US tech company Infinera has hired Regan MacPherson as chief legal officer, replacing David Teichmann who is stepping down from the role.

MacPherson returns to in-house work after spending a year in academia as an adjunct professor at Menlo College. Previously she was CLO at solar energy business SunPower Corporation. She brings more than two decades of corporate legal experience, including corporate law, regulatory affairs, commercial transactions and risk management. At Infinera, she will oversee the company’s global legal strategy and corporate governance matters.

California-based Infinera makes optical networking technology for the telecommunications industry.

David Heard, Infinera’s CEO, said: “Regan is a proven leader with extensive legal knowledge and expertise. The breadth of her capabilities and experience makes her ideally suited for this role as we accelerate our growth and continue to deliver the industry-leading optical networking innovations that matter most to our global customers.”

MacPherson spent just over a year at SunPower. Prior to that she spent almost two years as CLO and chief compliance officer at data management tech business Quantum, two and a half years as chief compliance officer at Marvell Semiconductor and 12 years at Seagate Technology, the final two years as GC, including eight months as interim.

Her first in-house role was at legacy software business Tarantella (now part of Oracle), having briefly worked in private practice at Grunskey Ebey Farrar & Howell.

She said: “I’m excited to join Infinera at a time when the role of optical communications is growing in importance and serving as a catalyst for a new generation of high-speed connectivity services and applications.”

Teichmann, meantime, moves away from the CLO role after five years with Infinera but will remain at the company as a strategic advisor to Heard. Prior to joining Infinera, Teichmann was GC at legacy optical components-maker Oclaro, which was acquired by Lumentum in 2018. He also had spells at Trident Microsystems, Go Remote Internet Communications, Sybase and Tandem Computers. He started his legal career at Fenwick & West.

Heard added: “I want to thank David Teichmann for his significant contributions and the critical role he has played in building a strong legal team and guiding our legal and compliance initiatives as we transformed the organisation and positioned the company for a new phase of growth.”