Chirico Jim (Jim Chirico)

Chirico Jim (Jim Chirico)

Jim Chirico began his career at Avaya in 2008. During his time at the company, he changed several leadership positions - in particular, he was the chief operating officer and head of global sales. Prior to that, he worked for Seagate and IBM. In the latter, Chirico worked for about 17 years, including the head of the network division.

2017: Appointment as Head of Avaya

On August 7, 2017, the manufacturer of unified communications solutions call centers Avaya and announced the appointment of Jim Chirico as the new CEO. The company is changing management ahead of the bankruptcy.

As head of Avaya, Jim Chirico will replace Kevin Kennedy, who will remain in the company as a consultant. Chirico will officially take over as CEO of Avaya on October 1, 2017.

Under Kennedy's leadership, Avaya became more of a software company: by August 2017, about 80% of the vendor's revenue came from the sale of software and services. However, the company did not have time for competitors in the transition to cloud technologies and mobile services, which caused large financial problems, due to which Avaya was forced to declare bankruptcy.

Concurrent with the change of chapter, Avaya announced a plan to restructure Avaya's debts under Chapter 11 of the  U.S. Bankruptcy Code. The submitted program was approved by more than 50% of creditors.

As part of the procedure, Avaya's debts on employee salaries and pensions were transferred to the US state pension insurance agency Pension Benefit Guarantee. The implementation of the plan will be monitored by the court, the hearing is scheduled for August 23, 2017. If a judge approves the proposed program, Avaya will emerge from bankruptcy protection, after which a reorganization will begin, the purpose of which, according to Chapter 11, should be to save the company.^[1]

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