Prior to this move, Reister was vice president of product strategy for Arris, which in late 2011 acquired BigBand Networks, where he was vice president of advanced technology and chief architect. Previously, he was CTO of Copper Mountain Networks, a DSL platform vendor; a consultant with Bain and Company; and an engineer with McDonnell Douglas.

Reister received an MSE in mechanical and aerospace engineering from Princeton in 1991 and a business degree from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.