Avaya is ‘removing’ CEO Jim Chirico and replacing him with a former Vonage boss after revealing plans to strip out $250m of cost.

Chirico will depart abruptly on Monday and be replaced by Alan Masarek.

The move comes as Avaya grapples with its transition to the cloud which has stalled over recent quarters. The vendor was recently forced into a $600m funding raise and has seen its share price tank by more than 90 percent since the start of last year.

The vendor has now revealed that Q3 revenue will be between $575m and $580m, missing guidance by as much as $125m.

The preliminary results were disclosed alongside plans to cut costs by between $225m and $250m from “overall selling, general and administrative expenses”.

Bill Watkins, Chairman of Avaya’s Board, said: “We are thrilled to welcome Alan as President and CEO.  

“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.  

“The Board and I thank Jim for his nearly 15 years of service to Avaya and wish him all the best in his future endeavours.”  

Who is the New Avaya CEO?  

Alan Masarek is beginning as the new CEO of Avaya on August 1 after serving as the CEO of Vonage.  

Avaya announced that Masarek would be the company’s President, CEO, and member of Avaya’s Board of Directors.  

Chirico will remain at Avaya, working alongside Masarek, until August 16 to ensure a smooth transition.  

Masarek has extensive experience in deep domain enterprise communications, as well as UCaaS, CCaaS, and CPaaS, which are central to the cloud-based communications solution Avaya OneCloud.  

During his tenure as Vonage’s CEO, Masarek turned the company from a residential VoIP provider into a global cloud communications company.  

Before working at Vonage, Masarek the Director of Chrome and Apps at Google, after Google acquired Quickoffice, where Masarek served as CEO and co-founder.  

According to Avaya, while Masarek was interred at Quickoffice, the company became “one of the world’s most embedded mobile productivity software solutions” with over 26 million registered users previous to Google’s takeover.  

Masarek said: “Avaya benefits from an industry-leading brand, world-class customer base and global reach, a rich history of innovation and strong partner ecosystem.  

“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.”  

In June, Avaya announced it was raising $600 million in funding, comprised of secured term loans and senior secured notes to ‘accelerate business model transformation’.

 

 



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