By Khali Henderson

Digium Inc. announced former ADTRAN President Danny J. Windham will be taking over as CEO of the company, which is the author of the Asterisk open source VoIP software. Founder Mark Spencer will step aside as president and will fill a new post as chairman and CTO and will continue to drive the strategic vision and technology direction for the company.

The company also has named another ADTRAN alum, Steve Harvey, as vice president of worldwide sales for Digitium. He is the former vice president of channel sales and competitive service providers for ADTRAN.

Windham has been on the board of directors for Digium for seven years.

ADTRAN has a significant but minority stake in Digium, he said, noting the manufacturer was one of the startups earliest supporters.

In two weeks, Windham will resign his positions as president and COO of ADTRAN and give up his seat on the ADTRAN board of directors.

Windham described himself as a small company person, having sold his 3-year-old startup to ADTRAN in 1989 and helped build the company over the last 20 years, including its public bid in 1994. Digium has between 80 and 90 employees, Spencer said.

I recognize what the opportunity is for Asterisk and the disruption that the open source model and the opportunity that exists for an open source IP telephony has in the marketplace, Windham said. He said the biggest challenge will be to cross the chasm from the early adopters to the broader markets. The company is targeting small and midsize business and multilocation enterprises.

He said the task is eased by worldwide awareness of the Asterisk product.

Windham has worked with Harvey for the past 11 years and describes him as a tireless salesperson. At ADTRAN, Harvey was responsible for leading the company’s Enterprise Division from a direct sales environment into a channel-driven model. During his tenure, he was credited for having doubled the revenue of the division. Harvey will drive Digium’s expanding channel strategy and business development activities.

Spencer said Digiums channel strategy is going to evolve beyond the highly technical early adopters to a market served by VARs that are not familiar with Linux or Asterisk, nor do they want to be.

He said the company will reach out to a much broader base of resellers and customers. This strategy will be enabled by product announcements expected in the coming weeks, he added.

Digium Inc. www.digium.com