Sun Shakes Up Sales Org

As first reported by CRN Jan. 21, Santa Clara, Calif.-based Sun appointed Rich Napolitano president of Sun's U.S. sales effort. He replaced Sun veteran Bill Cook, previously U.S. vice president of sales. Napolitano joined Sun when the vendor bought Pirus in September 2002 and most recently led the Storage Systems Group.

VARs said with his CEO background, Napolitano likely will take a bigger-picture approach to sales than a traditional sales executive would. "It's really exciting to see Sun, if you will, break glass and bring in some new blood to move the U.S. sales organization forward," said Rob Wolfe, CEO and president of Sun partner AvcomEast, Silver Spring, Md. "Rich Napolitano is clearly an outsider, clearly a guy who knows how to run a business."

Tom Kuni, president of SSI hubcity, a VAR in Metuchen, N.J., said pulling someone from outside the sales organization to lead U.S. sales shows that Sun's upper-level management might be champing at the bit to achieve a full-fledged financial turnaround. Sun President and COO Jonathan Schwartz's decision to go with Napolitano "rather than the old regime might signal his impatience with the [Sun] resurgence he knows is imminent," Kuni said.

While Sun on Jan. 18 reported a slight profit for its second-quarter, year-over-year sales continued to slide. Greg Stroud, Sun's vice president of iForce partner sales, called Napolitano's appointment "a net positive move by Sun in how it relates to partners."

He said Napolitano is very supportive of Sun channel sales in the United States and will continue to support the effort Cook began last year to put more feet on the street working with regional VARs.

According to Sun, 54 percent of sales went through the channel in fiscal 2004. Stroud said that percentage is now at about 60 percent.

Cook has been with Sun more than 17 years and spent the past two-and-a-half years leading U.S. sales. While Cook has left only his previous position, not the company, partners speculated that he is likely looking for opportunities outside of Sun.

JOSEPH F. KOVAR contributed to this story.