The 15 Key Channel Chief Departures Of 2008
What's that old saying? For every door that closes another one opens? A fair number of channel chiefs changed jobs this year, with many of them resurfacing in channel positions at other vendors. Here's a reminder of some of the channel chiefs that changed jobs.
Former Employer: Oracle
Former Job: senior vice president, North American alliances and channels
Vacated: January 2008
Oracle partners began the year with a big disappointment with Ochs' surprise departure for a gig as executive vice president of sales and marketing for Safeco Insurance. She was a favorite with many solution providers, as she was widely credited with transforming Oracle into a channel-friendly company. Ochs was named the 2007 Channel Executive of the Year by Everything Channel, ChannelWeb's parent company. Oracle veteran Ted Bereswill was tapped to replace her in September.
Former Employer: Avaya
Former Job: vice president of North American channels
Vacated: January 2008
Current Job: president, Prime Communications
After nearly three years, Archer left his post as North American channel chief at Avaya, much to some partners' chagrin. He resurfaced in June at Prime Communications, an Avaya channel partner in Parsippany, N.J. His successor at Avaya, Donnie Ward, ended up leaving the company as well, just eight months later. He was replaced by former Seagate channel executive Carol Giles Neslund in September.
Former Employer: SonicWall
Former Job: vice president of worldwide sales, channels and field operations
Vacated: January 2008
Current Job: president of the Asia Pacific region, Avaya
DiLullo spent nearly two years running the channel effort at security vendor SonicWall, but unexpectedly left at the beginning of the year. He took his new post at Avaya in October.
Former Employer: Cisco Systems
Former Job: vice president of worldwide channels at Cisco's Linksys division
Vacated: February 2008
Williams left Linksys after the vendor cut its global channel chief position, with the vendor choosing instead to give more channel control to each geographic region. Later in the year, Cisco absorbed the Linksys channel program into its own and revealed that the Linksys brand will focus on consumer wares and will no longer be used for small business products.
Former Employer: Oracle
Former Job: senior vice president of worldwide alliances and channels
Vacated: March 2008
Current Job: vice president of the Dynamics partners organization at Microsoft
Kennedy left the global channel chief gig at Oracle just two months after Rauline Ochs vacated the North American channel chief post. Oracle immediately named Judson Althoff to replace him.
Former Employer: 3Com
Former Job: vice president of worldwide channels
Vacated: March 2008
Current Job: vice president of North American channel development and general manager of the Business Solutions Group, Canada, at D-Link
3Com was one of several vendors to 86 its global channel chief position this year in favor of a more regionalized channel management approach. As a result, Tidd and his team were phased out. Of course, the partner strategy shift wasn't the biggest executive change to hit the networking vendor this year: It ousted President and CEO Edgar Masri in April and replaced him with board member Robert Mao, who is based in China.
Former Employer: IBM
Former Job: general manager of global business partners
Vacated: April 2008
Marwaha disclosed his plans to retire in April on stage in front of an audience of solution providers at IBM's Business Partner Leadership Conference. And with that, his 40-year career, spent mainly with IBM, came to an end. Marwaha was succeeded by another long-time IBM executive, Richard Hume.
Former Employer: BMC Software
Former Job: worldwide vice president of consulting services and channels
Vacated: June 2008
After Cook's departure, BMC said it would not name a new global channel chief to replace her. Instead, the company reorganized channel operations geographically. Cook had held the post for nearly three years.
Former Employer: Motorola
Former Job: vice president of worldwide channels
Vacated: June 2008
Current Job: vice president of worldwide channels, Avaya
One of the many executive changes to Avaya's management team included the creation of a new position: global channel chief. To fill the role, Avaya nabbed Butt, who previously headed worldwide channels for Motorola. With the move, Avaya seemingly bucked a trend: Instead of moving toward a regionalized channel model as several others in the industry did this year, Avaya plans to strengthen its reach abroad and break away from its regionalized channel model.
Former Employer: NetApp
Former Job: vice president of global channels and OEM
Vacated: July 2008
Current Job: vice president of worldwide channels at Isilon Systems
Iventosch's eight-year stint at NetApp came to an end this summer when he left the company and eventually landed a gig running the global channel effort at storage vendor Isilon Systems. His departure opened a spot on NetApp's channel management team that was later filled by former Symantec channel chief Julie Parrish.
Former Employer: Novell
Former Job: vice president of global channel sales
Vacated: August 2008
Current Job: president at Bernard and Associates
Novell extensively overhauled its channel management team at the end of 2007, but apparently the changes didn't stick. At that time, the company named Pat Bernard as its global channel chief but she left just nine months later. In September, Novell appointed Javier Colado, previously manager of its Europe, Middle East and Africa operations, as its new channel chief.
Former Employer: Trend Micro
Former Job: vice president of channel and SMB sales for the Americas
Vacated: September 2008
Current Job: vice president of worldwide channel sales, Palo Alto Networks
When Lane Bess, president and CEO of Palo Alto Networks, needed an experienced executive to run his global channel program, he immediately turned to Reynolds, his former colleague from Trend Micro. It was a bit of a coup for the up-and-coming security vendor, as Reynolds and Bess had worked closely together building award-winning channel programs at Trend Micro. In November, Trend Micro named Cody Leser as senior director of North America channel sales to take over the duties previously held by Reynolds. Leser had most recently served as director of North America distribution channels for McAfee.
Former Employer: Ricoh Americas
Former Job: senior vice president of the printing solutions division
Vacated: September 2008
Long-time channel superstar Moser lost her job at Ricoh when the company consolidated its two printer divisions and eliminated her position. Channel responsibilities were handed over to the new vice president of Ricoh's office printer business group, Matt Sakauchi. The company said it had no plans to appoint a new channel chief. At the time, a Ricoh spokesman said Moser planned to retire, but her profile on LinkedIn indicates otherwise: She lists her current position as "Independent Executive Office Professional" and indicates that she has a preference "for new business ventures and channel development." Sounds like Moser might be ready for a new challenge.
Former Employer: Symantec
Former Job: vice president of global channels
Vacated: September 2008
Current Job: vice president of worldwide channel sales, NetApp
It was a tough year in the channel for Symantec. The company created a stir after COO Enrique Salem in June told a group of Wall Street analysts that the security vendor is giving its largest 900 customers the option to buy direct. Concerns about the vendor's plans to automate SMB software renewals also surfaced. Then came word that Parrish was jumping ship to take a similar post at NetApp. VARs are eager to see where the company goes from here.
Former Employer: Samsung
Former Job: vice president of commercial sales and marketing
Vacated: December 2008
Current Job: president of the Computer Products Group, ACCO Brands
Franey's departure from Samsung came as both surprise and a disappointment to many of the vendor's channel partners. He is credited with building the channel team at Samsung's Information Technology Division to support the vendor's display business. He also provided critical channel strategy to support Samsung's re-entry into the U.S. notebook market earlier this year. Franey a few days later took a job as president of the Computer Products Group at ACCO Brands, which markets computer accessories and peripherals under the Kensington brand name.