CEO Spotlight: Mo Katibeh’s Affinity for Technology and Innovation Continues to Drive a Remarkable Career

In today’s increasingly fast-paced digital world, efficient business communications are key to reaching customers, investors, and other stakeholders. Forward-thinking companies are on a mission to make these seamless interactions the rule rather than the exception.

Mo Katibeh, RingCentral’s President and Chief Operating Officer, oversees the company’s global enterprise communications strategic growth. Based in the San Francisco Bay region, Katibeh frequently liaises with high-achieving business owners and executives from across the globe.

While facilitating customers’ transition to cloud communications, Katibeh prioritizes resource investments in areas integral to RingCentral’s longer-term expansion. He also focuses on streamlining key systems and processes to create a more agile business communications company. Under his leadership, RingCentral is well-positioned to take its global operations to the next level.

To excel in this high-powered marketing and operations arena, Katibeh has built a professional career infused with technology and innovation. He thrives on complex challenges and embraces large-scale opportunities that offer equally big payoffs. The often-used phrase “The sky’s the limit” certainly applies to his big-picture vision of RingCentral’s current operations and future prospects.

Mo Katibeh’s Multifaceted RingCentral Role

In January 2022, Mo Katibeh joined RingCentral as the firm’s President and Chief Operating Officer. An accomplished telecommunication and technology executive, he oversees the company’s strategic planning and product development programs.

He also maintains responsibility for RingCentral’s integrated sales and marketing strategies. As with other service-focused businesses, elevating customers’ brand experiences is also a high priority.

Today, RingCentral provides its customers with a combined (and highly secure) phone, messaging, and video communications solution. Now, global enterprise customers can enjoy optimal business communications from any location.

In certain cases, jumping on current trends might provide short-term success. However, Katibeh understands that it’s often more appropriate to invest funds into technologies and products that can benefit the business in the long run.

In addition, his proven operational discipline is spurring ever-more profitable company growth. By fine-tuning systems and processes, he continues to transform RingCentral into an increasingly agile business.

An International Background Sets the Stage for Success

Mo Katibeh’s multifaceted background ideally positions him to excel in the international business communications arena. He grew up in the United Kingdom and United States, and also spent time in the Middle East, Europe, and South America.

Katibeh earned a bachelor’s degree in Business from Oklahoma State University. His majors included International Business along with Marketing and Philosophy. He subsequently earned his Executive MBA from the University of Texas, Dallas.

From a skills perspective, Katibeh’s educational experiences collectively provided him with the knowledge needed to excel in a highly competitive marketplace. His executive leadership, marketing, and international business acumen serve him especially well on the global stage.

Multiple AT&T Executive Roles Lay the Groundwork

Before his RingCentral tenure began, Mo Katibeh spent 20 years at AT&T where he held several senior executive roles. He thrived in the fast-paced product, sales, and marketing arenas. Concurrently, he achieved success in technology-driven and cloud-based functional challenges.

Under Katibeh’s direction, AT&T expanded its communications and security business endeavors that included cloud-based applications deployments. He also successfully directed a supersized broadband and 5G launch. Following these and other notable achievements, Forbes recognized Mo Katibeh as one of the World’s Most Influential CMOs in 2019 and 2020.

Mo Katibeh Puts New Technologies in Perspective

As Mo Katibeh summarizes several emerging technologies in the telecommunications realm, he reflects on the progress made in the past decade. In fact, he says, these advancements may not have even been on software engineers’ drawing boards a decade ago.

“LTE allowed for the mobilization of the American worker. It created the application ecosystem. It created the gig economy, all these things that we just kind of take for granted, and they’re part of our everyday lives. Arguably, most people wouldn’t have been able to even imagine those things ten years ago.

“I love 5G…I fundamentally believe that 5G, coupled with technologies that are really coming to life at the same time as 5G like edge computing, IoT, machine learning, and AI, will fundamentally transform our society over the next ten years,” he predicts.

The Future of Hybrid Work and Connectivity

Looking to the future, Katibeh recognizes that a myriad of technologies have also emerged from the global pandemic, shifting remote work trends, and a reaffirmed need for ongoing mobility. As increasing numbers of companies commit to hybrid work schedules as their permanent model, the need for technology companies to evolve remains center stage.

Mo Katibeh confirms the most important areas of focus as being the need for mobility, and the need for cloud-based solutions that enable mobile work to occur seamlessly. Additionally, Katibeh focuses on the need for Unified Communications and connected integrated communication platforms. While the ability to automate workflows has always been crucial to success, this need now requires the ability to streamline workflows across collaborative and interwoven platforms across the globe.

How Ultra-Low Latency Fits In

Mo Katibeh says 5G technology offers extremely low latency. The term “latency” describes the time it takes to load a requested webpage, song, or video on the user’s device. With new technology, latency has become almost identical to the speed at which the human brain processes the world around a person. He explains how the process works and describes the resulting innovation.

“When you think about [it], you’re on a device, you go out, and you start streaming music, downloading a video, surfing the Web, or what have you, you’re sending a signal out to a place where that video, that music, or that webpage is. Then it comes back, and it starts loading on your mobile device.

“Latency is the amount of time that it takes for that signal to go, come back, and the thing to start. In today’s world, that’s about 100 milliseconds. With 5G, we’re going to get into the sub-20 millisecond range and, in many cases, sub-10 millisecond.

“Why this matter is, the way that our brains work, scientists believe that we process reality at about eight, nine, ten milliseconds. Once you have a network that is able to deliver latency at that level, it’s effectively at the same speed, at the same latency at which you’re processing the world around you. The innovation that can come from that will be unparalleled,” he concludes.

Looking Toward the Future

Mo Katibeh continues to keep his finger on the pulse of emerging technologies. He is especially cognizant of communications-based advancements that can provide significant advantages for businesses and consumers. His strong focus on innovation, and ability to market specific technology applications to the right business customers, position RingCentral for continued success.

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