PLEASANTON, CA--(Marketwire - Oct 24, 2011) - [ Polycom, Inc ]. (NASDAQ: [ PLCM ]), the global leader in standards-based unified communications (UC), today announced the appointment of David Ruggiero to Theater President, North America. Reporting to Tracey Newell, EVP of Global Sales, Ruggiero is responsible for leading sales strategy and execution for the North America theater, Polycom's largest geographic region by revenue.

Ruggiero brings to Polycom nearly 25 years of professional sales, operations, finance, and management experience in enterprise, commercial, small business, government, and service provider segments. He has held executive sales leadership positions for major IT, software, and telecommunications companies, and has deep experience in direct and partner/channel sales, in the U.S. and internationally.

Most recently, Ruggiero was Area Vice President for Cisco, responsible for the sales and partner relationship with AT&T. In this role, Ruggiero led a direct team of over 300 people and an extended support team of over 500. Before that, Ruggiero ran sales for Cisco's fast-growing Commercial South Area region. Prior to Cisco, Ruggiero spent several years at Avaya running sales (including sales operations) in the Western U.S., as well as EMEA, and also held sales leadership positions at Qwest and AT&T.

"David has a stellar record in sales leadership and execution, and he delivers big results," said Newell. "I've worked with David before, and I'm delighted to have him now join Polycom in this strategic role. I know that David will hit the ground running in our North American theater -- he's a master at working with customers and the channel to drive both sales and customer satisfaction."

"I'm thrilled to join Polycom, a company on the move with a world-class executive team, and a compelling strategy and vision to grow the market and make video collaboration ubiquitous," said Ruggiero. "Video collaboration has become mission-critical in business, both within the traditional office setting and increasingly via mobile devices such as tablets. I'm very excited to charge into a role with so much opportunity for customers, partners, and Polycom."

David holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Government from Hamilton College. He also attended an overseas program with Syracuse University in Florence, Italy.

About Polycom
Polycom is the global leader in standards-based unified communications (UC) solutions for [ telepresence ], [ video ], and [ voice ], powered by the Polycom RealPresence platform. The RealPresence platform interoperates with the broadest range of business, mobile and social applications and devices. More than 400,000 organizations trust Polycom solutions to collaborate and meet face to face from any location for more productive and effective engagement with colleagues, partners, customers and prospects. Polycom, together with its broad partner ecosystem, provides customers with the best TCO, scalability, and security -- on-premises, hosted or cloud delivered. Visit [ www.polycom.com ] or connect with Polycom on [ Twitter ], [ Facebook ], and [ LinkedIn ].

NOTE: The product plans, specifications, and descriptions herein are provided for information only and subject to change without notice, and are provided without warranty of any kind, express or implied. Polycom reserves the right to modify future product plans at any time. Products and related specifications referenced herein are not guaranteed and will be delivered on a when and if available basis.

© 2011 Polycom, Inc. All rights reserved. POLYCOM®, the Polycom "Triangles" logo, and the names and marks associated with Polycom's products are trademarks and/or service marks of Polycom, Inc. and are registered and/or common law marks in the United States and various other countries. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.