Cooper To Exit IBM Software

IBM confirmed that Cooper, vice president of worldwide channel marketing at IBM Software, is leaving, but the company hasn't announced the move. Cooper will join Nokia as vice president of Mobility Solutions, part of the company's Enterprise Solutions Business Group, a Nokia spokesman confirmed. Cooper couldn't be reached for comment.

In recent years, IBM Software has turned up the volume on its channel efforts to woo partners of all types for its middleware stack. Cooper is a longtime employee of the company, having joined then-independent Lotus Development Corp. in 1992 as a project manager for Notes add-ons. He later helped launch Domino.doc, a content-management application based on Lotus Notes.

After IBM bought Lotus in 1995, Cooper became part of the Knowledge Management Business Unit.

Longtime IBM watchers said the company's software channel management bench is deep and strong. Buell Duncan serves as general manager of developer and partner relations, and Mike Borman, who has a solid reputation among channel partners, just rejoined the software group as vice president of worldwide sales.

One solution provider said he was sad to see Cooper, go, but that IBM is resilient. "Will it cataclysmically affect IBM? I don't think so, it has a lot of resources," said Robert DeMaio, president and CEO of Relavis, a New York-based IBM ISV partner. "IBM is getting its partner act together and a lot of that came from people like Scott. Lotus historically had the best partner program in the industry," he added.

This story was updated Wednesday afternoon with Nokia and partner comment.