8x8 2009 Annual Report Download - page 15

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served in various technical roles for the Company from April 1990 to August 1995. He received a B.S. and an M.S. in
Electrical Engineering from Stanford University.
Dan Weirich, President and Chief Financial Officer. Dan Weirich, age 35, has served as our President since
November 2008 and as our Chief Financial Officer since July 2006. From June 2006 to July 2006, Mr. Weirich served as our
Acting Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Weirich served as Vice President of Operations of the Company from April 2006 to June
2006 and Director of Strategic Sales from March 2004 to April 2006. From September 2001 to March 2004, Mr. Weirich
served as independent consultant in Asia and the United States. From October 1998 to September 2001, Mr. Weirich served as
Vice President of Business Development for iAsiaWorks. From March 1998 to October 1998, Mr. Weirich served as Manager
of Acquisition Integration at Qwest Communications and from August 1996 to March 1998, Mr. Weirich served as a Financial
Analyst and Product Manager for Phoenix Network. He received a B.S. in International Business from the University of
Colorado at Boulder.
Huw Rees, Vice President of Business Development. Huw Rees, age 48, has served as Vice President, Business
Development since November 2008. From January 2001 to November 2008, Mr. Rees served as our Vice President, Sales and
Marketing. He served as the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Company’ s wholly owned subsidiary, Centile, Inc.,
from July 2001 until September 2003. Additionally, he served as Vice President, Sales and Business Development of Centile
from March 2001 to July 2001. He served as Vice President, Sales of the Solutions Group of the Company from August 2000
until February 2001 and as Director, North American Sales of the Company from April 1999 to August 2000. He previously
worked at Mitel Corporation as Sales Manager of the Western Region and also in sales management roles at GEC Plessey Inc.
and Marconi PLC. He received a B.Sc. (Hons) from the University of Manchester, Institute of Science and Technology in
Electrical and Electronic Engineering and a M.B.A. from the University of LaVerne.
Debbie Jo Severin, Chief Marketing Officer and Vice President of Marketing. Debbie Jo Severin, age 49, has
served as Chief Marketing Officer and Vice President of Marketing since March 2009. From 2003 to March 2009, Ms. Severin
served as Vice President of Marketing for Covad Communications. From 1998 to 2003, Ms. Severin was Vice President of
Marketing for PrimeOne Tele-TV, Northpoint Communications and Valiant Networks. Between 1986 and 1998, Ms. Severin
served in various marketing roles for BellSouth Telecommunications and Pacific Bell.
ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS
If any of the following risks actually occur, our business, results of operations and financial condition could suffer
significantly.
The impact of the current economic climate and tight financing markets may impact customer demand for our
products and services.
Many of our existing and target customers are in the small and medium business sector. Although we believe our products and
services are less costly than traditional telephone services, these businesses may be more likely to be significantly affected by
economic downturns than larger, more established businesses. Additionally, these customers often have limited discretionary
funds, which they may choose to spend on items other than our products and services. If small and medium businesses
experience economic hardship, it could negatively affect the overall demand for our products and services, could cause delay
and lengthen sales cycles and could cause our revenue to decline.
Although the majority of our billing arrangements with customers are prepaid, we regularly monitor the percentage of
customers who cease to pay for our services due to closing their business. Even though our customer churn rates improved in
the fourth quarter of 2009, a larger percentage of our total customer churn was due to these issues in the fourth fiscal quarter,
and we cannot guarantee that we will continue to experience the same improvement in churn rates that we had in the fourth
quarter of 2009, especially given current economic conditions. Additionally, the combination of our sales cycle coupled with
challenging economic conditions could have a negative impact on the results of our operations.
The success of our Company is dependent on the growth and public acceptance of 8x8 Services.
Our future success as a Company depends on our ability to significantly increase revenues generated from our 8x8 services. In
turn, the success of our 8x8 voice and video communications services depends, among other things, upon future demand for
VoIP telephony systems and services. Because the use of our service requires that the user be a subscriber to an existing
broadband Internet service, usually provided through a cable or digital subscriber line, or DSL, connection, slow or limited