Press kit

Soren Abildgaard is Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Avaya. Soren has more than two decades of experience in global software development and engineering at high-growth SaaS companies, with international experience leading cross-functional teams to create and bring software products to market.

He brings to Avaya his strong focus and deep expertise in delivering platforms and products that enable customers to design and deliver great digital experiences. Soren came to Avaya from Contentful where he was EVP of Engineering. Under his leadership, he scaled the Contentful Platform to service many of the world’s largest brands. He also served as EVP of Engineering at Zendesk, where his team enabled growth in excess of $1B. Prior to Zendesk, Soren was VP of Engineering at Adobe’s Advertising Cloud (through the acquisition of TubeMogul, where he led engineering). He has held senior product development positions at several companies including Autodesk and Microsoft.

Soren has a Master of Science in Engineering from Technical University in Denmark.

Nidal’s mission is to make a real difference to people’s lives in today’s digital world. He is an advocate for boundless innovation and teamwork, and with an international view and customer centricity at the fore, he works to empower and support Avaya customers and partners to define their own innovative and transformational cloud journeys.

In a career spanning 30 years as a sales leader, Nidal has been active in transforming business at three companies—NCR, ATT, and Avaya—and has spearheaded their ventures into new business lines.

Nidal holds a Master of Business Administration from Washington International University.

David Austin is Senior Vice President Corporate Development, Strategy and Alliances.  David is responsible for developing the company’s overall strategy for business operations and manages multiple strategic functions including corporate development, technology innovation and business alliances along with serving as Chief of Staff to the CEO.  David joined Avaya from Xeeva, Inc. a leader in cloud eProcurement, where he served as its Chief Operating Officer.  Previously, David worked in the advisory practice at PwC and prior to that he was co-founder of Contextware, Inc. an award winning business process and knowledge management software company.  He has held multiple management roles at Manugistics, Visteon and MCI Communications.   David earned his Bachelor of Arts in International Relations and Masters in International Business and Transactions both from George Mason University.

Peter Brant is the Senior Vice President of Americas Sales.  A veteran sales executive, Pete brings 20+ years of success leading and transforming direct and indirect software and SaaS sales teams for Global Enterprise. Pete has held sales leadership positions at major technology brands, including Extreme Network, Forcepoint, f5 Networks, and Fortinet.  He excels at driving hyper revenue growth, sales, and market share in competitive and fast-paced economic climates. He has a deep passion for and a proven track record of strategic business planning and development, and he is proud to have led his Americas team at Fortinet to deliver a billion dollars in annual revenue for the first time.

Pete’s educational background includes the Executive Management Program at the University of Washington and a bachelor’s degree in finance, marketing decision sciences from Western Washington University. 

Omar Javaid is the SVP and Chief Product Officer of Avaya. He has over 20 years of leadership experience in senior product and general management roles at Vonage, Google, Qualcomm, HP, and Motorola.

Most recently he was SVP & GM at Qualcomm, responsible for their global software product portfolio. Prior to Qualcomm he served as President, Nexmo, Vonage’s API BU after starting as their Chief Product Officer. At Vonage, he was part of the executive team which transformed the company from a telco into a leading enterprise software company in UCaaS, CCaaS, and CPaaS, culminating in a $6.2B acquisition by Ericsson.

Previously, Omar Javaid was vice president, product management at Motorola Mobility, a
Google company. He was part of the executive team that lead the successful turn-around of Motorola, leading to the $12.5B acquisition by Google. In this role, he was responsible for innovative smart phone, tablet, software and TV convergence products. During his tenure at Motorola, he designed and launched a number of successful and award-winning products, including the Razr I – the world’s first Intel-based smartphone by a major handset OEM – which was backed by a $100m marketing campaign. In addition to successfully managing and commercially launching hardware products, he also lead Motorola’s software, cloud services, and media strategy initiatives.

Prior to Motorola, Omar was an executive at Qualcomm for seven years after they acquired the last company he founded (Mobilocity). Prior to leaving he was VP marketing, strategy, and business development for the MediaFLO Technologies GBU.

