SANTA CLARA, Calif., Jan. 9, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Extreme Networks, Inc. (Nasdaq:  EXTR) today announced key executive appointments aimed at providing innovative leadership in the areas of  human resources and corporate culture, customer service and support, and Information Technology (IT).

Gary Garber has been named Extreme Networks vice president of Talent and Culture. A 20 year industry veteran, Garber will oversee the human resources vision and strategies that include team building, talent sourcing, and enhancing a high performance culture. Garber most recently led the HR function for Avaya Government Solutions and previously served as the vice president of Talent Management for Avaya.  Prior to that, he was the vice president of HR for Enterprise Solutions at Nortel Networks, where he also held various human resource and talent strategy roles over 13 year with the company.

Joe Novak has been named Extreme Networks vice president of Customer Service where he is responsible for shaping the customer experience and leading support teams.  Novak joins the company from Allscripts, a provider of electronic health records, where he served as vice president of client support operations. He was responsible for organizational efficiencies, policy, process and client experience improvement programs.  Prior to Allscripts, Novak spent more than a decade at Cisco in the service organization, overseeing its East Coast TAC center in Raleigh, NC as vice president of US/Canada Technical Services Delivery.  Novak has more than 20 years of industry experience in telecommunications and computer networking also having worked at Northern Telecom, NYNEX and Universal Communications. 

Marykay Wells has been named Extreme Networks CIO.  Wells is responsible for the IT strategy and operations spanning the company's global operations.   She brings 25 years of industry experience and most recently served as the CIO at Tekelec for five years, where she was responsible for IT, business transformation, procurement and real estate. Prior to Tekelec, Wells spent 19 years in various positions at Nortel Networks, having held the titles of vice president of Global Applications and Interim CIO.  

"The addition of Gary, Joe, and Marykay add experience and energy to a world-class organization," said Oscar Rodriguez, president and CEO of Extreme Networks.  

"We look forward to their enhancing our already strong employee culture, customer support capabilities, and global IT infrastructure."

About Extreme Networks
Extreme Networks is a technology leader in high-performance Ethernet switching for cloud, data center and mobile networks.  Based in Santa Clara, CA, Extreme Networks has more than 6,000 customers in more than 50 countries.  For more information, visit the company's website at http://www.extremenetworks.com. 

Extreme Networks is a registered trademark of Extreme Networks, Inc. in the United States and other countries. Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters set forth in this press release, including without limitation statements as to sales and sales opportunities are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date. Because such statements deal with future events, they are subject to risks and uncertainties, including network design and actual results of use of the product in different environments. We undertake no obligation to update the forward-looking information in this release. Other important factors which could cause actual results to differ materially are contained in the Company's 10-Qs and 10-Ks which are on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. http://www.sec.gov

SOURCE Extreme Networks, Inc.