VirtuOz Names Eric Hahn and Karen Richardson to Board of Directors
Software Industry Veterans Position the Company for Growth
SAN FRANCISCO/PRNewswire/ -- VirtuOz, the leading provider
of intelligent, multilingual virtual support and sales agent solutions,
today announced the appointment of Eric Hahn, founder of Inventures
Group, and Karen Richardson, advisor to Silver Lake Partners, to its
Board of Directors. Both Hahn and Richardson are experienced technology
entrepreneurs and bring extensive operational and leadership expertise
to the company. They join MDV partner David Feinleib and Galileo
Partners' Francois Duliege on the VirtuOz board.
(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090129/AQTH016LOGO)
"Especially in this difficult financial climate, it is exciting to
watch VirtuOz's technology dramatically reducing the cost of customer
support while simultaneously increasing customer satisfaction,"
commented Eric Hahn. "VirtuOz developers have made significant
contributions to the commercial application of artificial intelligence
and natural language understanding, and have developed a unique
solution to power their virtual support and sales agents. The agents
learn from every interaction, improve their responses over time, and
engage with customers in an interactive dialogue much like a
conversation with a live person. I'm thrilled to work with a team that
has built a vibrant and profitable business with over 25 agents
installed worldwide."
Eric Hahn is the founding partner of the Inventures Group, a leading
mentor investment firm based in Palo Alto, California. At Inventures,
Mr. Hahn has served as a director and has been actively involved with
companies including Red Hat, Zimbra, Opsware, Proofpoint, and Good
Technology. Previously, Mr. Hahn served as the CTO for Netscape
Communications, Inc. Mr. Hahn was the founder and CEO of Collabra
Software, Inc., a leading groupware provider that was acquired by
Netscape in 1995. Mr. Hahn began his career at Bolt, Beranek and
Newman, where he worked on the ARPAnet, the precursor to the Internet.
"Most companies have implemented some form of CRM (Customer
Relationship Management) solution and consider those technologies core
to their business," commented Karen Richardson. "Companies now need to
invest in solutions that allow them to interact more effectively and
efficiently with their customers and provide customers with a better
overall experience. I'm pleased to be working with a company that has
clear proof points and demonstrable ROI: VirtuOz intelligent virtual
agents have helped customers reduce email volumes up to 50% and phone
volumes up to 20% while delivering resolution rates over 90%.
Additionally, the VirtuOz solutions extend beyond support and service
to include agents for marketing and guided selling, which drive
incremental revenue -- another way that VirtuOz distinguishes itself
from the competition."
Karen Richardson brings over 20 years of experience to the VirtuOz
board as a key player in several well-known and highly successful
technology companies. Karen is an adviser to Silver Lake Partners, a
$16 billion private equity investment firm. She is Chairman of the
Board for Hi5, one of the world's largest and fastest growing social
networking sites, and also serves on the advisory board of the Stanford
Technology Ventures Program. Prior to VirtuOz, Richardson was CEO of
Epiphany, a leading provider of marketing analytics and web
personalization. She also held senior sales positions at Netscape,
during which the company's sales grew from $80 million to over $500
million annually. Prior to her position at Netscape, Karen was VP of
Worldwide Sales at Collabra Software, Inc.; worked for four years with
Lotus Development Corporation in a variety of sales and marketing roles
as well as at cc:Mail, and 3Com Corporation.
"Karen and Eric are fantastic additions to our board. They both have
outstanding track records in working with market leading technology
companies and helping them to scale," said VirtuOz CEO and co-founder
Alexandre Lebrun. "Their industry knowledge and experience will give us
the kind of strategic and tactical insight that will help to accelerate
our growth and maximize the opportunity that we have in the $600
billion customer care and online sales markets."
The appointment of Hahn and Richardson comes on the heels of the
completion of an $11.4 million Series B round of investment from
MDV-Mohr Davidow Ventures, Galileo Partners and Hahn's Inventures
Group. VirtuOz has company headquarters in the Bay Area and will use
proceeds from the financing to scale operations, advance the product
roadmap and deliver solutions to a broader set of customers. VirtuOz
has installed over 25 virtual agent solutions in 7 languages worldwide.
About VirtuOz
VirtuOz delivers intelligent, multilingual virtual support and sales
agent solutions to online businesses tasked with dramatically reducing
support costs, while improving customer satisfaction and driving
incremental revenue. Through significant developments in artificial
intelligence and natural language processing, VirtuOz allows
ubiquitous, personal and natural interaction between humans and
Internet-based services -- VirtuOz support and sales agents -- on a
24/7 basis. Our intelligent virtual agent solution interacts with
customers online via chat and instant messenger interfaces to deliver
support and sales information effectively and efficiently. The longer
VirtuOz agents are in use at a company, the more valuable they become
as their efficacy and success rates increase. Current customers
include: online marketplace leader eBay.fr, travel agency
Voyages-sncf.com, telecom service provider AOL-Neuf, insurance group
MMA.fr, and financial services provider Banque Accord. For more
information visit: http://www.virtuoz.com/.
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Source: VirtuOz
CONTACT: Media, Cynthia Beckwith of VirtuOz, +1-415-202-5669,
cbeckwith@virtuoz.com
Web site:
http://www.virtuoz.com/
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