Dave Sipes (8x8)
Unified communications provider 8x8 has tapped former RingCentral chief operating officer Dave Sipes to lead the company as its CEO.
He takes over the top-level role from Vikram Verma, who previously held the position for the last seven years. Additionally, Verma also retired from the board of directors, but will help with the CEO transition in an advisory capacity.
As well as Sipes' time at the enterprise cloud communications vendor, where he held the position of COO for over 12 years, he also previously held high level roles at Branders.com and Booz Allen & Hamilton.
In addition to the new CEO, Jaswinder Pal Signh was also appointed as 8x8’s chairman of the board, taking over from Bryan Martin.
“We believe Dave, with his operational expertise, strong industry background, and world-class go-to-market leadership, is the right leader at the right time to fully realise our potential,” said Singh.
“We're thrilled to have Dave take the helm at 8x8 and are excited about our future. I’d also like to thank Vik Verma, on behalf of the board of directors, our 1,700+ team members and thousands of dedicated resellers, and recognise the incredible contributions and leadership role he has played over the past seven years to get us to this point.”
Sipes said that he was looking forward to leading the provider, with the pivot to remote working factoring into his future outlook for 8x8.
“The cloud and work-from-home are transforming business communications for every employee and customer touchpoint, and have become a critical focal point for building competitive advantage for businesses today," he said.
“8x8 is well positioned with its Open Communications Platform, which provides a wide breadth of integrated communication tools to power businesses’ critical cloud communications needs. This company has the opportunity to be central to the transformation of work.”
Additionally, the provider also reaffirmed its financial outlook for both the third quarter and full-year for fiscal 2021, ending 31 December and 31 March, respectively.
By the end of December, 8x8 expects total revenue guidance for the third quarter to be in the range of US$132 million to US$133 million, representing year-over-year growth in the range of 11 per cent to 12 per cent.
Meanwhile, the full year to the end of March is forecast to be in the range of US$519 million to US$522 million, translating to year-over-year growth of about 16 per cent to 17 per cent.
Earlier this year in July, 8x8 rolled out a new partner program in Australia and New Zealand, which brought together its previous channel initiatives under one umbrella — including master agents, sub agents and resellers.
