Cabletron elects Piyush Patel President, CEO and Chairman

Cabletron System announced that Piyush Patel has been elected President, Chief Executive

Officer and Chairman of the board of directors, effective immediately.






Patel, 43, formerly CEO of YAGO Systems, a closely held company that Cabletron acquired in
1998, succeeds Craig R Benson, 46, who resigned as Chairman, President and CEO. Patel has

led Cabletron's research and development team as Senior Vice President of Worldwide

Engineering. Benson will remain a Cabletron Director.






Benson, who co-founded Cabletron in 1983 and grew the company to $1.4 billion in sales,
said, "I rejoined Cabletron in 1998 to bring focus to the company, positioning us for

continued leadership in the enterprise and service provider markets. Now that we've met

this objective, I believe that it is time for me to step aside and turn the reins over to

someone who can lead the company into the new millennium. Piyush Patel is that person. He

brings demonstrated technology leadership from YAGO, a customer-focus, and a West Coast

entrepreneurial spirit. These qualities are all vital to Cabletron's future success and

growth."






Patel said, "My goal is to expand Cabletron's leadership in the enterprise, and
aggressively expand our efforts in hot new growth markets, including service providers and

the market for converged voice, video, and data networking solutions. I share Craig's

passion for the customer and will continue the growth initiatives we outlined under

Project Ignition. Cabletron has all the ingredients for future success, including an

extremely loyal customer base, talented employees and award-winning technologies. I look

forward to the challenges ahead."






As CEO of YAGO Systems, Patel led one of the industry's most successful and innovative
start-up companies. Under his leadership, YAGO pioneered the field for layer-3 switching,

allowing customers to transitioning from older, software-based routing technology to

hardware-based switching. YAGO was named by Data Communications Magazine as one of the top

25 hot startups, and as Network World's company to watch.






At Cabletron, Patel has been instrumental in shaping the company's strategy for new growth
markets, including the service provider segment. Most notably, Patel was responsible for

the successful development, marketing and sales of the SmartSwitch Router which, according

to the Dell'Oro group, is now number one in Layer 3 LAN switching for ports shipped.






Over the past 20 years, Patel has served in various technical and management roles at
companies including Intel, Sun Microsystems, MIPS Systems, QED and and YAGO Systems. At

these companies, Patel had a key role in strategic marketing and business development,

driving product definition and business partnerships, and successfully bringing to market

numerous microprocessors. He also had a leadership role in the development of key

microprocessors, including Intel's x86 and related chips, and Sun's UltraSpare processors.

Patel earned his Master's degree in Computer Engineering from the University of

Wisconsin-Madison in 1980.