Previously, Mr. Javaid was a successful executive and entrepreneur, bringing more than 15
years of technology and entrepreneurial experience in the Telecommunications, Media, and Internet industries with leading firms such as Deloitte & Touche. Omar holds degrees in chemistry and cellular & molecular biology from the University of Michigan, and executive education at Harvard Business School and Stanford University.

Marylou Maco is Chief Revenue and Customer Experience Officer at Avaya. She brings over 25 years of experience driving go–to–market strategy, sales channels, customer success, and field operations at high-growth software and cloud companies. Maco served as the Executive Vice President of Worldwide Sales and Field Operations at Genesys, where she led the GTM SaaS transformation over consecutive years of high growth. Under her leadership, the company grew revenues to greater than $1.9 billion, with year-over-year growth more than double the rate of prior fiscal years as the company completed its transition to becoming a cloud company.

Before Genesys, she served in several sales executive leadership positions, including at Anaplan, CogntiveScale, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Oracle, and Cisco Systems.

Maco attended Penn State University, majoring in Management and Related Support Services.

Al Morales is the Chief Transformation Officer at Avaya. He brings more than 30 years of global leadership experience in finance, business transformation, controllership, pricing, contracting, and policy. Morales has successfully lead company-wide transformation programs focused on enabling business excellence and innovation. He has held leadership roles at organizations such as PwC, TD SYNNEX, Tech Data, AmerisourceBergen, and AT&T, and most recently served as the Chief Transformation Officer at automotive supplier Tenneco.

Al is a Certified Public Accountant and obtained his bachelor’s degree in accounting and master of science, taxation, from Florida International University.

Josh Mueller is the SVP and Chief Marketing Officer, and General Manager of Hardware, at Avaya. He brings 20 years of experience in driving growth and leading go-to-market strategies, with a focus on delivering experiences that matter for customers. At Avaya, Josh oversees worldwide marketing and communications activities and Avaya’s hardware business, including Supply Chain, Procurement and Devices.

Before joining Avaya, he served as the SVP and Chief Digital Officer, and GM of the Portfolio Business Unit, at NI (National Instruments). He has also held key positions such as Chief Digital Officer at Vonage, Chief Marketing Officer at Dun & Bradstreet and multiple leadership roles at Dell Technologies.

Josh’s educational background includes a master’s degree in business administration from The University of Texas at Austin and a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Texas A&M University.

Amy O’Keefe is the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Avaya, bringing over 30 years of global financial experience and leadership to her role in private and public companies. Most recently, she was the CFO for WW International, Inc, better known as Weight Watchers, a publicly held weight management company.

Before WW, she held CFO positions for over a decade for several private-equity portfolio companies, mainly in the consumer products space and all needing transformational change to unlock value. For nearly half of her career, she held various executive roles at The Black & Decker Corporation, culminating into the CFO of the Worldwide Power Tools and Accessories Division. She began her career at Ernst & Young and is a long-inactive Certified Public Accountant.

Amy graduated Summa Cum Laude from Loyola University in Baltimore, Maryland. She and her daughter currently reside in New York, New York.

Kamilah Thomas is the Senior Vice President and Chief People Officer at Avaya, bringing more than 20 years of vision-forward global Human Resources and transformation leadership experience for both private and public companies. She was most recently SVP, People & Workplace Services at Roku, after previously serving as Chief People Officer at Dow Jones, and also actively serves as a corporate board director for Mastercraft Boat Holdings and non-for-profit board trustee of Success Academy Charter Schools.

Kamilah is deeply committed to driving customer-centric and data-informed strategies for organizational excellence, scaling businesses through rapid growth phases by building talent capabilities, delightful experiences, and an inclusive culture to help people unlock their full potential. She cares for the full range of the employee life cycle, particularly in the context of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging.

Kamilah completed an Executive Management Program at Harvard Business School and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Lincoln University.