Bill Noll Joins Actiontec as Executive VP of Technology

Actiontec Electronics today announced the appointment of Bill Noll as Executive Vice President of Technology, a new position with strategic and engineering responsibilities for the company’s rapidly expanding line of IPTV-capable gateways, routers and other customer premises equipment. Noll’s background spans over two decades with Westell Technologies, Nortel, Bell Northern Research and Bell Canada, including the last 10 years as Westell’s Chief Technology Officer and Senior Vice President Engineering.

At Westell, Noll led the development of the industry’s first standalone CPE product for ADSL networks, defined and developed the TR069 standard for remote management of xDSL devices that led to Westell’s introduction of the first managed ADSL CPE products, and oversaw development of the company’s widely adopted ADSL WiFi gateways. He also personally led a large, multi-company team that developed the first-generation home command center, an integrated voice, video and data system that incorporated an ADSL gateway, WiFi and 5.8 GHz phone with a touch screen for one-stop control over major household communications tasks.

At Nortel, Noll’s nine-year career included executive positions with the company’s residential broadband access, customer alliances, intelligent networks, PLM switching and public network products divisions. His accomplishments included a change in Nortel’s residential broadband direction that predated the general market shift to data-focused products by a year.

“Bill Noll has played a central role in shaping the CPE marketplace, from establishing CPE as a separate business entity to identifying the need for a network-managed CPE solution. In the process, he has driven hundreds of millions of dollars in industry revenues as well as developing extensive senior contacts with the world’s major carriers and silicon vendors,” said Dean Chang, Actiontec President and CEO. “His vision and experience will help us optimize our product portfolio to meet market needs, ensure ongoing innovation, and continue securing the contracts that gave us the #1 revenue share in digital home gateways last quarter.”

“Actiontec has a solid product line, a strong reputation, and the opportunity to significantly increase market share as carriers require new CPE equipment to support the continued expansion of broadband services,” Noll said. “This position gives me the ability to help build the product roadmap as well as direct the engineering program needed to deliver the right products at the right time, and through those efforts help Actiontec continue to strengthen its market presence.” Noll holds a bachelors degree in electrical engineering from Ryerson University in Toronto and is a member of the Professional Engineers of Ontario. At Actiontec he reports directly to Chang.