Polycom, Inc. and Siris Capital Group, LLC, announced that Mary McDowell will succeed Peter Leav as Polycom’s CEO effective and contingent on the closing of the merger of Polycom with an affiliate of Siris Capital. Peter Leav remains CEO and a board member until the transaction is closed. The transaction is expected to be completed in September or October, 2016, subject to the receipt of certain regulatory approvals and the satisfaction of other customary closing conditions.
Mary McDowell, CEO of Polycom
McDowell is a technology executive who has led global multi-billion dollar businesses in the mobile, consumer, and enterprise sectors. She is currently an executive partner at Siris Capital. Prior to that, McDowell was the EVP, mobile phones at Nokia, where she held global P&L responsibility for the feature phone business and associated software and digital services. She joined Nokia in 2004 to lead the enterprise solutions business and later served as chief development officer. McDowell has also held senior positions at Compaq Computer and Hewlett Packard. She serves on the boards of Autodesk, Inc., Bazaarvoice, and UBM plc.
“Polycom is a powerful global brand and is strongly positioned to help organizations of all sizes raise the bar on collaboration to drive higher levels of productivity and deepen employee engagement,” said McDowell. “I’m looking forward to working closely with the Polycom team to build on the history of innovation and strong track record of creating best-in-class products and services that meet the needs of more than 400,000 companies, institutions, and channel partners, as well as deepening partnerships to enable the evolving unified communications ecosystem.”
“Mary has a unique combination of technology and management experience leading multi-billion-dollar consumer and enterprise technology businesses in mobile, telecom, and enterprise sectors that make her a great fit for this role,” said Frank Baker, co-founder and managing partner, Siris Capital. “Her track record in architecting winning volume product portfolios is exceptional and will be an excellent fit with leading the Polycom team.”
Leav has served as Polycom’s CEO since December, 2013. He has chosen to leave Polycom effective as of the close of the acquisition to pursue other opportunities. “Leading the Polycom team has been a phenomenal experience,” Leav said. “Mary is a terrific choice to lead the company after the acquisition closes. Polycom is on a great track to continue its success as a private entity.”
The company also announced yesterday that Polycom stockholders approved the previously announced acquisition of Polycom by entities affiliated with Siris Capital Group, LLC, at a special meeting of Polycom’s stockholders held on September 2, 2016.
