Bernd Hesse

Bernd Hesse is an established expert in the international telecommunications market with over 30 years of experience in the optical carrier Ethernet and access markets. He is currently Vice President Global Business Development with DZS, focused on international business development / partnerships and thought leadership while representing the company in the Broadband Forum (BBF). Before joining DZS, Bernd was Sen. Director Standards Marketing at Calix representing the company at the Broadband Forum. He worked with the Calix international team to increase the visibility of Calix in the European Market space. Bernd serves on the BBF Board of Directors, which appointed him as Chief Marketing Officer and Marketing and BASe Chair. In addition to instituting the Marketing Councils, he successfully established the BASe (Broadband Acceleration Seminar events) Program. He has founded and chaired several organizations, including: NGPON2 Forum, WDM PON Forum, Cloud Access Forum (CAF), Virtual Access Forum (VAF) and G.FAST Forum, which he subsequently merged with BBF to form their Marketing Councils. Before, he held multiple senior-level product marketing and management positions within the industry, most recently serving as head of engagement practices for access and transport within the office of the CTO at Ericsson. Prior to Ericsson, he led all international activities for Novera Optics and spearheaded the introduction of EPON and transceiver chips for Centillium Communications.