Calabrio has appointed Dave Rhodes as its new CEO.
Rhodes comes to Calabrio from Sauce Labs, where he was also CEO. Sauce Labs is a cloud-hosted web and mobile application automated testing platform.
The new CEO has also served as the SVP/GM of Unity Software’s Digital Twins Business and the company’s Chief Revenue Officer. In the role, he helped guide the business to increase its revenues by nearly 500 percent, from $130 million to $600 million, in six years.
Rhodes is replacing Interim CEO Joel Martins, who returns to his role as Chief Technology Officer, and has expressed his eagerness to get started.
“Calabrio stands at the forefront of revolutionizing contact centers worldwide by leveraging its unparalleled workforce engagement management (WEM) solution integrated with AI-powered analytics and advanced business intelligence (BI) built into its core,” he said.
“The company continuously strives to redefine service excellence with technology advances and a unique focus on operational efficiency that drives transformative customer experiences.
I am excited to lead the Calabrio team as we seize the immense growth opportunities ahead.
First things first, Rhodes will aim to steady the ship, as the previous 18 months have seen a total of four CEOs at Calabrio. That’s a somewhat alarming rate of attrition.
Indeed, interim CEO Martins had been filling in since Kevin Jones exited the company in April, having served as CEO for a short 13-month stint since taking over from Thomas Goodmanson in January 2023.
Yet, Rhodes is perhaps right to sense those “immense growth opportunities” in the topsy-turvy WEM market.
After all, with rumors suggesting that NICE is set to acquire the workforce engagement management (WEM) provider Playvox and Alvaria spinning out a standalone WEM offering, there is a lot going on in the space right now.
As such, Calabrio may well benefit from the unification and direction that a permanent CEO can bring.
More on the New CEO
In appointing Rhodes, Calabrio highlighted the significance of his decades of experience and extensive expertise in growing and scaling software businesses.
Much of that expertise stems from his time at Unity. However, before, Rhodes was the EVP of Sales, Services, and Marketing at Paradigm/Emerson. There, he was responsible for the company’s worldwide growth strategies.
Rhodes was also interred at Autodesk for 11 years, where he held the position of VP of the Americas.
Kris Weston, Thoma Bravo Chair of the Board and Operating Partner, welcomed Rhodes to the role and pointed to some of his key strengths: “We are thrilled to welcome Dave Rhodes as Calabrio’s new CEO.
“His experience in transforming software companies into market leaders, combined with his go-to-market expertise and passion for software-driven innovation, uniquely positions him to lead Calabrio’s next growth phase.
His visionary leadership and strategic acumen will accelerate our innovation efforts crucial for the future of contact centers.
“We are confident that under Dave’s guidance, Calabrio will continue to set new industry standards and capitalise on the many promising prospects.”
Despite the disruption to Calabrio’s c-suite, the company has released several new solutions and capabilities in recent months. Its new AI-driven Analytics tool is an excellent example.
With the aim of enhancing Quality Management (QM), the tool promises to provide contact centers with improved performance data and insights, which the organization believes will optimize the user experience.
