02/03/2021

Genesys Appoints Kelly Battles as First Independent Member of Company Operating Committee

Battles to lead audit committee; company adds new chief accounting officer Sharon Virag

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 3, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Genesys, a global leader in cloud customer experience and contact center solutions, today announced Kelly Battles has joined its operating committee – the company's governance and oversight body with responsibilities much like a board of directors. Battles joins as its first independent member and chair of its audit committee. The company also appointed Sharon Virag as chief accounting officer. Battles and Virag bring decades of finance, audit, and corporate governance experience to Genesys which is critical as the company continues to accelerate its growth.

"Our business has never been stronger and now is the time to deepen our financial leadership," said Tony Bates, chief executive officer of Genesys. "The additions of Kelly and Sharon will enable Genesys to increase our focus on the strategic and operational finance functions essential to our next phase of growth. Together, these appointments will help us strengthen our corporate governance, position us to achieve our financial goals and maximize company value."

As the first independent member of the Genesys operating committee and chair of the audit committee, Battles will provide oversight for the company's financial reporting, audit and systems of internal controls. She draws upon more than 30 years of leadership expertise driving SaaS companies' financial transformations. Currently, she holds appointments on the boards of directors and audit committees for Arista Networks and DataStax and has also served as audit committee chair of the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Directors. Previously, she was chief financial officer (CFO) for Quora, Bracket Computing and Host Analytics and has held leadership roles with IronPort Systems, Cisco Systems, Hewlett Packard, McKinsey and J.P. Morgan.

"It's rare to find a company with the people, culture and market opportunity that Genesys has right now," said Kelly Battles, Genesys operating committee member and audit chair. "With its diverse solution-set driven by digital-first innovations leveraging the cloud and AI, the company is on a significant upward trajectory. It's a pivotal time to join the company, and I intend to help Genesys position itself for enduring success."

As chief accounting officer (CAO), Virag will lead the company's global accounting, tax, internal controls, procurement, sourcing and facilities teams. She brings to Genesys extensive experience helping complex global organizations optimize processes, recruit and develop talent, and improve internal controls to adhere to the most stringent financial reporting requirements.

Prior to her role at Genesys, Virag was CFO at NeoGenomics Labs and was CAO at Aetna and AES Corp. She also held several financial leadership roles at General Electric Company and General Motors Company. Prior to that, she was a director at the U.S. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) and was a member of the Deloitte & Touche audit staff. In addition, Virag previously served as a member of the Financial Accounting Standards Advisory Council (FASAC) for the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB.)

About Genesys
Every year, Genesys® delivers more than 70 billion remarkable customer experiences for organizations in over 100 countries. Through the power of the cloud and AI, our technology connects every customer moment across marketing, sales and service on any channel, while also improving employee experiences. Genesys pioneered Experience as a Service^SM so organizations of any size can provide true personalization at scale, interact with empathy, and foster customer trust  and loyalty. This is enabled by Genesys Cloud^TM, an all-in-one solution and the world's leading public cloud contact center platform, designed for rapid innovation, scalability and flexibility. Visit www.genesys.com.

©2020 Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, Inc. All rights reserved. Genesys, the Genesys logo, Genesys Cloud and Experience as a Service are trademarks, service marks and/or registered trademarks of Genesys. All other company names and logos may be registered trademarks or trademarks of their respective companies. 

Contacts:
Rachel Faulkner
Director of Public Relations
Genesys
Rachel.faulkner@genesys.com
+1 317-403-1781

Erin Olsson
Nectar Communications
genesys@nectarpr.com
+1 415-244-5959

SOURCE Genesys