Claude Mongeau and John David Watson Appointed to Nortel Board of Directors
Toronto (ots/PRNewswire)
Nortel(x) Networks Corporation (NYSE/TSX: NT) announced the appointment of Claude Mongeau and John David Watson to the Company's board of directors today at its Annual Shareholders Meeting in Toronto.
Previously serving directors re-elected to the board today are Jalynn Hamilton Bennett, Dr. Manfred Bischoff, The Hon. James Baxter Hunt Jr., John Alan MacNaughton, The Hon. John Paul Manley, Richard David McCormick, Harry Jonathan Pearce, and Mike Svetozar Zafirovski. Harry J. Pearce remains chairman of the board.
The Company acknowledges the years of contribution and service to Nortel by outgoing board directors Robert Ellis Brown, John Edward Cleghorn , Robert Alexander Ingram and Ronald Walter Osborne who did not stand for re-election at the annual meeting.
"Nortel and its shareholders owe Robert Brown, John Cleghorn, Robert Ingram and Ronald Osborne a great deal of gratitude for their dedication in striving to rebuild one of the industry's greatest companies," said Mike Zafirovski, Nortel president and CEO. "We welcome the addition of directors Claude Mongeau and John Watson who, together with the rest of our board and my energized executive team, give me complete confidence in our ability to position Nortel for profitability and long-term growth."
The directors elected to the board of directors are also directors of Nortel Networks Limited and will hold their position until the earliest of the close of the next annual meeting of shareholders, the date he or she ceases to be a director by operation of law, or the date he or she resigns. The current Nortel board of directors has a total of 10 directors.
Claude Mongeau
Claude Mongeau has been the executive vice-president and chief financial officer of Canadian National Railway Company, a North American railway company, since October 2000. Prior to that appointment, Mr. Mongeau was senior vice-president and chief financial officer from October 1999. Mr . Mongeau is also chairman of the Audit and a member of the Governance Committees of SNCLavalin Group Inc. He is also a director of the Pointe-à- Callière Museum and of Forces Avenir. Mr. Mongeau was also a director of 360networks Corporation (or 360networks).
John D. Watson
John D. Watson has been executive vice-president and chief financial officer of EnCana Corporation (or EnCana), an Alberta, Canada based oil and gas exploration and production company since its formation in 2002 and until his retirement on February 28, 2006. Prior to that appointment, Mr. Watson was vice-president finance and chief financial officer of Alberta Energy Company Ltd., a predecessor company to EnCana since 1987. Overall, he has been with EnCana for 30 years. He is also a member of the Audit Committee of the Province of Alberta, chair of the Calgary Police Commission and a director of UTS Energy Corporation. In 2005, he was granted the designation of ICD.D by the Institute of Corporate Directors.
About Nortel
Nortel is a recognized leader in delivering communications capabilities that enhance the human experience, ignite and power global commerce, and secure and protect the world's most critical information. Our next- generation technologies, for both service providers and enterprises, span access and core networks, support multimedia and business-critical applications, and help eliminate today's barriers to efficiency, speed and performance by simplifying networks and connecting people with information. Nortel does business in more than 150 countries. For more information, visit Nortel on the Web at www.nortel.com. For the latest Nortel news, visit www.nortel.com/news.
