Pieter Poll

CTO, Qwest

Pieter Poll is the Chief Technology Officer at Qwest. In this role, he facilitates the strategic technology direction of the company. Additionally, he is responsible for network planning and engineering functions.

Dr. Poll started his career at AT&T Bell Laboratories where he contributed to the architecture and evolution path of the 5ESS ® Digital Switch. He helped develop network evolution plans for the AT&T long distance network and product requirements for that network. He was a strategic and portfolio planner for what is now Lucent Technologies. Pieter joined the former U S WEST Advanced Technologies organization in 1994 to develop switching and network intelligence evolution plans for Qwest. In 1997, he was appointed Director - Core Network Evolution and was responsible for managing a program directed at identifying Qwest's future data-centric network, and the transition path to that future. In 1999, he was appointed General Manger - Network Architecture, Technologies, and Services and was responsible for development of network solutions and intelligent network services. In 2000, Pieter formed Qwest Emerging Technologies and was responsible for identifying strategic network direction for Qwest. He was appointed head of Qwest Technology Management, in 2001. In this role, Pieter and his team defined detailed technology strategy for Qwest, performed technology selections, qualified and operationalized selected technologies, and managed their introduction into the Qwest network. From 2003 through 2004, Pieter served as Vice President - Technology & Network Architecture at Mahi Networks, a provider of optical core transport infrastructure based in Petaluma , CA. Pieter returned to Qwest at the end of 2004, where he was responsible for the technology evolution of Qwest's voice and data platforms.

Dr. Poll earned a B.Sc. in Physics and Mathematics (1982) from the University of Toronto , in Toronto , Canada , and a Ph.D. in Physics (1987) from Cornell University , Ithaca , NY .