Menlo Park, Calif, 19 January 2022 - Permira, the global private equity firm, today announced the appointment of Barry O’Sullivan as a Senior Advisor, focusing on technology investments.
Barry brings over 25 years of experience in technology, with a proven track record of scaling and transforming leading technology companies. He served most recently as Executive Vice President and General Manager of Digital and AI for Permira portfolio company Genesys, a global cloud leader in customer experience orchestration. At Genesys, Barry was responsible for driving growth and innovation with digital and AI capabilities across the company’s entire solutions portfolio. Previously, he led Genesys Multicloud CX™ and served on its Board of Directors from 2018 to 2019.
Prior to joining Genesys, Barry served as a Senior Advisor to Permira and a Managing Director at Palo Alto Technology Partners, an advisory firm that helps companies scale globally. Prior to that, he was CEO and Founder of Altocloud, the cloud-based artificial intelligence company acquired by Genesys in 2018.
Before founding Altocloud, Barry served as a Senior Vice President and General Manager for Cisco Systems, where he led several multi-billion-dollar divisions including Collaboration, Unified Communications, and Voice over IP, which he led from number six to the number one market share position worldwide.
Brian Ruder, Partner and Co-Head of Technology at Permira, said: “We are thrilled to welcome Barry back to the Permira team. His appointment reflects Permira’s commitment to partnering with management teams and bringing deep industry expertise to build and globally scale the technology companies we invest in. As our portfolio of leading technology businesses continues to grow, I am confident they will benefit from Barry’s extensive experience and knowledge, particularly in the areas of artificial intelligence and machine learning.”
Barry O’Sullivan added: “I couldn’t be more excited to rejoin Permira and again have the opportunity to work with the incredible management teams of Permira’s portfolio companies. During my time at Genesys, I experienced first-hand how effective and collaborative a partner Permira is, and I look forward to teaming up with some of the best technology companies in the world to help advance their growth and innovation goals.”
Effective from 1st February 2022, Barry will be joining the Permira team, as a Senior Adviser, which has deployed more than $17bn in the technology sector, across 61 companies. Over the course of the last year, Permira has invested in leading technology and digital businesses including G2, FullStory, Sysdig, mParticle, AllTrails, CommentSold and more.
