 Infinera Corp. Chief Executive Tom Fallon expects to step down after more than a decade at the helm of the company and hand the reins to Chief Operating Officer David Heard, the optical-networking company announced Wednesday afternoon. Fallon has been with Infinera for 17 years, 11 as the CEO, and will remain on the board of directors after stepping down sometime before the end of the year. Heard previously acted as CEO of Somera Communications and was a president at JDS Uniphase before going to Infinera, where he has been COO since October 2018. When David joined Infinera three years ago, our objective was to bring onboard a Chief Operating Officer who would be positioned to take over as CEO at the right time, Fallon said in the announcement. Davids contributions since joining the company have been substantial, making us more scalable as he led us through a major acquisition, driving synergies through operational improvements, aligning our product and service portfolio and focusing our investments on the highest value areas for our customers and shareholders. Infinera also announced second-quarter earnings Wednesday afternoon, and shares increased 4.5 in after-hours trading. 