Communications vendor Avaya has added another former Cisco executive to its senior management line-up after announcing Kevin Kennedy will become chief executive in January.

Kennedy will take over from Charles Giancarlo, who has held the role since previous incumbent Lou D'Ambrosio stepped down for health reasons in June. Kennedy will remain in his current role as chief executive of optical communications specialist JDSU until he joins Avaya.

Kennedy, who is also on the board of directors of voice and video vendor Polycom, was chief operating officer of Openwave Systems prior to joining JDSU. He has also spent a total of 25 years working at Cisco and AT&T Bell Laboratories. When he commences his new job, Giancarlo will become chairman of the board at New Jersey based Avaya.

"Kevin Kennedy brings to Avaya a deep understanding of the enterprise communications industry and extensive senior management experience," said Giancarlo. "He will join Avaya at a time when we are strongly positioned in our industry. Kevin will lead Avaya to even greater success and further our strategy and execution to be the premier enterprise communications partner for our customers."