"Lauren Flaherty has the credentials and proven world-class experience to lead our efforts in re-establishing the Nortel brand as a communications powerhouse," said Mike Zafirovski, Nortel's president and CEO. "She joins us as a member of the executive team and she will be intimately involved in all aspects of our corporate planning and execution."
Flaherty, who most recently served as IBM's vice president, Worldwide Marketing, small and medium business. She played a key leadership role in IBM's defining era, 1993 - 1997, when Lou Gerstner embarked on one of the biggest turn-around stories in corporate history.
During that period, Flaherty led worldwide advertising for IBM and drove the creation of IBM's famous brand image campaign, "Solutions for a Small Planet." In her 26-year career at IBM, she also previously served as vice president of Worldwide Marketing for some of IBM's largest and most important global businesses where she drove long-term business strategy, channel and product marketing, and related communications and branding priorities including public relations, interactive/web marketing, demand generation and all customer events.