HP's Gilroy Gets The Nod

Editor's Note: Early next year, will publish its third annual ranking of the most effective--and controversial--Channel Chiefs. As an ongoing component of that coverage, we've inaugurated a monthly spotlight featuring the channel executive who had the most impact in terms of programs or other activities during the previous month. This selection will be made each month by the editorial cabinet.

The slate of executives considered for the October spotlight included Kevin Gilroy, senior vice president and general manager of worldwide SMB segment operations for Hewlett-Packard; Donn Atkins, general manager of IBM Global Business Partners; Richard Anderson, senior category manager for eBay; and Jacqueline Woods, vice president of global pricing and licensing strategy at Oracle.

The decision was actually the closest one yet, with all four candidates earning at least one vote. But in the end, HP’s Gilroy eked out a one-vote lead over eBay’s Anderson.

Those voting for Gilroy said he remains one of their staunchest allies within HP and has put into place programs that give smaller solution providers a chance to build a business around the vendor’s products.

“In one year, we were able to launch a successful HP server and storage practice, taking advantage of HP MDF, as well as local support,” wrote John Freres, president of Meridian IT Solutions, Schaumburg, Ill. “This practice is our fastest-growing organic venture. Kevin [Gilroy] understands the channel and is perfect for his new role in SMB, which will directly benefit partners such as Meridian to reduce conflict with CDW.”

Those who voted for eBay’s Anderson said the company’s new Asset Recovery Program fills a huge void in the channel. “EBay has made it easy to use, easy to implement and mostly takes the headache away from asset recovery or resale via software toolsets that allow us to rapidly identify those items that are candidates for replacement (increase our sales) and a program to dispose once replacements are purchased,” said Pete Busam, vice president and COO of Decision Business Systems, Pennsauken, N.J.

And finally, here are the online polling results from last month’s poll, which featured Microsoft worldwide channel chief Allison Watson as the editorial cabinet’s pick. Turns out she was also the overwhelming choice of CRN online visitors, garnering 60 percent of the votes. Paul Mountford, senior vice president of worldwide channels at Cisco Systems, and Tushar Kothari, vice president of worldwide channels at Juniper Networks, each earned 20 percent of votes.