Scottsdale, Ariz., May 1, 2023 - Nextiva, the leading conversation platform, today announced the addition of four new channel leaders to its team. The newly expanded team will focus on developing and growing Nextiva’s partner channel, and bring to life a number of strategic initiatives, including driving visibility and demand around the company’s multi-site, distributed enterprise customer segment.

New leaders include:

• Scott Forbush - Vice President, Channel - West
• Jolynn Antonacci - Vice President, Channel Marketing
• Ed Pearce - Vice President, Channel - North
• Brandon Ackert - Strategic Partner Director
• And more to follow…

“We’re building the channel dream team at Nextiva,” said Olen Scott, Head of Channels at Nextiva. “We’re positioned for unprecedented success. Nextiva has the innovative technology portfolio millions of businesses need to solve their greatest communication challenges, and the mission now is to get that information into the hands of our partner community.”

Scott Forbush, a channel veteran with over 25 years of sales leadership, joins Nextiva as Vice President, Channel, West. Scott will oversee Nextiva’s channel sales and development activities on the West Coast. Before joining Nextiva, Forbush served as Senior Vice President of Global Sales at PPT Solutions, LLC, and prior to that, as Senior Vice President of Global Sales for Telarus, where he drove significant growth across the master agency’s six regional sales teams, and successfully expanded the company’s Cloud, UCaaS and SD-WAN practices.

“There’s something special happening right now at Nextiva,” said Forbush. “The next chapter in customer communications is being written and it extends far beyond traditional unified communications, and Nextiva is leading this charge.”

Jolynn Antonacci, the new Vice President of Channel Marketing, joins Nextiva with 15 years of experience in technology operations and marketing, including as the Vice President of Marketing at PPT Solutions, LLC, and Director, Channel Operations, Programs and Strategic Alliances at Aryaka Networks. At Nextiva, Antonacci will be responsible for amplifying Nextiva’s channel brand and driving demand through a variety of channel marketing programs and activities.

Ed Pearce joins Nextiva as Vice President, Channel, North, with over two decades of experience in channel and commercial sales leadership. Pearce’s focus at Nextiva will be channel sales and development for the North region. Most recently, Pearce served as Vice President of Sales, Global Channel Chief at Tangoe, and as Director, Channel Sales, North America, for Aryaka Networks. Prior to these roles, he held sales leadership positions at Brinks Home Security and Windstream Communications.

“The opportunity in front of us is massive, and I can’t imagine a better team to seize it,” said Pearce. “Nextiva has all the pieces in place to transform the world of business communications, and our partner community is on the front line of this change.

Brandon Ackert is joining Nextiva as Strategic Partner Director, and brings a wealth of channel experience through his positions at Mitel, Five9 and UJET, where he played an integral role in the successful launch and wide-spread adoption of UJET’s channel program. Most recently, Ackert served as Vice President, Channel Development at PPT Solutions, LLC, before joining Nextiva. Ackert will be focused on leveraging his technical vantage point and partner relationships to help drive visibility and demand around Nextiva’s multi-site, distributed enterprise customer segment.

Along with a $50 million investment into its partner channel within the last few years, Nextiva has also accelerated its product roadmap to deliver innovation and greater impact for its partners and their customers. In August 2022, Nextiva launched its next-generation workhub, NextivaOne, bringing together team and customer communications for the first time. Last month, Nextiva announced its acquisition of Simplify360, a leading AI customer experience platform, as part of the company’s mission to level the customer support playing field for businesses of all sizes. The acquisition will expand Nextiva’s core offerings to include social media, reputation management, live chat, and helpdesk CRM.

Learn more about Nextiva’s Partner Program here, and careers at Nextiva here.