Interim 8x8 Channel Leader Moves to NICE

Michael Quince, who sat at the top of 8x8's channel partner program as interim leader for four months, has left the unified communications provider to join NICE.

In an announcement on LinkedIn, Quince, now regional vice president of channels at NICE, said he is "thrilled to share the next step in my professional journey," adding, "I’m so very grateful for my time at 8x8, the friends I made, and the opportunities provided to me. There are too many people to thank (you know who you are)."

"This new opportunity to work for an industry leader renowned for its innovation and leadership in the contact-center-as-a-service (CCaaS) and artificial intelligence (AI) space is special," Quince wrote.

8x8 elevated Quince to interim channel leader at 8x8 after Lisa Del Real abruptly stepped down from her leadership position to join legal tech agency Clio as its channel leader.

NICE's Michael Quince

We spoke with Quince last year at the Channel Futures Leadership Summit, where he told us that 8x8 would continue to shake up its strategy. Then, Quince shared that 8x8 no longer primarily saw itself as a unified communications company and would invest more heavily in partners who show their "loyalty."

A month later, 8x8 hired former Salesforce and Twilio executive Michelle Paitich to head its channel division. Quince served in several channel-facing roles with 8x8 for more than seven years; before that, he was senior director of channel and field marketing.

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The newly seated NICE channel exec likewise had a four-year stint at ShoreTel, where he was the company's senior manager of global alliances and marketing. The NICE channel exec further spent four years at Polycom in its channel program.

Before Polycom, Quince was at Nortel, where he spent nearly 10 years making his mark on its channel marketing program. He also maintained other senior leadership posts.

Embracing New NICE Channel and Other Executive Leadership

Quince joins ex-UJET executive Steve Infante, who has spent the past nine months heading up the NICE channel partner program in North America as its VP of channel sales.

Meantime, NICE CEO Barak Eilam will step down at the beginning of 2025. SAP CRO Scott Russell will take the lead as the CCaaS provider's latest chief executive.

NICE is one of the many in the unified communications space laying off employees this year. Some who got the boot in January were connected to channel sales.

That round of layoffs occurred following NICE's acquisition of LiveVox.