Steve Lacoff moves to General Manager role at Avalara for Communications

Steve Lacoff has been named General Manager of Avalara’s Communications business unit. Steve joined Avalara in March 2019 as Senior Director of Product Marketing for the Strategic Initiatives Group, leading marketing and strategy initiatives for a wide range of business units that include Avalara for Communications.      

The communications business unit comprises a broad scope of SaaS solutions powering the tax compliance needs of businesses ranging from traditional telecom to emerging technology and collaboration providers, which require more complicated communications taxes and returns filing. These requirements are applicable to a variety of voice products like wireless and voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP), telecom services, as well as streaming media and a wide range of technology solutions.

Steve has spent more than 15 years in various leadership roles in the telecom industry and has experience across data, VoIP, and video streaming. He’s served as the GM responsible for launching and growing several SaaS and cloud businesses from the ground up to over $100M in revenue. Prior to joining Avalara, Steve was VP of Marketing for Disney Streaming Services and focused on the expansion of their suite of SaaS services powering many of the world’s largest streaming media properties.  

Prior to Disney, Steve held several roles at Comcast Technology Solutions, a business unit within Comcast focused on delivering B2B data, VoIP, and streaming video cloud and SaaS services. During his time at Comcast, Steve served as GM for both their Network Interconnect and CDN business as well as VoIP Services businesses. He also served as VP of Product for the Video Platform, which provided a broad suite of SaaS products that power online video experiences and monetization for content companies ranging from some of the largest broadcasters in the world to small, online video startups. In these roles, Steve has developed expertise cutting across marketing, sales, product, operations, and partner strategy.

As both the industry and the Avalara for Communications team shift into a new stage of growth and change, Steve’s background is a unique fit. As GM, Steve is now responsible for overall strategic direction and business unit growth as he guides a large, cross-functional team. As part of his role, he’ll also provide thought leadership on today’s changing industry landscape and associated tax impacts.     

“This is an exciting time for the communications and technology industries. As communications and media services continue to innovate and converge, companies find themselves facing increasing tax and compliance complexity. Our job at Avalara is to make sure that we help businesses navigate these challenges, minimize their risk, and allow them to do what they do best — build great products and grow their business.”