Avaya Australia appoints fourth MD in two years

Avaya ANZ has appointed telecommunications industry veteran Peter Chidiac (pictured) as its new managing director.

Chidiac's resume includes various positions at Nuance Communications from 2000 to 2012, most notably as managing director from 2008 until his departure.

He went on to head up the Asia-Pacific business of eLoyalty and left after 10 months to join Sydney-based solutions provider Veridian Solutions in 2013.

In October 2014, Chidiac became Australian managing director of global mobile network operator Truphone.

CRN contacted Avaya and Chidiac but had not received a comment from either party at the time of writing.

Chidiac becomes Avaya's fourth local managing director in two years. In 2014, former managing director Tim Gentry left the unified communications vendor to take a role at Avaya's US business. He was replaced by former Equinix boss Tony Simonsen, who was only in the role for 16 months before leaving. He went on to head up the Australian business for Polycom in November 2015.

Simonsen was replaced by Avaya director of enterprise and government Jeff Sheard, who left after just seven months to join analytics startup Qotient as Asia-Pacific managing director.

Avaya general manager of services Darren Read had filled in as acting managing director since Sheard departed in January 2016.