NetApp Channel VP Leaves Company

The Sunnyvale, Calif-based company said that effectively immediately, Pat Linehan, SVP of Worldwide Sales and Eric Mann, SVP of Americas Sales, will jointly head NetApp's channel efforts in the interim while the company looks for a permanent replacement.

Iventosch had been in his position since 2007 after serving as NetApp's vice president of Americas channel sales. In his role, he was charged with overseeing worldwide channel sales and marketing.

At the time of his appointment, Iventosch said he wanted to expand certain NetApp North American practices internationally.

"There are best practices in EMEA [Europe, Middle East, Africa] and APAC [Asia-Pacific] -- some of which I know, some I don't know--that can help shape North American channels," Iventosch said. "But some North American programs like FastPath and Star can be taken globally." NetApp's current channel model has evolved from a simple, single tier model comprised primarily of small storage resellers to a more robust, multi-tier model with a balanced mix of system, server, network and storage integrators.

Just a month ago, Sajai Krishnan, the former head of NetApp's small business storage product line left the company after a five-year run to take on the role of CEO of Parascale. The Cupertino, Calif.-based startup software developer turns industry-standard Linux servers into a node for scalable solutions for storing large volumes of data online.

--Joseph F. Kovar contributed to this article