Avaya Inc. announced the appointment of Pierre-Paul Allard as Senior Vice President, Corporate Strategy and Development. In his new role, Allard joins the Avaya Executive Council and will report directly to CEO Kevin Kennedy.

Allard joins the Avaya Senior Leadership team in Santa Clara, CA, a key innovation hub. In his new position, Allard will assume responsibility for Corporate Strategy, Analyst Relations and Strategic Alliances and drive strategic initiatives globally. Allard will accelerate company-wide execution of Avaya’s vision and strategy for innovative, customer-centric solutions and create value for customers and stakeholders.

In the last few months, Avaya has named many industry veterans from leading technology companies to senior management positions.

"As we continue to grow Avaya’s world-class leadership team and strengthen our domain expertise in key forward-looking areas of the business, I am very pleased to announce this addition to our Executive Council," said Kennedy. "Pierre-Paul joins an outstanding group of Avaya leaders, many of whom have been part of our company for years and others who have just chosen to join our growing team."

"Avaya has the right focus on innovative products and solutions," Allard said. "I’m very much looking forward to taking a lead role in helping shape the company’s overarching corporate strategy."

Prior to joining Avaya, Allard worked for 19 years at Cisco Systems, where he was most recently Vice President Sales and Operations, Global Enterprise. In this role, he was responsible for all sales, support and field operations of Cisco’s Global Industries Client segment. Allard’s experience has included product and services sales, go-to-market strategy, new business models, market transitions and growth opportunities, as well as customer satisfaction. Previously, Allard was with IBM, where he held positions of increasing responsibility over an 11-year period.

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