Communications gear maker Alcatel-Lucent laid off about 40 engineers and other workers at the company's Raleigh office Thursday.

The staff reductions, affecting about 12 percent of Alcatel-Lucent's workers in Raleigh, are part of a company-wide cost-cutting plan announced in December.

The company's facility on Sugar Bush Road is left with about 290 workers, said spokeswoman Denise Panyik-Dale.

Ray Hornak, a mainstay of the Triangle's public relations circuit, has ascended to the pinnacle of the company where he has burnished corporate reputations for the past 26 years.

Hornak, 59, this month was named president of The Catevo Group, a company that provides PR, communications, marketing and other services. He takes the helm from Mitch Javidi, who left to pursue other opportunities.

"We've struggled over the last 12 to 18 months to make ends meet," Hornak said. "I'm lucky because I'm going to get to preside over a growth rather than a holding back."