Rick Johnston – VP of Business Operations and Customer Service

Co-Founder and Vice President of Business Operations and Customer Service

Rick is responsible for business operations at Cyan.

Rick has a long history in the region known as Telecom Valley, with roles ranging from customer service to business development and executive management with four highly successful communications start-ups.

Most recently, Rick was a co-founder and vice president of business development at Calix. His responsibilities included creating and fostering key partner relationships for Calix. He also served as the company's Chief Communications Officer where he was responsible for the company's communications, infrastructure, and personnel.

Prior to Calix, Rick was vice president of customer service at Advanced Fibre Communications (AFC). Rick joined AFC while it was still a young start-up and built a pre- and post-sales technical support organization. Rick was also an early participant in the first Telecom Valley start-up, Optilink Corporation. Optilink was later acquired by DSC and then Alcatel. Rick held management positions at DSC Communication and Rockwell Communications. Rick has a BS in Electrical Engineering from New Mexico State University.