Kevin J. Kennedy

Kevin J. Kennedy is CEO of Quanergy Systems, Inc. and a senior managing director of Blue Ridge Partners. Kevin was previously the President and Chief Executive Officer of Avaya Inc., a global provider of fully-integrated, digital communications software and services. Kevin joined Avaya in 2009 and led one of the industry’s stronger executive teams to create superior technology and help customers drive communication experiences. Highly skilled at orchestrating innovation and changes in communications and related industries, Kevin has over four decades of experience at companies including Cisco Systems, JDSU, Openwave Systems, and AT&T Bell Labs. Kevin’s specialization is transforming companies through growth and company reinvention, tapping both organic innovation and mergers and acquisitions. During his career, Kevin has been instrumental in closing over 155 acquisitions and has double-digit asset divestitures.

Kevin currently serves as a member of the President’s National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee, a position he assumed under US President Barack Obama. In 1987, Kevin served as a Congressional Fellow to the US House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space and Technology. Kevin was honored by the School of Engineering at Rutgers University as their Alumnus of the Year and awarded an Alumni Medal of Excellence in 2006. He previously served on the Board of Regents as Loyola Marymount.

Kevin’s board experience spans both public and private companies across numberous industries including enterprise software, semiconductors, semiconductor test and measurement, intellectual property, cloud infrastructure, real estate investment trust, and cancer research. Kevin has authored multiple patents and has published more than thirty papers on computational methods, data networking, and issues of technology management. He is the author of Devil in the Details, published in 2012, and a co-author of Going the Distance: Why Some Companies Dominate and Others Fail. Kevin holds a BS in Engineering from Lehigh University as well as MS and PhD degrees in engineering from Rutgers University where he served as an adjunct professor from 1982-1984. Kevin also holds a Distingushed Leader Executive Certificate from the University of Michigan Ross.