dutt
India Abroad Correspondent in Washington

Just a few days after Avici Systems, a North Billerica, Massachusetts-based provider of scalable core routing solutions, announced that its CEO Surya Panditi was being made chairman of the company, a class action lawsuit has been filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, on behalf of all persons who purchased the common stock of Avici Systems Inc between July 28, 2000 and April 20, 2001.

The lawsuit which also names Morgan Stanley & Co, and Panditi, and which alleges that the company's IPO prospectus did not contain all the information, is filed by The Law Offices of Marc S Henzel, Philadelphia, PA.

It was filed May 25, just 3 days after Avici's announcement May 22, that its annual shareholders meeting that its board of directors has elected co-chairman and chief executive officer, Surya Panditi, to the position of chairman recognising his leadership role in taking the company public.

The announcement also said that Steve Kaufman, president and chief operating officer, to the position of president and chief executive officer. Both promotions are effective July 1, 2001.

Jim Swartz, co-chairman, will remain on the board of directors. Avici Systems also announced that Sanjiv Ahuja, CEO of Comstellar Technologies, has agreed to join Avici's board. Ahuja's nomination is expected to be confirmed at the company's next board of directors meeting.

"These promotions acknowledge the great job done by both Surya and Steve in managing Avici's transition from a private to a public company," said Swartz.

"It has been tremendously exciting to have led the board from Avici's formation to its current position as a market leader in backbone routers. Now is the time to turn over the reins to operating management."

"These changes establish a management structure and define responsibilities that will enable Avici to aggressively pursue the tremendous market opportunity available to it and to execute effectively on the strategic and operating challenges that lie ahead."

In his role as chairman, Surya will focus on longer-term company strategy as well as building and creating relationships with new and existing customers and business partners. In his role as president and CEO, Steve will have complete operating responsibility and focus on the execution of the business plan," Swartz added.

Panditi joined Avici in June 1997 as president and CEO and led the company's growth and development as it made its transition to a public company in July 2000.

He has been co-chairman since January 2001.

Prior to Avici, Panditi was vice-president and general manager of the LAN infrastructure business unit at US Robotics.

Previous to US Robotics, his experience includes many years at Intel, Ungermann-Bass and Telco Systems, where he was vice-president and general manager of the Magnalink Communications Division.

Ahuja is the chief executive officer of Comstellar Technologies, and a founding member of the company.

Before starting Comstellar, Ahuja was president and chief operating officer of Telcordia Technologies (formerly "Bellcore" or Bell Communications Research).

Previously, he held increasingly responsible positions at IBM in various areas of software development, design and marketing. Among other accomplishments, he directed IBM's entry into the distributed systems management and telecommunications management marketplaces.

He is a former or present member of the board of directors for numerous companies, including Telcordia, SAIC, Computervision, Danet, Tecsi, and Network Appliance.

He is a founding member of the editorial advisory board of America's Network magazine.

Avici Systems is a developer of next-generation Internet backbone platforms that optimise and drive creation of all-optical "speed-of-light" networks.

Designed to bring packet intelligence to the core of optical networks, Avici claims its technologies offer superior scalability, resiliency and port density enabling just-in-time bandwidth provisioning, high reliability and the quality of service needed for carriers and ISPs to support mission-critical applications of the future.

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