Harshman Tunes In as New Harmonic CEO

Harmonic Inc. has a new man in the head office, announcing that Patrick Harshman has been appointed president and CEO as of Thursday.

Formerly Harmonic's executive vice president in charge of operations, Harshman succeeds Anthony Ley, who is retiring after 18 years at the helm of the Sunnyvale, Calif.-company.

A supplier of broadband-video and optical-networking technology, Harmonic is particularly active in the cable space providing encoding and decoding equipment, as well as optical-network systems.

Harshman joined the company in 1993 and has held a string of positions in marketing, international sales and research and development.

"The board's extensive search confirmed my belief that Patrick is an outstanding leader with the right mixture of technical talent, business acumen and strategic vision to lead Harmonic successfully into the future," said Ley, who will continue as nonexecutive chairman of the board.