Akron, Ohio, June 12, 2012 -- Virtual Hold Technology(R) (VHT(R)), a provider in conversation strategies that bridge the gap between customers using self-service applications and people who can help, has appointed Wes Hayden chief executive officer (CEO). As president of Technology Advisory Partners, Hayden has been a consultant to VHT for the last year.

A well respected technology and contact center industry veteran, Hayden has served as president and CEO of Genesys Telecommunication Laboratories and as president of LiveOps, a provider of on-demand contact center solutions; he also led the Enterprise Division of Nuance Communications, a publicly-traded maker of speech and digital imaging software. As CEO of Genesys, Hayden significantly grew the company’s revenue and established it as the contact center industry platform leader. While there, he became acquainted with VHT as a Genesys partner in providing queue management solutions that end long hold times for callers to enterprise contact centers.

"After closely following VHT’s growth for many years, I’m extremely excited about our potential to transform the way companies interact with their customers," Hayden said. "VHT’s new Conversation Bridge™ platform will greatly impact the customer experience – a clear area of focus for so many companies today. We will continue to innovate and demonstrate market leadership by providing simple solutions to the complex business of handling customer interactions."

Hayden replaces Kevin Sjodin, who has served as CEO of VHT since 2008 and who oversaw VHT’s agile software development transformation. Sjodin will continue with VHT in a senior advisory position.