Certain statements in this press release may contain words such as " could", "expects", "may", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates ", "targets", "envisions", "seeks" and other similar language and are considered forward-looking statements or information under applicable securities legislation. These statements are based on Nortel's current expectations, estimates, forecasts and projections about the operating environment, economies and markets in which Nortel operates. These statements are subject to important assumptions, risks and uncertainties, which are difficult to predict and the actual outcome may be materially different. Further, actual results or events could differ materially from those contemplated in forward- looking statements as a result of the following (i) risks and uncertainties relating to Nortel's restatements and related matters including: Nortel's most recent restatement and two previous restatements of its financial statements and related events; the negative impact on Nortel and NNL of their most recent restatement and delay in filing their financial statements and related periodic reports; legal judgments, fines, penalties or settlements, or any substantial regulatory fines or other penalties or sanctions, related to the ongoing regulatory and criminal investigations of Nortel in the U.S. and Canada; any significant pending civil litigation actions not encompassed by Nortel's proposed class action settlement; any substantial cash payment and /or significant dilution of Nortel's existing equity positions resulting from the finalization and approval of its proposed class action settlement, or if such proposed class action settlement is not finalized, any larger settlements or awards of damages in respect of such class actions; any unsuccessful remediation of Nortel's material weaknesses in internal control over financial reporting resulting in an inability to report Nortel's results of operations and financial condition accurately and in a timely manner; the time required to implement Nortel's remedial measures; Nortel's inability to access, in its current form, its shelf registration filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and Nortel's below investment grade credit rating and any further adverse effect on its credit rating due to Nortel's restatements of its financial statements; any adverse affect on Nortel's business and market price of its publicly traded securities arising from continuing negative publicity related to Nortel's restatements; Nortel's potential inability to attract or retain the personnel necessary to achieve its business objectives; any breach by Nortel of the continued listing requirements of the NYSE or TSX causing the NYSE and/or the TSX to commence suspension or delisting procedures; (ii) risks and uncertainties relating to Nortel's business including: yearly and quarterly fluctuations of Nortel's operating results; reduced demand and pricing pressures for its products due to global economic conditions, significant competition, competitive pricing practice, cautious capital spending by customers, increased industry consolidation, rapidly changing technologies, evolving industry standards, frequent new product introductions and short product life cycles, and other trends and industry characteristics affecting the telecommunications industry; the sufficiency of recently announced restructuring actions, including the potential for higher actual costs to be incurred in connection with these restructuring actions compared to the estimated costs of such actions and the ability to achieve the targeted cost savings and reductions of Nortel's unfunded pension liability deficit; any material and adverse affects on Nortel's performance if its expectations regarding market demand for particular products prove to be wrong or because of certain barriers in its efforts to expand internationally; any reduction in Nortel's operating results and any related volatility in the market price of its publicly traded securities arising from any decline in its gross margin, or fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates; any negative developments associated with Nortel's supply contract and contract manufacturing agreements including as a result of using a sole supplier for key optical networking solutions components, and any defects or errors in Nortel's current or planned products; any negative impact to Nortel of its failure to achieve its business transformation objectives; additional valuation allowances for all or a portion of its deferred tax assets; Nortel's failure to protect its intellectual property rights, or any adverse judgments or settlements arising out of disputes regarding intellectual property; changes in regulation of the Internet and/or other aspects of the industry; Nortel's failure to successfully operate or integrate its strategic acquisitions, or failure to consummate or succeed with its strategic alliances; any negative effect of Nortel's failure to evolve adequately its financial and managerial control and reporting systems and processes, manage and grow its business, or create an effective risk management strategy; and (iii) risks and uncertainties relating to Nortel's liquidity, financing arrangements and capital including: the impact of Nortel's most recent restatement and two previous restatements of its financial statements; any inability of Nortel to manage cash flow fluctuations to fund working capital requirements or achieve its business objectives in a timely manner or obtain additional sources of funding; high levels of debt, limitations on Nortel capitalizing on business opportunities because of credit facility covenants, or on obtaining additional secured debt pursuant to the provisions of indentures governing certain of Nortel's public debt issues and the provisions of its credit facilities; any increase of restricted cash requirements for Nortel if it is unable to secure alternative support for obligations arising from certain normal course business activities, or any inability of Nortel's subsidiaries to provide it with sufficient funding; any negative effect to Nortel of the need to make larger defined benefit plans contributions in the future or exposure to customer credit risks or inability of customers to fulfill payment obligations under customer financing arrangements; any negative impact on Nortel's ability to make future acquisitions, raise capital, issue debt and retain employees arising from stock price volatility and further declines in the market price of Nortel's publicly traded securities, or any future share consolidation resulting in a lower total market capitalization or adverse effect on the liquidity of Nortel's common shares. For additional information with respect to certain of these and other factors, see Nortel's Annual Report on Form10- K/A, Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q and other securities filings with the SEC. Unless otherwise required by applicable securities laws, Nortel disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
(x)Nortel, the Nortel logo and the Globemark are trademarks of Nortel Networks.
Contact:
For further information: Media: Jay Barta, (+972)-685-2381,
jbarta@nortel.com; Investors: +1(888)-901-7286, +1-(905)-863-6049,
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