Management Team

John Everard has worked for over 30 years in the networking industry before founding Newport Networks Limited. in September 2000. Prior to Newport Networks, he held senior positions for over 10 years with Newbridge Networks Corporation, initially establishing Newbridge Information Systems before becoming Vice President and General Manager - Europe, Middle East and Africa for Newbridge Networks Corporation.

Prior to his time at Newbridge Networks, John was Chairman of Telspec Ltd., a telecommunications equipment supplier. This followed a number of years at Mitel Corporation where he started as Director of Engineering for Mitel Telecom Ltd., before becoming Vice President and General Manager - Europe, Middle East and Africa for Mitel Corporation.

Much of his earlier engineering experience was gained at the British Telecommunications Research Department and at Bell Northern Research in Ottawa, Canada. John has a B.Sc. Honours degree in Electrical & Electronic Engineering from the City University and an M.Sc. degree in Telecommunication Systems Design from the University of Essex.

John Ackroyd is a Chartered Accountant. After graduating from Leeds University with a degree in Economics, he joined KPMG in South Wales where he qualified as a chartered accountant, becoming a partner in 1985. He was Head of Audit and Owner Managed Business for KPMG in Wales when he resigned in 1997 to set up his own consultancy business. He has served as part time CFO since the formation of the Company and assumed a full time position in March 2004.

Laurence Dixon has more than 25 years of communication industry experience in engineering. Most recently he was chief engineer in Vodafone's UK Wireless Internet Group. Prior to this, he was with Newbridge Networks Ltd. where he was one of the founding members of the UK R&D department. During his 10 years with Newbridge, Laurence held the roles of hardware manager, software manager, DSP manager, and Director of Switched Services Developments. Before that, he held engineering positions with Marconi, Decca Radar and Standard Telephones & Cables Ltd. Laurence holds a B.Sc. Honours degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Leeds University and is an MIEE and CEng.

Mark joined Newport Networks in 2005 bringing more than 15 years experience in the global communications industry, he is responsible for global channel partners, sales for EMEA and the Americas as well as marketing. He has previously held senior sales and marketing positions at CoSine Communications, Lucent and Ascend Communications. He has worked with major carriers and equipment vendors and brings a wealth of experience in bringing new products and technologies to market. Mark holds a B.Sc. Honours degree from De Montfort University.

Michael joined Newport Networks in 2005 and is based in Beijing. He leads the sales, channel partners and product teams and is responsible for the business growth in the Asia Pacific region. He previously spent seven years at Nortel Networks, where he held several senior positions in general management, sales and marketing, business development and product management, and acquired extensive management experience.  Before that, he worked for Newbridge Networks, where he gained valuable experience in R&D, application engineering, system engineering and marketing.

Michael obtained his education from Tsinghua University in China, and for two years, he worked on various research and academic projects. He holds a Masters of Applied Science degree from Simon Fraser University Vancouver, Canada.

Belal joined Newport Networks as a Product Manager in 2004 bringing with him 7 years of VoIP and telecommunications knowledge and experience from his previous position at Nortel where he held a management role within the Voice Gateway R&D Group. Belal was selected and successfully completed Nortel’s Fast track Business Leadership program. Prior to Nortel, Belal worked as a software engineer for Microspot. Belal holds a BSc Honours degree in Computer Science from Newcastle University.