Barry Zwarenstein has been hired at Five9 as the cloud-based call center software vendor’s new Chief Financial Offer, according to company officials.

Zwarenstein is a well-known figure in the technology industry, with over 35 years of experience in the tech community and on Wall Street. Mike Burkland, Chief Executive Officer of Five9 (News - Alert), cited Zwarenstein’s “extensive experience in the equity and debt markets” and “successful navigation of the IPO process for prior companies” as factors influencing the decision to hire him.

Zwarenstein was CFO for SMART Modular Technologies (News - Alert) during their recent $635 million purchase by Silver Lake Partners, and over his career has “led several transactions in the equity and debt markets, raising a total of $1.8 billion,” according to Five9 officials.

Certainly the company is well-placed for future growth. In addition to the other items on Zwarenstein’s agenda this year, at the close of 2011 TMC’s (News - Alert) Chris DiMarco reported that the company is eyeing social media in the call center as an area of growth for 2012.

DiMarco said Five9 officials feel social media will become “a growing legitimization as a channel of customer feedback,” as they “point of that one of the biggest announcements of 2011 was Salesforce’s introduction of the social enterprise.”

The company’s VP of marketing, Ken Osborn, told DiMarco that Five9 has made “a considerable effort” to offer social literacy support for all software -- “As part of the communications ecosystem, Five9 provides a critical voice component for the social contact center.”

In early January Five9 announced its second major expansion since the beginning of 2011, leasing 50,000 square feet at the office complex at San Ramon’s Bishop Ranch Business Park in northern California. The call center on demand provider currently occupies 28,000 square feet in Pleasanton.