Oracle Names New Channel Chief

Oracle has named Ted Bereswill as its new channel chief for North America, filling the post that has essentially been vacant since January following the departure Rauline Ochs. Bereswill, a 19-year veteran at Oracle, was senior vice president of North America Commercial Technology Sales before taking on the channel post.

Bereswill began serving as senior vice president of North America Alliances and Channels several weeks ago. His appointment wasn't disclosed until he spoke Sunday during the Oracle PartnerNetwork Forum, the channel-specific portion of the Oracle OpenWorld conference this week in San Francisco.

Bereswill reports to Keith Block, executive vice president of North America sales.

Bereswill's appointment comes at a time when Oracle is putting increased emphasis on its channel partners to sell a broader range of its huge product portfolio. During the forum Bereswill said that Oracle, after becoming more product-focused after its major acquisitions, has in the last 18 months been tilting back to becoming more solution-focused. "I know there's no way Oracle can accomplish what it wants to accomplish without a robust channel," he said.

John Gray, group vice president of Technology (database and middleware products) Alliances and Channels, and Tyler Prince, group vice president of Applications Alliances and Channels, both report to Bereswill. When Gray and Prince were named to those positions in March, Oracle indicated that they were essentially performing Ochs' channel duties. But Oracle top executives apparently decided at some point that a top North American channel chief was required after all.

Ochs, who was widely credited with changing Oracle's direct sales-centric culture to pay more attention to its channel partners, left in January to take a senior executive with Safeco Insurance. Doug Kennedy, senior vice president of worldwide alliances and channels, left Oracle in March for a job at Microsoft. He was replaced by Judson Althoff, who is currently group vice president of Worldwide Alliances and Channel.