[April 25, 2012]

Ernst & Young Announces Five9 CEO Mike Burkland as Entrepreneur of the Year 2012 Semifinalist in Northern California Region

Ernst & Young LLP announced that Mike Burkland, CEO of leading cloud-based contact center software provider Five9, has been named a semifinalist in the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year^® 2012 program in the Northern California region. The award recognizes outstanding entrepreneurs who demonstrate excellence and extraordinary success in such areas as innovation, financial performance and personal commitment to their businesses and communities.

Since joining Five9 (News - Alert) four years ago, Burkland has successfully grown Five9 into the leading cloud-based contact center software provider on the market. Five9 enables enterprises to replace legacy premise-based contact center systems with cloud-based contact center software that offers a better ROI, improved productivity and streamlined operations. Five9 regularly goes head-to-head with the leading premise-based contact center providers Cisco, Avaya (News - Alert) and Genesys.

To achieve success, Burkland led Five9 to invest heavily in new technologies and go-to-market strategies targeting both SMB and large enterprises. The company focused on developing enterprise-grade technology, combining inbound and outbound call center functionality in the cloud - an industry first. Under his leadership, Five9 has grown to approximately 350 employees and more than 1,500 customers, achieving a record 70 percent year-over-year revenue growth in 2011. The company is well positioned to continue increasing market share as companies realize the significant benefits of Five9's cloud-base solutions.

Now in its 26th year, the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year Program has honored the inspirational leadership of such entrepreneurs as Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com, Michael Dell (News - Alert) of Dell Inc., Herb Kelleher of Southwest Airlines, Fred Smith of FedEx, Larry Page and Sergey Brin of Google, Richard Schulze of Best Buy, Andrew Mason of Groupon, Mindy Grossman of HSN, Inc., Reid Hoffman and Jeff Weiner of LinkedIn, and many more.

About Five9
Five9 is the leading global provider of cloud-based contact center software for sales, marketing and support. The award-winning Five9 Virtual Contact Center and Predictive Dialer serve customers of all sizes on five continents. Customers profit from Five9's reliable, robust functionality that provides the best technology, improves agent productivity, and delivers business flexibility. For more information on Five9, please visit www.five9.com or call 1-800-553-8159.

Facebook (News - Alert): www.Facebook.com/CallCenterSoftware
Google+: https://plus.google.com/103628677473531198537/?prsrc=3#103628677473531198537/posts
Twitter: @CallCtrSoftware and @Five9_Inc

All product and company names mentioned are the property of their respective owners.

About Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year^®
Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year is the world's most prestigious business award for entrepreneurs. The unique award makes a difference through the way it encourages entrepreneurial activity among those with potential, and recognizes the contribution of people who inspire others with their vision, leadership and achievement. As the first and only truly global award of its kind, Entrepreneur Of The Year celebrates those who are building and leading successful, growing and dynamic businesses, recognizing them through regional, national and global awards programs in more than 140 cities in more than 50 countries.

Sponsors
Founded and produced by Ernst & Young LLP, the Entrepreneur Of The Year awards are nationally sponsored in the United States by SAP (News - Alert) America and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. Northern California sponsors include ManpowerGroup, The Big Picture, SmartBuisness, ADP, RoseRyan, Scherzer International, Orrick and Barney & Barney.

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