Skype Names David Gurle to Lead Skype for Business Team

Skype today announced that it has hired David Gurle as the new General Manager and Vice President of its Skype for Business unit. He replaces Stefan Oberg, who will be leaving Skype in March 2010.

David Gurle joins Skype from Thomson Reuters, where he served as its Global Head of Collaboration Services and Head of its largest business in Asia, the Sales & Trading Business Division.

Prior to joining Thomson Reuters, he spent more than three years running Microsoft's Real Time Communications business, a group that he founded. During this time, he oversaw the development of the company's collaboration products including NetMeeting, Windows Messenger, Exchange IM, Exchange Conferencing Server, Live Communications Server and Office Communications Server, as well as Microsoft's acquisition of PlaceWare.

David Gurle

Prior to Microsoft, he was Corporate Vice President, Business Alliances at VocalTec, the IP telephony pioneer, where he established and managed partnerships with a number of Tier I telecommunications service providers and hardware vendors, including Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom and Marconi.

He also spent time at ETSI, France Telecom and started his career at Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). David has also co-authored a number of books on VoIP and IP Telephony.

He graduated ESIGETEL with a Masters of Science degree in Computer Science and Telecommunications.

"Since its inception, Skype has been used by many entrepreneurs and small businesses to save money on their communications," said David Gurle.

"Moving forward, our goal is to educate and attract larger organizations that can not only save money by using Skype to communicate, but also increase their organizational productivity and enhance the way they interact with customers around the globe."