Michael Purcell

About Michael Purcell

I was born an engineer, doing very “engineer” things like dismantling my broken toys in attempts to fix them, excelling in math and science, playing drums, performing DIY maintenance on the family cars, working as a Co-Op at AT & T and IBM and going on to complete a BSEE at NC State and a MSEE at Georgia Tech. Back in 1997, the easiest way into Cisco was through the TAC and I was a natural problem-solver so it was the perfect job for me and offered a priceless opportunity to learn from the brightest minds in the networking industry. I became CCIE #4110 on my one-year anniversary with Cisco. Wanting to put my post-sales experience and my newly acquired CCIE crown to good use, I became a pre-sales Systems Engineer. Being addicted to over-achievement, I added five other CCIEs over the next five years. Having been involved with Cisco AVVID since the acquisition of Selsius, I became a Consulting Systems Engineer for Unified Communications, covering US Federal civilian agencies. This was during the golden age of TDM PBX replacement and I was thrilled to be assisting in the migration of some of the largest voice deployments in the world. Then in early 2011, facing the prospect of three kids in daycare, this natural-born engineer moved into a sales role and became a Product Sales Specialist.From 2011 to 2019, I enjoyed the privilege of helping establish, expand and enhance the collaboration solutions of the school district I graduated from, the university that is my family legacy and the state government agencies whose services my friends and family use every day. This move offered a change from nationwide air travel to statewide car travel, a change from US Federal accounts to North Carolina SLED accounts and a change from engineering to sales. I have enjoyed nearly a decade of working with the state that my family is proud to call home, since settling here in the mid-1700’s.Then in November 2019, after 22+ years at Cisco, I moved to Zoom who had recently released their cloud PBX platform, Zoom Phone. My thinking was that if Zoom delivered on Phone like it had on Meetings, then the world would soon have a new #1 cloud voice offering. The first year it was eligible, Zoom Phone debuted as a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for UCaaS, unheard of in the industry. Since then, we\'ve released Contact Center, Revenue Accelerator, Workvivo, Whiteboard, Workspaces, Docs, Clips, Calendar & Mall and a whole lot of AI technology, all at a breakneck pace! Buckle up, who knows what the next few years will give us?

Experience

1. Account Executive

   Zoom

   Nov 2019 — Present

   Zoom Phone Account Executive for Healthcare, Education and Enterprise.I am eager to assist customers with their plans to migrate from premised-based Unified Communications to cloud-based Unified Communications. I am fortunate to have been at Cisco through the entire market transition from TDM-based telephony to IP-based Unified Communications and wish to apply my experience in helping potential Zoom Phone customers navigate this latest transition.

Education

• North Carolina State University

  Bachelor of Science - BS, Electrical Engineering

  1991 — 1996

• Georgia Institute of Technology

  Master of Science - MS, Electrical Engineering

  1996 — 1997