Known as the “fiber guru,” Parent’s contributions were instrumental in Bell Canada’s successful FTTH deployment program 

Corning Incorporated (NYSE:GLW) and  Lightwave Magazine have named Michel Parent the recipient of the Ninth Annual FTTXcellence Award. The award was recently presented at the 2012 FTTH Conference & Expo in Dallas.

Parent, of La Prairie, Québec, Canada, has been with Bell Canada’s Outside Plant Technology Research (OTR) group within the Network Technology team for 26 years. He was the key manager who standardized new products for every phase of Bell’s successful fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) rollout this year.

Canada’s largest communications company, Bell launched its next-generation fiber network service – Bell Fibe – in March 2012 in Québec City. The largest FTTH rollout of its kind in Canada, it will reach approximately 300,000 homes and businesses. Bell is investing more than $240 million to deploy FTTH and deliver popular and competitive new communications services in the region, including the latest broadband TV, Internet, and home phone services.

“I am honored to be recognized by Corning and Lightwave for my contribution to Bell’s rollout of Fibe,” Parent said. “It was truly a team effort, so I especially look forward to sharing this great achievement with the incredible team I have the privilege of working with day in and day out to deliver Bell’s advanced fiber network to our customers.”

“Michel demonstrates a technical mastery and commitment to quality that has inspired his team at Bell, just as his dedication can inspire all of us who work diligently to deliver FTTH benefits directly to end users,” said Kim Hartwell, senior vice president, Carrier Networks and Customer Experience, Corning Optical Communications. “On behalf of everyone at Corning, I congratulate Michel on this honor.”

“Michel is the third winner of the FTTXcellence Award from Canada, which confirms that optical access innovation is widespread in North America,” added Stephen Hardy, editorial director and associate publisher of Lightwave. “Other operators seeking to add the many benefits of FTTH technology to their networks would do well to follow the practices Michel and his team established.”

To be eligible for the award, candidates must be nominated by a peer. Nominees may include individuals at carriers and system operators, home developers, utilities, municipalities or other organizations that have launched an FTTX project; individuals at vendors or research organizations whose work has benefited FTTX technology development; public officials or others who have made a significant positive impact in the regulatory or legal arena; and other deserving individuals. This year, Corning and Lightwave welcomed Heather Burnett Gold, president, FTTH Council Americas, to the panel of judges who selected Parent as the 2012 FTTXcellence Award recipient.

In addition to the awards ceremony at the FTTH Conference, Parent was honored with a donation in his name to One Economy Corporation, a global, non-profit organization that leverages 21st-century technology to help low-income families build assets and raise their standard of living. He also received a decorative glass award from the Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, N.Y., and will be profiled in an upcoming issue of Lightwave magazine.

Forward-Looking and Cautionary Statements
This press release contains “forward-looking statements” (within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995), which are based on current expectations and assumptions about Corning’s financial results and business operations, that involve substantial risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. These risks and uncertainties include: the effect of global political, economic and business conditions; conditions in the financial and credit markets; currency fluctuations; tax rates; product demand and industry capacity; competition; reliance on a concentrated customer base; manufacturing efficiencies; cost reductions; availability of critical components and materials; new product commercialization; pricing fluctuations and changes in the mix of sales between premium and non-premium products; new plant start-up or restructuring costs; possible disruption in commercial activities due to terrorist activity, armed conflict, political or financial instability, natural disasters, adverse weather conditions, or major health concerns; adequacy of insurance; equity company activities; acquisition and divestiture activities; the level of excess or obsolete inventory; the rate of technology change; the ability to enforce patents; product and components performance issues; retention of key personnel; stock price fluctuations; and adverse litigation or regulatory developments. These and other risk factors are detailed in Corning’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the day that they are made, and Corning undertakes no obligation to update them in light of new information or future events.

About Corning Incorporated
Corning Incorporated (www.corning.com) is the world leader in specialty glass and ceramics. Drawing on more than 160 years of materials science and process engineering knowledge, Corning creates and makes keystone components that enable high-technology systems for consumer electronics, mobile emissions control, telecommunications and life sciences. Our products include glass substrates for LCD televisions, computer monitors and laptops; ceramic substrates and filters for mobile emission control systems; optical fiber, cable, hardware & equipment for telecommunications networks; optical biosensors for drug discovery; and other advanced optics and specialty glass solutions for a number of industries including semiconductor, aerospace, defense, astronomy, and metrology.

About Lightwave
For more than 25 years, Lightwave (www.lightwaveonline.com) has delivered trusted technical, application and business insights to senior-level decision makers for optical communications worldwide. Lightwave’s technical magazine, email newsletters, targeted in-depth website, events and research are established, valued resources for more than 100,000 corporate executives, department heads, project managers, network engineers and others making strategic decisions for their businesses. Lightwave is part of the Technology Group of PennWell Corp. a highly diversified, business-to-business media company providing authoritative print and online publications, conferences and exhibitions, research, databases, online exchanges and information products to strategic global markets.