Number of Portfolio Companies 1
Number of Current Board & Advisor Roles 5
  • Primary Job Title Chairman and CEO
  • Primary Organization 
    Genesys
  • Investor Type  Individual/Angel
  • Investor Stage  Seed

Tony Bates is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Genesys. He leads the company’s strategy, direction and operations in more than 100 countries and oversees a global team of more than 5,000 employees.

Tony has decades of experience steering business-to-business and business-to-consumer companies through major market transitions and rapid

scaling. A passionate technologist at heart, Tony began his career in network operations and internet infrastructure, teaching himself to code during his daily train commute. He swiftly gained the business acumen to advance into trusted executive roles at some of the world’s most respected global SaaS companies.

Career highlights include leading Cisco’s Service Provider business, growing its Enterprise and Commercial division to more than $20 billion in annual revenue and serving as CEO of Skype, where he was responsible for expanding the business to over 170 million connected users. Once Skype was acquired by Microsoft, Tony became president where he was responsible for unified communications before serving as executive vice president of business development and developers.

In addition to his role at Genesys, Tony continues to serve on the board of directors at both VMWare and eBay.

Number of Investments 1
Tony Bates invested in Echo AI on Jan 1, 2016. This investment - Seed Round - Echo AI - was valued at
$1.1M
.
Announced Date  
Organization Name  
Lead Investor  
Funding Round  
Money Raised  
Jan 1, 2016
Echo AI
Seed Round - Echo AI
$1.1M
Number of Current Jobs 1
Number of Past Jobs 8
Tony Bates is the Chairman and CEO at Genesys. Additionally, Tony Bates has had 8 past jobs including CEO, Growth at Social Capital.
Organization Name  
Title At Company  
Start Date  
End Date  
Social Capital
CEO, GrowthJun 2014Dec 2017
GoPro
President2014Dec 2016
Microsoft
Executive Vice President, Business Development & EvangelismJun 2013Mar 2014
Microsoft
Talent Sourcing, Executive Vice President Business Development and Evangelism20102012
Cisco
Senior Vice President & General ManagerOct 4, 2010
Cisco
Various Roles1996Oct 2010
Cisco
Senior Vice President and General Manager of Enterprise
Skype
CEOOct 4, 2010
Number of Current Board & Advisor Roles 5
Number of Past Board & Advisor Roles 4
Tony Bates holds 5 board and advisor roles including Board Member at VMware, Member of the Board of Directors at eBay, and Member of the Board of Advisors at Vuclip.
Organization Name  
Title At Company  
Start Date  
End Date  
Sirius XM
Member of the Board of DirectorsSep 2013Feb 2016
Microsoft
Member of the Board of Directors
GoPro
Member of the Board of Directors2014
Netskope
Board Member
Number of Events 2
Tony Bates has participated in 2 events. They most recently attended, or will attend, Digital Entertainment World 2016 on Feb 9, 2016.