Channel Chief's Exit From McAfee

McAfee will open its annual partner conference later this week in Las Vegas while still reeling from the abrupt departure of David Roberts, who resigned from his post as senior vice president of North American channels.

Roberts told CRN that he is moving to another company where he will be running both channels and sales and will have a deeper compensation package. At press time, he was not cleared to name the company.

“I am excited about this new opportunity and the much broader responsibilities I will have,” he said. “At the same time, I am very excited with all that we have accomplished in channels at McAfee. My leaving is not a reflection of McAfee. It is a career move for me.”

Roberts joined McAfee in July 2004 and was part of the team responsible for overhauling McAfee’s channel program and helping the Santa Clara, Calif.-based vendor move away from its traditional focus on direct sales.

“David has found something that affords him an opportunity that aligns closer with his lifetime goals,” said Jim Lewandowski, executive vice president of North American sales at McAfee.

Roberts was responsible for developing the vendor’s Security Alliance channel program and MAX partner portal, which gave partners access to prequalified leads, renewal data and order status information, and allowed partners to communicate directly with McAfee channel and sales teams.

“He made a lot of changes in the inside and outside sales organizations that significantly contributed to McAfee being more channel-centric,” said Steven Palange, president of security solution provider TLIC Worldwide, Wakefield, R.I.

Jim Hindy, CEO of Entre BTG, a Norcross, Ga.-based McAfee partner, said he thinks Roberts is leaving McAfee with a strong channel mind-set. “Dave has been pretty visible out there and his work is highly regarded in the channel. He’ll be sorely missed, but I’m sure that McAfee will not be swayed from being a channel-centric company,” he said.

No time frame has been set for finding a replacement, and McAfee will consider internal and external candidates, Lewandowski said. “I’m confident that the work we have done will continue on from the same strong channel team we have in place,” he said.

Larry Hooper contributed to this story.