Julie Parrish is planning to leave Symantec by the end of the month and is heading to NetApp, filling a gaping hole in the NetApp channel team while creating an equally large opening at Symantec.
Parrish, who until now was Symantec's vice president of global channels, is filling the channel chief role created at NetApp with the departure of Leonard Iventosch, who left his position as vice president of global channels at NetApp, according to a channel source.
Parrish joined Symantec when that storage and security vendor acquired Veritas in late 2004.
Symantec confirmed Parrish's plans to leave the company in an emailed statement which read, in part, "The Global Channel Office will function as it has in the past to continue its positive momentum. During the transition period, we will rely upon the Global Channel team and our strong bench of regional channel leaders -- Randy Cochran (NAM), Jason Ellis (EMEA), Cath Hodgson (APJ) and Paulo Renato (LAM) " to work closely with our partners to continue to drive success. Julie will remain with Symantec through the end of October to help ensure a smooth transition."
NAM refers to North America, EMEA to Europe/Middle East/Africa, and LAM to Latin America.
In the meantime, Symantec also said it will discuss changes in the channel structure at a later time.
Parrish's decision to leave Symantec means that she will not attend next week's Symantec Partner Engage program in Washington, D.C., Symantec said. However, she gave presentations at Symantec's EMEA partner and user conferences this week, Symantec said. NetApp did not respond to requests for information at the time of publication.
In recent months, Parrish received increasing criticism about channel strategy from partners after Chief Operating Officer Enrique Salem announced to Wall Street analysts that he planned to give the company's largest customers the option to go direct. Meanwhile, SMB partners expressed strong concern after maintaining the company solicited software subscription renewals prior to their customers' expiration date.
Parrish is making her career change during a time of turbulence in the financial markets, but also at a time when storage vendors are weathering the storm better than the market as a whole.
NetApp in mid-August reported its first quarter 2008 revenue was up 26 percent compared to the same period one year ago, while earnings rose about 12 percent during the same period.
Hope Hayes, president of Alliance Technology Group, a Hanover, Md.-based solution provider, said she found Parrish to be very channel savvy.
"She really understands our issues," Hayes said. "I felt her to be very responsive to the channels needs."
Stefanie Hoffman contributed to this article.
