Former Cisco Exec Takes Helm At Polycom

Video conferencing equipment vendor Polycom has a new CEO: former Cisco Systems and Tandberg executive Andrew Miller was named to the post on 10 May.

Miller replaces Robert Hagerty, who is resigning as CEO and board chairman and is leaving his position on the board. Miller’s appointment is effective immediately, and Hagerty will stay around a while as an adviser to help with the transition for both Miller and David DeWalt, who will become chairman of the board.

Miller has been with Polycom since 2009, when he took over as vice president of global field operations. Prior to that, he spent 11 years at Cisco as a sales, marketing and services executive, and served as CEO of Tandberg.

“As the leading independent company in the fast-growing unified collaboration space, I believe Polycom is uniquely positioned to capture this significant market opportunity,” Miller said in a statement.

Cisco Acquires Tandberg

Polycom is in an interesting position as a stand-alone company in a space that is seeing its share of consolidation. Logitech late in 2009 bought LifeSize Communications for $405 million, and Cisco recently closed its $3.4 billion acquisition of Tandberg.

Officials for these companies are expecting rapid growth as businesses look for ways to pare expenses, and turn to video collaboration as a way to cut travel costs and increase employee productivity.

In an interview in March, Chuck Stucki, vice president and general manager of Cisco’s TelePresence business, said in the five years since his company introduced its TelePresence products business has grown to about 600 global customers. Stucki also said revenue could grow to about $1 billion now that the Tandberg deal is complete, and the worldwide market could grow from $3 billion in 2010 to $10 billion over the next five to seven years.