SAN FRANCISCO — Former Bite CEO Andy Cunningham has taken on the dual role of Avaya CMO, while also continuing on as CEO of her venture SeriesC.

Cunningham accepted the CMO post via her brand and marketing firm Series C. She plans to spend four days a week onsite at Avaya and one day dedicated to the 12-person SeriesC (in which Next15 still owns a minority stake).

“There’s three of us at SeriesC working onsite as interim heads of marketing,” Cunningham told the Holmes Report. The others from SeriesC work with Sling, a division of EchoStar, and a travel company. Cunningham said she plans to continue her role at Avaya for the foreseeable future.

“What we’ve found with high-tech companies is they often have a hard time finding a marketing person who stays for more than 18 months,” Cunningham said. “We’re able to fill this role because we have a staff of people. I’m more of a strategy communications person, but when I need someone with engineering, lead generation or product experience, I can look to another [SeriesC] colleague.” 

Cunningham has been in the CMO role for about six weeks now. But her consulting with the company began when Avaya CEO Kevin Kennedy hired her to work on an anti-trust lawsuit against the company decided in late March. Avaya’s previous CMO Mark Wilson left in January to join BlackBerry.

“It’s a good time for Avaya to invest in marketing,” Cunningham said. “Kevin has been doing a turnaround for the past five or six years. He’s fixed the product strategy, the quality issues -- all of the 'under the hood' stuff. It’s much easier to do marketing when you have quality products that are reliable.”

Last summer, Cunningham resigned as Bite's global CEO after six months in the role.