8×8 announced new leadership to bolster product management and product marketing organizations to accelerate innovation and global adoption of its cloud communications and contact center solutions. Former Google G-Suite product leader, Hunter Middleton, Ph.D, joins 8×8 in a newly created role of Global Vice President of Product Management to lead strategy, vision and user experience for the company’s integrated cloud communications, collaboration and contact center solutions.
8×8 also added enterprise software leader Meghan Keough as Vice President of Solutions and Product Marketing. She will work closely with Hunter to drive the go-to-market strategy for all of 8×8’s solutions.
Hunter Middleton, reporting to 8×8 Chief Product Officer Dejan Deklich, is an experienced product management leader with an 18-year record of creating engaging, industry leading telecommunications, social collaboration and enterprise software applications. Hunter joins 8×8 from Jive Software where he was Vice President and Head of Product Management, leading the continued innovation of the enterprise social collaboration application used by many of the largest global companies. Prior to Jive, he was the Head of Product Management at Google for Work Systems, and formerly led the Google Apps Enterprise product team as it grew to serve over one million companies worldwide. Hunter earned his Ph.D in Physics from Princeton University and holds a Masters in Management, focusing on Finance and Marketing, from the Kellogg Graduate School of Business at Northwestern.
Reporting to 8×8 Chief Marketing Officer Rani Hublou, Meghan Keough is responsible for increasing adoption and global expansion of the company’s cloud communications, collaboration and contact center solutions. She is a seasoned product marketing leader with 20 years in the technology industry, and has held leadership roles in product marketing, product management, marketing and alliances at both large enterprise software companies, such as Siebel and Oracle, as well as at high-growth startups such as SignalDemand. Meghan holds a B.S. from Boston College and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.
“Customer experience will be the biggest competitive advantage resulting from the next wave of enterprise communications, making it imperative for CIOs to deploy a single system of engagement that is intelligent, intuitive and collaborative,” said Rani Hublou, Chief Marketing Officer at 8×8, Inc. “As 8×8 continues to help companies transform their employee and customer experience, Hunter’s expertise building enterprise collaboration solutions, and Meghan’s successful track record bringing solutions to market, will reinforce our dedication to serving customers in faster and more elegant ways – leading them to less churn and more revenue.”
As part of building a world-class product management team, 8×8 also promoted Lisa Clark as Vice President of Contact Center Product Management. Reporting to Hunter, she will oversee 8×8’s customer engagement product portfolio, working closely with the product, design and development teams. Lisa has more than 14 years of contact center and telecoms experience, and joined 8×8 through the acquisition of DXI, where she was a founding director. At DXI, Lisa was instrumental in the development of the company’s intelligent, easy-to-deploy-and-use cloud contact center solution.
“8×8 has made strategic investments in the last year in product innovation, and most recently announced the addition of AI and machine learning expertise,” said Dejan Deklich, Chief Product Officer at 8×8. “The new leadership in product management and marketing, working in close collaboration, will further strengthen our cloud offerings to mid-market and enterprise companies looking to improve their communications and collaboration to deliver exceptional customer experience.”