PanTerra Hires New Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing

PanTerra (News - Alert) Networks, the premier provider of cloud-based unified communications (UC) solutions for small and mid-sized enterprises, has appointed Gene "Skip" Lane as executive vice president of sales and marketing.

Skip holds an extensive executive-level sales experience with a proven track record of increasing revenues and shareholder value.

In his new role, he will be responsible of reporting directly to Arthur Chang (News - Alert), president and CEO.

Over the past few years, Skip has been very successful at producing rapid growth with several telecommunications and data communications companies.

"I am very excited about PanTerra Networks as the company is positioned to lead the cloud-based communications evolution, with their WorldSmart Unified Communications (News - Alert) offering. PanTerra is truly the industry leader," Skip Lane said in a press release. "I am privileged to be part of PanTerra's top-notch management team and look forward to increasing sales and driving business initiatives to grow revenue for the company."

Prior to joining PanTerra, Skip ran Revenue Velocity, a boutique communications consulting firm servicing telecom, software, and wireless technology companies.

Before Velocity, he served as senior VP of sales & business development for Intelliverse (News - Alert), an Atlanta based IP Communications firm selling UC to the SMB market. He has also worked as CEO of Razor IP, an IP communications services provider, serving SMBs through multiple distribution channels.

Lane served Direct Line Communications Direct Line, sold in 2006, as CEO and helped it become EBITDA positive in just 18 months. He also worked as president, and CEO of Network One, a VC backed, facilities-based CLEC, located in Atlanta, GA.

"Skip's superb attention to developing growth through direct, indirect and wholesale channels, coupled with his deep networking contacts, are sure to result in rapid sales growth and increasing shareholder value," said Arthur Chang, PanTerra's chief executive officer. "Skip has had his finger on the pulse of cutting-edge technology in the digital communications world for more than 25 years. He is definitely the right person to take on this executive level Sales & Marketing role. Skip gets results."

In related news, PanTerra Networks has signed an agreement with McGraw Communications (News - Alert), a competitive local exchange carrier and provider of voice, data and Internet services since 1996 to offer a private branded version of WorldSmart, PanTerra's cloud based unified communications service offering.