Sun's Channel Chief Greg Stroud To Resign

Stroud, who as vice president of Sun's U.S. Partner and Alliance sales organization was the face of Sun to the channel, will be replaced by Tom Wagner, according to a Sun spokesperson. No reason was given for the resignation.

Wagner has been serving as area vice president for telecommunications for Sun.

Stroud was listed as one of the IT industry's top 50 channel chiefs by CRN in February.

This is only the latest in a string of major management changes at Sun.

On July 1, Rich Napolitano, who for the last year and a half ran Sun sales as president of its USA GEM (Geographically Established Market) unit, left the company and was replaced by Tim Lieto, who was promoted to senior vice president of Americas sales. Replacing Lieto as vice president of U.S. sales is Cheryl Cook, who has been at Sun since 1998.

In May, Mark Canepa, the head of Sun's Data Management Group, left to pursue other opportunities after 10 years at the company. He was replaced by David Yen, formerly vice president of Sun's Scalable Systems Group, which encompasses Sun's SPARC servers.

And the month before, Jonathan Schwartz was named president and CEO, with Scott McNealy retaining his role as chairman.

Pat Edwards, vice president of sales at Alliance Technology Group, a Hanover, Md.-based Sun solution provider, said that the main result of Stroud's leaving is the fact that Sun is continuing to lose senior management.

"To the general public, it can be viewed as a sign of weakness, or as a sign of positive change," Edwards said. "It could be good. It could be bad. It's hard to speculate now."

Tom Kuni, president of SSI hubcity, a Metuchen, NJ-based Sun solution provider, also said he is taking a wait-and-see attitude as to how Stroud's resignation will impact Sun's channel, especially since he expects even more changes in light of Sun's recent decision to llay off 5,000 to 6,000 employees. "I'm sure Wagner will do a great job," he said.

Kuni said that Stroud, who took control of Sun's channel business after the retirement of Gary Grimes one-and-a-half years ago as vice president of partner management and sales operations, has been a great friend to the channel as well as a great personal friend. "I found him highly ethical and resourceful," he said. "I enjoyed working with him immensely. I wish him the best of luck."

Kuni, who was former head of Sun's VAR council, also said that Mark Krezowski, who had been the Sun VAR council coordinator and facilator and "chief herder of cats" for his efforts in getting the solution partners on the council together, is moving from the channel to Sun's OEM sales organization.

"Greg and Mark both were very instrumental in making my job as co-president of the Sun VAR council easier," he said. "They were great assets in moving the channel forward."