Penguin Solutions Strengthens AI Factory Platform Strategy with Appointment of David Heard to Board of Directors

Penguin Solutions, Inc. (“Penguin Solutions” or the “Company”), the AI Factory Platform company, announced that David Heard, President of Network Infrastructure at Nokia, has been appointed to Penguin Solutions’ board of directors, effective immediately.

Heard is a seasoned technology executive with more than three decades of experience leading large-scale technology and infrastructure organizations through periods of growth and transformation. His track record of operational execution and scaling global businesses is expected to complement the board’s expertise as Penguin Solutions continues to converge its capabilities in memory and AI infrastructure.

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“David brings experience scaling complex infrastructure platforms, optical networking technologies, and global operations,” said Kash Shaikh, President and CEO of Penguin Solutions. “As enterprises accelerate adoption of inference and agentic AI workloads, and demand for memory and AI infrastructure continues to grow, we believe David’s strategic insight and industry expertise will be valuable to the continued advancement of our AI Factory Platform strategy and our work helping customers deploy AI at production scale.”

Heard has served as President of Network Infrastructure at Nokia (NYSE: NOK) since June 2025. He joined Nokia in February 2025 following its acquisition of Infinera Corporation (formerly Nasdaq: INFN), where he served as Chief Executive Officer. Prior to joining Infinera in June 2017, Heard held leadership roles at several technology companies, including JDS Uniphase Corporation, BigBand Networks, Inc., Somera Communications, Inc., Lucent Technologies, and AT&T.

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“I am honored to join the Penguin Solutions board at an important time for both the Company and the broader AI industry,” said Heard. “The Company’s AI Factory Platform strategy, built on the convergence of memory and AI infrastructure, strategically positions Penguin Solutions to help customers address the growing demands of inference and next-generation AI deployments. I look forward to working with the board and management team to help drive long-term growth.”

Heard also served as a member of the board of directors of Infinera Corporation from November 2020 to February 2025 and currently serves on the Max M. Fisher College of Business Alumni Board. He holds a Master of Science in Management as a Sloan Fellow from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, a Master of Business Administration from the University of Dayton, and a Bachelor of Arts in Production and Operations Management from The Ohio State University.