It's Official: CA Names Lipsin Channel Chief

CA officials made the announcement today -- confirmation of perhaps the worst-kept secret in the channel -- saying Lipsin, who joined CA in 2005 as senior vice president and general manager for western region sales, will report to CA COO Michael Christenson.

"Growth in the channel business is a top priority for CA," Christenson said in a statement. "With his experience and proven success on both sides of the channel-vendor relationship, Bill Lipsin will drive the development of these relationships to the next level."

In a letter to partners issued with the announcement, Lipsin wrote that as CA's new channel leader, "one of my goals is to help CA partners strengthen their businesses by finding new customers and providing additional solutions to existing ones. This means that CA will be offering its considerable marketing resources to drive demand for solutions through the channel. It also means that we will be providing opportunities for you to enhance your teams' skills and support so that you can deliver enhanced solutions that best address the requirements of your customers and prospects."

Lipsin had been rumored for weeks as the pick to take the top channel position in the wake of channel chief Gary Quinn's surprise departure in September. The rumors kicked up a controversy at the beleaguered software vendor. Quinn's interim replacement, George Kafkarkou, proved popular and successful with channel partners, and a number of CA's resellers were lobbying to get Kafkarkou named to the job full-time.

"I am shocked to find that [CA CEO John] Swainson is even considering a replacement for Quinn, when the market clearly wants George Kafkarkou," said CA partner Valeh Nazemoff, vice president of business development at Acolyst, last month. "You cannot ask for a more perfect fit...someone who has been with CA since 1982, ran the channel program in Europe, Middle East, Africa and North America, and has a successful track record, reporting a 20 percent increase in the channel within a year of the inception of a new program.

"The people of the channel want George Kafkarkou. The man knows CA and its history and culture, business operations and deployment across various industries, the challenges that we, as business, owners face, international business, and a wide array of other topics. He is intelligent, and everyone knows that."

While not saying exactly what the interim channel chief would be doing now, an internal CA memo from Christenson said Kafkarkou "made a significant contribution while serving as interim channel lead over the past few months [and]... will continue to play a key leadership role in this important segment of our business as we grow CA's revenue from the indirect market."

The changes in CA's channel program come at a particularly difficult time in CA's channel pursuits. CA ranked dead last in the 2006 VARBusiness Annual Report Card in the security and storage management categories. Both Quinn and Kafkarkou addressed partners at the ARC and xChange event in St. Louis in August, outlining the company's new channel program. Changes were to include a revamping of CA's named-accounts program from 12,000 to 3,000 customers, refinement of the vendor's product focus, improved communications with partners, re-emphasis of storage and repair of its admittedly ineffective training programs.

After only a few months heading CA's worldwide indirect channel business, Quinn resigned, saying he wanted to spend more time with his family. He had been with CA for more than two decades.

According to CA officials Lipsin previously served as general manager of Bay Networks Canada. Prior to that, he was senior vice president of services and marketing for Crowntek, one of Canada's largest systems integrators.