Citrix Rehires Burley As U.S. Channel Chief

Bill Burley, who rejoined Citrix one month ago, will serve as American area vice president of Citrix's North American channel. He will report to Al Monserrat, who heads up Citrix's worldwide consulting and education services.

In his new role, Burley will run day-to-day partner relationships and execution while Citrix's current top channel exec, Ross Brown, will continue to serve as a key strategist as vice president of worldwide channels and operations.

Burley left Citrix in February after working at the company for seven years. Since that time, he's served in a variety of Citrix related companies, including his last executive post at Citrix ISV AppSense.

David A.G. Jones, senior vice president of corporate development for Citrix, said the appointment of Burley " his former direct-report -- will bolster the company's improved channel program. The two-tiered model will enable the distinct skill sets of each executive to shine, Jones said.

"Ross is the strategy guy and has a brain the size of a medium sized planet and he's very strategic, but those ideas have to be executed and deployed and that's a different skill set," said Jones during a phone briefing with CRN from Citrix iForum in Orlando this week. "In the U.S., we have a very advanced two-tier model working. There is a sense we needed someone who could become a traditional channel champion and that's his role."

Jones said Citrix has been focused primarily on enterprise selling and overall strategy and needed to add more operational skills to serve the medium-sized partner market. Burley is known for his attention to detail and keeping abreast of leads, resellers and revenues moment to moment, Jones said.

One partner who asked not to be quoted summed it up in much the same way. "Bill's a charismatic guy and built the channel-centric [model], all aspects of the channel, and it's deteriorated a bit," the partner said. "He's more of a people person and Ross is more of a numbers person."

Over the last year, Citrix has made significant strides regaining channel support. The introduction of the company's Solution Advisor Rewards Program under Brown's direction, for instance, has enabled many partners to be financially rewarded for influencing deals.

Burley's reappointment is another step in the right direction, partners said. "I'm very happy to see Bill back in the fold," said Mitch Northcutt, CEO of RapidApps, Chicago, a key Citrix partner. " Bill always did right by the channel and I anticipate a renewed emphasis on the channel now that he's back."

Jones said Burley will enable Citrix to put more focus on the medium-sized market. "The discipline in that space is less than where it needed to be because we've been focused on enterprise selling," said Jones. "Citrix is in his blood and he is a very disciplined machine for running our channel engine. Bill is looking at ways to further tune our channel engine."