DZS Inc. announced that Brian Chesnut has been appointed as the company's Chief Accounting Officer (CAO), reporting directly to Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Misty Kawecki. Mr. Chesnut will be responsible for working closely with the CFO, senior leadership and the company's new independent public accounting firm, BDO USA, overseeing all corporate accounting functions including reporting, governance and internal controls. The leadership team and Board of Directors recognized the importance of making this critical role part of senior management team as the company is more committed than ever to improving internal controls, accounting processes and corporate governance, said Kawecki.

Brian brings a wealth of accounting expertise and leadership from an impressively wide range of global private and public companies including Big Four accounting firms and has a proven track record of navigating even the most complex of financial environments. Brians deep knowledge and strategic insights will strengthen financial operations and support DZS mission to deliver cutting-edge broadband networking and AI-driven cloud software solutions. Mr. Chesnut is an accomplished executive who brings to DZS nearly 15 years of accounting leadership experience.

Before joining DZS, Mr. Chesnut was the Vice President and Head of Corporate Accounting for Continental Battery Systems, where he helped manage $1 billion in revenue for the company's U.S. and Canadian divisions, led a successful Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation to combine seven legacy companies and established internal controls to improve financial statement reporting. Mr. Chesnut also served in various senior management roles with several public companies including Jacobs Engineering, where he designed and implemented a consolidation process to improve reporting on $1.5 billion in revenue from Jacobs joint ventures. Mr. Chesnut joins DZS following several strategic transactions including securing $25 million of working capital through a private placement of DZS common stock and a term loan and the divestiture of the company's lower margin Asia business, which eliminated $43 million of debt and raised an additional $5 million.