Genesys appoints Tony Bates as new CEO effective immediately. Genesys announces this in a press release. Bates succeeds Paul Segre, who will become Chairman of the Board of Directors at Genesys. His predecessor Tom Eggemeier becomes a partner at Permira, one of the private equity investors in Genesys.

“In my 12 years as CEO, I have been privileged to work with the best team. We have disrupted the market several times, most recently with our innovations in cloud and artificial intelligence (AI), and ended 2018 with $1,5 billion in revenue – our best year ever,” said Segre. “This highlight is a great time to transition into the role of chairman and welcome our new CEO, Tony Bates, as there are so many opportunities for Genesys.”

Tony Bates has decades of successful experience leading B2B and B2C businesses through times of transition and rapid growth, the announcement said. Bates was active for Cisco's Service Provider business, where he was jointly responsible for the growth of the Enterprise and Commercial division to more than $20 billion in annual revenue.

Bates also served as CEO of Skype, which under his leadership grew to 170 billion connected users worldwide. Following Microsoft's acquisition of Skype, Bates first became president of unified communications and then vice president of business development and developers. In addition to his role at Genesys, Bates also remains a member of the board of directors at VMWare and eBay.

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