Celestial AI Appoints Kelyn Brannon as Chief Financial Officer

Seasoned Finance Executive Joins With More Than Three Decades Working With Leading Multinational Companies

June 06, 2024 08:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Celestial AI™, creator of the Photonic Fabric™ optical interconnect technology platform, today announced the appointment of Kelyn Brannon as the company’s new Chief Financial Officer (CFO) effective June 3, 2024.

Ms. Brannon joins Celestial AI with more than 30 years of executive leadership experience in corporate finance and investor relations, having served as CFO at national and multinational companies. Additionally, she has successfully led three IPOs on both the NYSE and NASDAQ as CFO – Calix, Inc. (NYSE: CALX), Arista Networks (NASDAQ: ANET), as well as Astra Space (NASDAQ: ASTR).

“Kelyn’s extensive experience working with a number of leading multinational companies, as well as her success in taking several companies public make her an invaluable addition to our executive team,” said David Lazovsky, Celestial AI founder and CEO. "Her impressive track record and deep financial expertise will be instrumental to help ensure Celestial AI maintains its current course. We are very excited to welcome Kelyn to our team and look forward to working closely with her, as she helps guide our financial strategy to ensure sustainable success.”

Before joining Celestial AI, Ms. Brannon previously served as CFO of Siprocal, Inc. where she focused on driving growth and financial excellence while also successfully positioning the company for fundraising and a future exit. Ms. Brannon also served as the CFO of Astra Space Inc., where she led a de-SPAC process to bring the company public.

Prior to joining Astra Space, Ms. Brannon served as CFO of Arista Networks Inc., a leader in data-driven cloud networking. During her tenure, Ms. Brannon was instrumental in building/establishing the financial foundation of the company, as well as improving the revenue run-rate from $360 million to $700 million. She took the company public having driven an accelerated $4 billion IPO process during her time as CFO.

"I am thrilled to join Celestial AI during such an exciting time for both the company and the rapid expansion of the Artificial Intelligence industry, especially as the hardware and software needed to efficiently enable widespread use of AI applications continues to grow," said Brannon. " Celestial's innovative and disruptive approach to bringing optical interconnectivity to Accelerated Computing uniquely positions the company to significantly monetize this opportunity. I look forward to utilizing my industry experience and network while working closely with the team, as Celestial continues developing solutions that help move data at the speed of light.”

In addition to her ability to foster strong financial stewardship in high-growth environments as well as her extensive financial and executive leadership experience, Ms. Brannon had recently served on the Board of iRocket in New York and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Murray State University.

For more information about Celestial AI and the company’s leadership team, please visit https://www.celestial.ai/.