Avaya Names New North American Sales Exec

As Avaya's vice president of North American sales, Susan Bailey will lead the company's 1,300 direct sales and sales support employees as well as oversee the networking vendor's 1,300 distributors, value-added resellers and solution providers, according to a company statement.

Bailey spent 13 years at IBM, most recently as corporate vice president of North American sales and service, global channels and strategic alliances for storage technology.

Bailey's role at Avaya was previously filled by Vice President and General Manager of North American Operations Michael Kiefer, who left the Basking Ridge, N.J.-based company earlier this year, said an Avaya spokeswoman.

The move comes six months after Jan Burton replaced Edison Peres as Avaya's vice president of sales for the business partner organization.

Burton will report to Bailey, the spokeswoman said.

Peres joined Cisco Systems in February as vice president of emerging technologies for the worldwide channels group.