A Veteran of the Telecom Bust Navigates the AI Boom

Ciena CEO Gary Smith standing in a data center.

Oct. 23, 2026 3:23 pm ET

The historic telecommunications crash of 2001 is burned indelibly into Ciena CEO Gary Smith’s memory, yet he is cautious about viewing rising anxiety over today’s AI boom as an echo of that past.

Smith, 66 years old, has led the optical networking pioneer since May 2001. He led the company through the telecom nuclear winter of the early 2000s, which was more economically devastating than the preceding dot-com bust. It was marked by a glut of unused fiber, a collapse in prices, frozen venture markets, massive bankruptcies, widespread job losses and a recession.

Steven Rosenbush is chief of the enterprise technology bureau at the WSJ Leadership Institute. The team covers the interplay of business, technology and leadership for a professional audience. It publishes CIO Journal and its daily email newsletter, the Morning Download.

Steven's weekly column examines the ways in which AI and other deep technologies are transforming business.

Steven was telecommunications editor at BusinessWeek Magazine during the telecom boom and bust, and he served as capital markets editor at Institutional Investor during the financial crisis. He's the author of "Telecom Business Opportunities."

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