Tellabs co-founder says he has cancer, will retire
Tellabs Inc. cor-founder and Chairman Michael J. Birck announced Friday he was diagnosed with cancer and will retire next year.
Birck's announcement comes almost two months after Tellabs CEO Robert Pullen died of cancer.
In a letter to stockholders and employees, the 74-year-old Birck said he was recently diagnosed with chronic myelomonocytic leukemia, an uncommon form of bone marrow cancer, and has started chemotherapy sessions to treat the disease which is treatable but not curable.
“I feel good, but I understand that this is something I must expect to live with from now on,” he said in the letter.
“I have occasionally thought of the day when I would step down as chairman and fully retire from Tellabs. I had not reached that decision until now,” he added.
He said he informed Tellabs' board of directors that he will not seek re-election to the board and will step down after the company's annual meeting next spring. He said in the letter he will remain “actively engaged” with the company's management team after his retirement.
“Leading Tellabs has been an incredibly rewarding experience for me, and I thank each and every one of you for being a part of that experience,” he said.
The Naperville-based company was shocked in July when its CEO, Rob Pullen, died of colon cancer at age 50. Birck made the announcement of his colleague's death, saying “On a personal note, I was honored to have worked side by side with Rob at Tellabs for 30 years. No words can describe the grief I feel right now.”
Birck was a co-founder of Tellabs in 1975 and served as chairman since 2000. He began his career as a member of the technical staff at AT&T's Bell Telephone Laboratories. He then managed the Transmission System Design department at Continental Telephone Laboratories. From 1968 to 1975 he was director of engineering at Wescom, Inc., according to his biography on Tellabs' website.
He received numerous awards and honors during his career and was inducted into the Chicago Business Hall of Fame in 1998.
He serves as a director of the Purdue Research Foundation and is a senior member of the Dean's Advisory Council of the Krannert School of Management. He is past chairman of the Purdue Alumni Foundation Board and is a trustee of Purdue University. He is a member of the board of trustees of Benedictine University.