Cloud Software Industry Veteran Michael Haske Succeeds CEO and Co-Founder Olivier Pailhes to Lead Next Chapter of Aircall’s Growth
Aircall, the business phone system, announced that Michael Haske will join the company as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) effective September 2, 2022. Haske, previously the President and Chief Operating Officer at Paylocity, will succeed Aircall CEO Olivier Pailhes. Pailhes co-founded Aircall in 2014 and has led the global company to achieve over $1bn valuation and scale to serve more than 13,000 customers in over 100 countries. Pailhes will remain on the board and continue to serve as a strategic advisor to the company.
Haske joins Aircall at a pivotal time as the company has recently reached centaur status with $100m Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) and continues to expand globally. He brings nearly three decades of experience in scaling high-growth, cloud-based software businesses and will continue driving Aircall’s global leadership in the cloud communications industry and further its mission to empower every professional to have richer conversations.
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“Michael not only brings the right experience and leadership to accelerate Aircall’s global momentum, he deeply understands the importance of cultivating a diverse, employee-centric culture – which has been instrumental to Aircall’s success to date. I am very proud of the hard work and success the Aircall team has delivered so far, and this change is a testimony of our ambition to build a global leader in the communications space.” — Olivier Pailhes, CEO and Co-Founder, Aircall
Haske most recently served as President and Chief Operating Officer of cloud-based Payroll & Human Resources software company Paylocity, where he led the company’s growth from 100 employees and $15 million in revenue to being on track to reach 5,000 employees and $1 billion in revenue. In 2014 Haske and the Paylocity leadership team took the company public on NASDAQ under ticker symbol PCTY. He’s also served in multiple leadership roles including Executive Sponsor at Blue Marble Payroll, Director of Marketing for Paychex (NASDAQ : PAYX) and various roles with ADP (NYSE : ADP).
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“Olivier and Jonathan set a strong foundation and built an incredible company and culture with tremendous potential and opportunity ahead. It’s an exciting time to be joining Aircall and I look forward to leading its next evolution as we continue to provide the most modern cloud communications tools to our clients and strive to be one the best places to work in the world for our employees. It’s an honor to lead the company into its next chapter and beyond.” — Michael Haske, Incoming CEO, Aircall
Pailhes, alongside his co-founders Jonathan Anguelov, Pierre-Baptiste Béchu and Xavier Durand, launched Aircall in 2014 after seeing the need for a better communication platform for businesses to interact with their customers. Jonathan Anguelov will remain in his role as General Manager of Aircall’s EMEA and APAC business. Worldwide, Aircall is among a small group of 150 private SaaS companies to reach Centaur status and will continue building on this recent achievement with expansion plans in Singapore and Madrid later this year.