Keysight Technologies Announces Retirement of Mike Gasparian; Satish Dhanasekaran Named Communications Solutions Group President, Marie Hattar Named Chief Marketing Officer

Keysight Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:KEYS) today announced that effective immediately, Satish Dhanasekaran will succeed Mike Gasparian as president of the Communications Solutions Group. Gasparian, who has chosen to retire, will remain as an advisor through the end of the year to assist with the transition. Keysight also announced the addition of Marie Hattar to its executive team as Chief Marketing Officer (CMO).

Dhanasekaran, who is currently vice president and general manager of the Wireless Devices and Operators solution unit within the Communications Solutions Group, has held a variety of leadership roles throughout his 21 years in the communications ecosystem. He has managed solution conception, development and go-to-market strategies of design and test solutions for the wireless industry, and has sponsored the company’s participation in standards bodies, collaborations and consortia that define wireless technology innovation.

He has held a variety of leadership roles at Agilent Technologies and Keysight, initially joining the company in 2006 in the Americas sales organization, leading customer engagements and the Application Engineering Organization. In 2014, as the Microwave and Communications Division marketing manager, Dhanasekaran created and executed go-to-market strategies for products and modular solutions. In 2015, Dhanasekaran was named general manager of the Mobile Broadband Organization and created platforms that now give Keysight a competitive advantage in 5G design and test. He started his career with Motorola designing and leading the development of first-generation smart phone devices.

“I am pleased to announce that Satish Dhanasekaran will lead Keysight’s Communications Solutions Group,” said Ron Nersesian, Keysight’s president and chief executive officer. “Satish has driven many strategic collaborations with our top market-making customers around the globe, which enabled them to gain time-to-market advantages. Satish is an extremely customer focused, high energy and results-oriented leader.”

“I also thank Mike Gasparian for the decades of results he has delivered for Keysight, Agilent and Hewlett-Packard. Most recently, in addition to leading Keysight’s Communications Solutions Group, Mike has led the company’s marketing function, including naming and launching Keysight as an independent public company. I wish Mike the very best in his future,” added Nersesian.

Before being named Keysight’s Chief Marketing Officer, Hattar held that position for Ixia, which was recently acquired by Keysight.

“Ixia’s fresh, innovative approach to marketing is exactly the direction we want to take Keysight,” added Nersesian. “Marie Hattar led the transformation of marketing at Ixia, and we are delighted that she has agreed to be Keysight’s first CMO. Marie is a proven marketing strategist, and her experience in fast-moving technology companies make her the ideal leader to drive our brand and position us for the future. As we have transformed our company for growth, it’s important that customers understand our broadened value.”

Completing the acquisition of Ixia to accelerate Keysight’s strategies for growth, and creating the CMO role, marks an inflection point for the company. These growth strategies include expanding Keysight’s software solutions and end-to-end software-centric test offerings to better serve evolving communications development lifecycles, while strengthening Ixia’s advancing leadership position in the rapidly-growing visibility and security markets.

“Innovating is harder than ever. Next-generation technologies keep getting more complex, yet development lifecycles keep shrinking,” said Marie Hattar. “Being first is important, but being first and best is everything. Keysight’s end-to-end test systems will help leaders in every market to innovate faster, while Ixia’s high performing network visibility products will ensure that they operate more efficiently. I’m thrilled to take on this vital role as Keysight’s CMO, a company that anticipates new market trends and continuously reinvents itself to meet the customer requirements created by those trends.”

Hattar has more than 20 years of marketing leadership experience spanning the security, routing, switching, telecom and mobility markets. Before becoming CMO of Ixia, she held the same position at Check Point Software Technologies, where she reestablished the company as the leading end-to-end security vendor. Prior to that, she was vice president at Cisco, where she led the company’s enterprise networking and security portfolio and helped drive the company’s leadership in networking. Prior to Cisco, she held senior marketing positions at Nortel Networks, Alteon WebSystems and Shasta Networks.

About Keysight Technologies

Keysight Technologies is a leading technology company that helps its engineering, enterprise and service provider customers optimize networks and bring electronic products to market faster and at a lower cost. Keysight’s solutions go where the electronic signal goes, from design simulation, to prototype validation, to manufacturing test, to optimization in networks and cloud environments. Customers span the worldwide communications ecosystem, aerospace and defense, automotive, energy, semiconductor and general electronics end markets. Keysight generated revenues of $2.9B in fiscal year 2016. In April 2017, Keysight acquired Ixia, a leader in network test, visibility, and security. More information is available at www.keysight.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking statements as defined in the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and is subject to the safe harbors created therein. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could significantly affect the expected results and are based on certain key assumptions. The forward-looking statements contained herein include, but are not limited to, information and future guidance on the company’s goals, priorities, growth opportunities, and personnel that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause Keysight’s results to differ materially from management’s current expectations. The words “plan,” “expect,” “intend,” “will,” “should,” and similar expressions, as they relate to the company, are intended to identify forward-looking statements.

In addition to the risks above, other risks that Keysight faces include those detailed in Keysight’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended Oct. 31, 2016, and Keysight’s quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the period ended Jan. 31, 2017.

Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs and assumptions of Keysight’s management and on currently available information. Keysight undertakes no responsibility to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement.

Additional information about Keysight Technologies is available in the newsroom at www.keysight.com/go/news and on Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube.

Source: IR-KEYS