Fonality this week named former Microsoft executive and Office 365 general manager David Scult as its new CEO -- the third CEO in three years for the open-source VoIP and unified communications vendor.
Scult's hire signals the departure of CEO Dean Mansfield, who was hired to replace Fonality's first CEO, Chris Lyman, in January 2010. Fonality did not provide details on Mansfield's departure, and Mansfield, a former Brocade and NetSuite executive, is not mentioned in Fonality's official statement.
Scult's focus at Microsoft was on global distribution of cloud-based versions of Microsoft's SharePoint, Exchange and Office products. Earlier in his career, Scult was president of Groove Networks, CEO of Radnet and a managing director at Lotus Development.
"David is a seasoned executive whose proven expertise with both large and small firms will be an incredible asset to support Fonality's upward trajectory," Paul Weinstein, general partner with Azure Capital Partners and a Fonality board member, said in a statement. "We look forward to benefiting from the talents he cultivated at industry icons like Microsoft that will help Fonality fulfill ambitious goals, such as global expansion and even stronger innovation."
Founded in 2004, Fonality sells through VARs, service providers and telecom agents and has seen growth throughout the past two years, particularly in its hosted communications business, according to John Young, Fonality general manager of channel operations, in an interview with CRN last fall. The company in July 2011 launched its Fonality Partner Plus Program, which compensates VARs on a tiered structure -- Authorized, Certified and Premium -- along with various other agent incentives.
