McAfee Taps Veteran As New Channel Chief

David Dickison, who previously ran McAfee's antivirus field sales force, has been named senior vice president of North American channels, the Santa Clara, Calif.-based vendor announced last week.

A nine-year McAfee veteran, Dickison spent the past five years as a vice president of sales and the previous four as a regional director supporting network and systems solutions.

Dickison has played an instrumental role in helping McAfee revitalize its channel image and improve relationships with channel partners, said Jim Lewandowski, executive vice president of North American sales at McAfee.

In addition to developing McAfee's deal registration program, Dickison helped create channel rebates and implement channel lead distribution initiatives. He also led the charge to give McAfee's channel partners exclusive access to customers with up to 1,000 seats.

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"We have no salespeople who touch any of those customers," Lewandowski said. "We wanted someone who understands our partner program and who will continue to focus on helping our solution providers be more profitable," he said. Dickison said he doesn't see any reason to alter the channel program that McAfee already has in place.

"The plan is to embrace the program that has been developed and build on opportunities to provide improved tools to enable solution providers and focus on the SMB market," Dickison said.

Jim Hindy, CEO of Entre BTG, a Norcross, Ga.-based security solution provider, has worked with Dickison and said he brings a keen understanding of the channel. "The channel-centric approach has truly been ingrained on [McAfee's] sales force, and I'm confident [Dickison] will continue to maintain that focus and listen to partners," Hindy said.

Although former channel chief Dave Roberts played a key role in building McAfee's channel program, Lewandowski said it's important to note that Dickison will oversee a broad team of employees who work on an ongoing basis with partners to ensure the program is functioning properly.