Meet Mike Donnelly, Five9 RVP of Systems Integrators

As we move into Q2 of 2023, Five9 continues to invest in our people. One of CEO, Mike Burkland’s, key initiatives is investing in select partnerships and leveraging the advisory and consultative leadership of Global SI partners. We are excited to announce that Five9 has hired industry-veteran and Salesforce-practice leader, Mike Donnelly, to lead global partner enablement. 

In his new role, Mike will work with product teams to deliver automation, engagement, and analytics to our global clients. He will also help lead development for joint value creation and messaging for vertical markets for specific industry solutions.   

Five9 is excited to have Mike join the team, so we thought it would be fun to talk with him about Five9, high tech, and life outside Five9. 

Mike, did you always want to work in technology? 

Kind of, when I was young. I was the youngest child in my family and not allowed to stay at home alone. My parents made me go to the bank with them on Fridays to deposit their checks. I remember hating the wait in line and said, "When I grow up, I’m going to figure out how to make the wait shorter." I started my career in the contact center space running operations for a BPO. That exposed me to the technologies that enable customer service. After 15 years in the contact center, I decided it was time to help organizations improve their contact centers and became a technology consultant.    

If you didn't work in tech, what would you be doing? 

I would probably be a teacher. I have 30 years of contact center, technology consulting, Salesforce, and CCaaS experience. The most rewarding part of my job is educating people on how technology works and how functionality makes their lives easier. I believe everyone is a life-long student and teacher. Most just don’t know it yet.    

What brought you to Five9? 

The past 12 years, I ran Salesforce practices for PwC and Slalom focused on service transformation. The technology that powers the world is evolving and this continually raises our CX expectations as consumers. Organizations need to keep up with customer expectations or get left behind. There are three primary cloud technologies that power the modern customer experience: CRM, data warehouse, and CCaaS.  

I have been a customer and partner with Five9 since 2009. I have delivered some great solutions over the years combining CRM and CCaaS. I joined Five9 to help our clients understand the value of our CCaaS platform and how the technology makes their lives and jobs easier 

What are your goals for this year? 

My goals are focused on two key areas:  

Continue to build trusted relationships with Five9 Global SI partners, continue to educate and work with sales teams, and support business development. I also want to focus on thought leadership, including developing best practices, shaping the direction of projects, and educating our mutual clients and customers, 

What do you like to do for fun? 

I am the proud father of three athletic girls. I have spent most of my weekends over the last 15 years coaching travel softball and basketball. I would like to eventually get back to sitting on the beach or golfing.  

What are three things people don't know about you? 

1. I was a Five9 enterprise customer from 2009-2011. NCO Group was one of the first BPOs to offer customer solutions leveraging Salesforce CRM and Five9. NCO raised the bar for the industry and was the Winner of two TMC CRM excellence awards for client solutions leveraging Five9 and Salesforce (2010 and 2011). 

2. I have flown over 1M miles (about 1609344 km) helping customers better support the Customer Lifecycle.  

3. I have coached high-level travel softball teams for 10+ years. I am fortunate that my teams prepared and won more than a dozen East coast and Mid-Atlantic state tournaments.  

Welcome to the Five9 team, Mike! 

To learn more about our solutions visit Five9.com