I think our North American Tier 1 partner is Arista Networks (ANET; a $100B company). Their competition is Cisco.

Therese Lan Ende is on our BOD. She is head of purchasing at Arista. It makes sense that if Arista wanted to make a major move with POET, they would like a BOD seat to make sure that POET can cross the chasm from pilot projects to mass manufacturing.  

I know VCs and large investors often want a board seat in the target company. I'm guessing technology partners may do the same at times.

I just noticed her middle name: "Lan." She was destined to work in networking :)

 From the POET website:

Theresa Lan Ende – Director

Therese Lan Ende was first appointed as an advisor to the Company’s Board of Directors in June 2022 and was elected as a director at the Annual General Meeting held on October 14, 2022.

Ms. Lan Ende currently serves as Chief Procurement Director of Arista Networks. Before being named Chief Procurement Officer, she served for 10 years as Senior Director of Global Supply Chain Management. Prior to Arista Networks, she was the Vice President of Supply Chain Operations at JDSU Optical Division. During her tenure at Force10 Networks, she served as Director of Materials. At Cisco Systems and ROLM Telecommunications, a Siemens Company, Ms. LanEnde held various program management and planning management positions over a 20-year period.

In 2019, she was honored as one of the “Top 100 Women of Influence” by Silicon Valley Business Journal.