Fran?ois Locoh-Donou has been named F5 Network's President and Chief Executive Officer and a member of F5's Board of Directors, effective April 3, 2017.
Locoh-Donou succeeds current President and CEO, John McAdam, who will remain a Director on F5's Board upon his retirement on April 3, 2017. Since McAdam joined in 2000, he has led F5 to $2.0 billion in annual revenue, with 49 of the Fortune 50 as customers, and numerous industry and community awards.
"I am honored to take on the CEO role at F5," said Locoh-Donou. "I have admired John's stewardship of the company's values and vision and I bring a shared commitment to grow F5's people, partnerships, product and services portfolio, in response to the increasing cloud and security demands of F5's customers."
Locoh-Donou currently serves as Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Ciena, a network strategy and technology company. He previously held successive leadership positions at Ciena, including Senior Vice President, Global Products Group; Vice President and General Manager, EMEA; Vice President, International Sales; and Vice President, Marketing. Prior to Ciena, Locoh-Donou held research and development roles with Photonetics, a French opto-electronics company.
"What attracted us from the beginning of the CEO selection process was Fran?ois' multidisciplinary and multinational experience, ranging from product development to operations to sales," said McAdam. "His track record at Ciena demonstrates he possesses the foresight and leadership to execute major market transitions, without compromising the best of a company's technical heritage or strong organisational culture."
Locoh-Donou also serves on the advisory board of Jhpiego, a non-profit global health affiliate of Johns Hopkins University dedicated to providing high-quality healthcare for women and their families in developing countries. He holds engineering degrees from ?cole Centrale de Marseille and T?l?com ParisTech in France and a M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
"At a time when F5 is expanding its partnerships and products into cloud and security markets, Fran?ois brings a renewed sense of purpose to F5's original vision: applications without constraints," said Al Higginson, Chairman of F5's Board of Directors. "On behalf of the Board, we thank John for his 16 years at the helm of F5. The company's success is due in such a large part to his unflagging attention to the needs of F5's employees, customers and shareholders. John turns F5 over to Fran?ois with considerable momentum already in motion from a return to product revenue growth and a healthy pipeline of new products."
