Former Top Vonage Exec Named Avaya President and CEO

Avaya has a new president and CEO. It’s Alan Masarek, who also joins the company’s board of directors on Monday. Masarek succeeds Jim Chirico, who has been with Avaya for 15 years in various roles.

Avaya’s Bill Watkins

Bill Watkins is chairman of Avaya’s board.

“We are thrilled to welcome Alan as president and CEO,” Watkins said. “Alan is a proven transformational leader, and after a rigorous search process, the board is confident that Alan is the ideal choice to lead the company into the future. We look forward to benefiting from his decades of industry expertise as we take the next steps to position the company for long-term success.”

Vonage, Google Experience

Masarek brings expertise in enterprise communications and transforming operations, Avaya said. His background in UCaaS, CCaaS and CPaaS should play well as they are key elements of the Avaya OneCloud platform. He most recently was CEO of Vonage, playing an active role in the channel, appearing often at the Channel Partners Conference & Expo.

At Vonage, he led the company from a VoIP-based residential phone provider into a global enterprise cloud communications provider. Prior to Vonage, Masarek was director, Chrome & Apps, at Google. This followed Google’s acquisition of Quickoffice, which he co-founded and was CEO.

Avaya’s Alan Masarek

“Avaya benefits from an industry-leading brand, world-class customer base and global reach, a rich history of innovation and strong partner ecosystem,” Masarek said. “I look forward to leveraging my background and years of cloud communications experience to propel Avaya to renewed growth and profitability as we build on the company’s strong fundamentals. At the same time, I intend to undertake a comprehensive strategic and operating review of all facets of the business with the goal of delivering industry-leading solutions to our global customers and enhancing value for all stakeholders.”