Clearfield Names Johnny Hill Chief Operating Officer.

Hill is one of the founding members of the company.

MINNEAPOLIS -- Clearfield Inc. announced that Johnny Hill has been promoted to chief operating officer. Hill, formerly the vice president of engineering and product management, is considered a longstanding leader and a founding member of the company.

CEO Cheri Beranek Podzimek said, "Johnny has been one of this company's instrumental leaders for more than a decade. Beyond building a national reputation in application and design engineering, his natural business instincts have significantly contributed to Clearfield's growth and profitability. Johnny deserved this promotion and he will make an excellent COO."

In this capacity, Hill will oversee Clearfield's operations including engineering, product management, procurement, marketing, and manufacturing.

Hill said, "This is a great time to be a member of the Clearfield team. We've got a clear vision of where we're going and our new technology is the envy of the industry."

Collectively, Hill has more than 12 years of strategic and hands-on experience in the telecommunications networking industry. He started his career at Americable Inc. in 1996 where he progressively assumed additional responsibilities, starting in field sales and moving through management. Upon being acquired by Clearfield's precursor, APA Cables & Networks, in 2003, Hill served as the company's first vice president of sales. Hill was promoted to Clearfield's vice president of product management and development in 2006, and vice president of engineering and product management the following year.

During his career, Hill has amassed a national reputation within the telecommunications industry on such issues as fiber management; harsh environments; network design and transport; fiber and copper assemblies; network security; premise network equipment; structured wiring; among others.

Hill attended the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, and Macalester College, St. Paul, Minn.

About Clearfield, Inc.

Clearfield, Inc., designs and manufactures the FieldSmart fiber management platform, which includes its latest generation Fiber Distribution System (FDS) and Fiber Scalability Center (FSC). The FDS and FSC product lines support a wide range of panel configurations, densities, connectors and adapter options, and are offered alongside an assortment of passive optical components. Clearfield provides a complete line of fiber and copper assemblies for indoor-plant and outside plant environments. Clearfield is a public company, traded on Nasdaq:CLFD.

More information about Clearfield, Inc., its products and its people can be found at www.ClearfieldConnection.com.