RingCentral has elected the former Chief Financial Officer at Twitter, Ned Segal, to the company’s board of directors shortly after reinstating Shmunis as CEO.
Last month, Tarek Robbiati resigned from the CEO post at RingCentral having only served for less than four months as CEO.
The enterprise communications company’s co-founder and executive chairman, Vlad Shmunis retook his place at the helm in a move that some analysts have suggested was the result of a power struggle between the two men.
Now, Shmunis is firming up his executive team while securing the necessary talent to peddle his new contact center focus for the company.
That is where Segal enters the fray, and Shmunis was excited to introduce him to the company’s board.
“We are excited to welcome Ned, a seasoned executive with more than 25 years of technology, finance and capital markets experience, to the RingCentral Board,” he said.
As Twitter’s former CFO, Ned presided over significant growth and success, while navigating a period of tremendous complexity and organisational change, through the sale of the company.
“He will bring a rigorous and financially-driven approach to our boardroom, with a focus on helping RingCentral continue to deliver sustainable, profitable growth.”
Segal officially began his role not only as a company director, but also as a member of the audit committee, and nominating and corporate governance committee, on December 29, 2023.
Who Is Ned Segal?
RingCentral describes Segal as a “seasoned financial executive”, having served as the CFO of Twitter, Senior Vice President of Finance at Intuit, and CFO of RPX Corporation, a formerly a public traded company that offers patent risk management and discovery services.
Previously, Segal has also operated as Head of Global Software Investment Banking at Goldman Sachs.
Segal continues to serve on the board of directors at Beyond Meat, a plant-based, vegan meat vendor, and as a board member of the San Francisco-based non-profit organization, Tipping Point Community.
Segal commented on taking up the new post: “I’ve known RingCentral and Vlad for more than a decade.
I’m a big believer in founder-led technology companies and see massive opportunity for RingCentral to continue to change how people leverage the cloud to be more productive and communicate more effectively.
“I look forward to working with Vlad and the rest of the Board as the company executes on its strategy while driving value for shareholders.”
The Significance of Segal
With the UCaaS market’s growth rate beginning to cool, dedicated unified communications vendors are looking to diversify their portfolios with solutions from other sectors.
A natural pivot for many such companies is the contact center space, as demonstrated by Cisco, 8×8, Avaya, Mitel, Vonage, and many more – and Shmunis has proven a powerful advocate for this transition.
Already, the vendor is seeing some success in the market, as a recent 1,000+ seat contact center megadeal underlined.
Yet, a hasty move towards CCaaS requires resources, and – in this economy – an astute financial mind.
As such, Segal will likely be instrumental in managing RingCentral’s transition into a new market, alongside its fluctuating share prices.
