Joe Manuele Joins as Chief Executive Officer to Lead Highfive’s Next Growth Phase
REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Sept. 05, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Highfive, the conferencing platform building connected cultures, today announced the addition of industry veterans to its executive team amid rapid growth within the $46 billion video conferencing industry. Joe Manuele will head operations for Highfive as Chief Executive Officer (CEO), and Richard Borenstein will join the company as Chief Revenue Officer (CRO).
“The future of business is in the cloud, and those built in the cloud are disrupting the old guard,” said Manuele. “Highfive’s truly innovative take on the enterprise collaboration platform, including its born-in-the-cloud software and dedicated hardware, leaves it uniquely positioned to pull away from the competition and take a lead in this crowded space.”
As a key leader at companies such as Dimension Data, Avaya, and Cisco, Manuele demonstrated an exemplary record of leading the Sales and GTM teams towards SaaS based, consumptive models. At Dimension Data, he led the company’s $1.7B customer experience and digital workspace businesses and led the strategic relationships with Apple, Genesys and Cisco Collaboration’s businesses. He spearheaded the IT giant’s recent $32 million investment in Highfive, and helped it establish hundreds of new channel partners — including Ingram Micro and Best Buy for Business.
Manuele, with his 25 years of in-depth experience heading numerous global technology integrators and digital communications companies, joins Highfive co-founder Shan Sinha, who continues to drive product innovation and strategy as Executive Chairman. The partnership between the enterprise communications leader and workplace collaboration trailblazer will quickly deliver consumer-simple video conferencing at scale.
“From the moment Joe joined Highfive’s board, it was clear he shared our passion and vision for the product,” said Sinha. “He demonstrates incredible knowledge that translates to immense success for his customers, partners, and investors. The fact that we’re able to attract a star like Joe shows the tremendous progress Highfive has made over the years. With him at the helm, Highfive is set to continue redefining office collaboration on a global scale.”
Joining Manuele is previous RingCentral and PayPal alum, Richard Borenstein, who will lead business development, go-to-market strategy, and sales. At RingCentral, Borenstein was an integral member of the team that grew revenue to nearly $600 million, resulting in a $7.46 billion valuation, and empowering integrations with SaaS leaders such as Google, Salesforce, Amazon, Okta, and more.
The executives join Highfive at a great time. Over the last two years, monthly active users, total meetings, and meeting minutes have grown more than 200%, as customers like Rolling Stone, Bankrate, and Atlantic Media make Highfive a cornerstone of their everyday business lives. Named one of Fast Company’s 2018 Most Innovative Companies in Enterprise, Highfive’s solution puts user experience at the forefront and encompasses every meeting use case. This focus culminated in the recent launch of Highfive’s Premium offering, combining the company’s purpose-built software with powerful Dolby Voice Room hardware.
For more information on Highfive, visit www.highfive.com.
About Highfive
Highfive simplifies business collaboration with a conferencing platform that builds connected cultures. It’s a modern, all-in-one solution that combines a cloud conferencing service with premium meeting room hardware and apps on web, Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS. Recently named by Fast Company as one of The World’s Most Innovative Companies, Highfive is based in Redwood City, California, and backed by Dimension Data, General Catalyst, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, and GV (Google Ventures).
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