Out With The Old, In With The Now: Recent Channel Execs Coming And Going

As 2008 creeps to a close, the executive ranks within the channel organizations at many technology companies continue to change. With a host of recent additions and departures, the shifts among executives show no sign of stopping. Whether it's economic uncertainty, poor sales or lack of vision, many companies are experiencing executive shakeups, and the channel is no exception.

Earlier this year, we chronicled a host of executives that either left or were forced out of their positions. Here, we carry the torch further, highlighting several channel executives that have come and gone in just the last few months.

Oracle Names New Channel Chief

As a lead up to the Oracle OpenWorld conference in San Francisco, Oracle named Ted Bereswill as its new channel chief for North America, filling a role left vacant in January with the departure of Rauline Ochs.

Bereswill comes to his new position with 19-years under his belt at Oracle. Prior to his move, he was senior vice president of North America Commercial Technology Sales.

Bereswill's appointment to senior vice president of North American alliances and channels comes as Oracle puts increased emphasis on its channel partners to sell a broader range of its product portfolio.

Nick Tidd, who was "phased out" of his channel chief spot at 3Com in March, has taken a new position developing North American channels for D-Link.

In his new role, Tidd will develop overall business sales strategies as general manager of business solutions for D-Link Canada and as vice president of North American channel development for Fountain Valley, Calif.-based D-Link. Tidd's appointment, announced in August, is a bid for the company to fortify its channel and engage its 4,500 registered North American partners as D-Link tries to shake its consumer-only perception and focus on hitting the business-class market, D-Link has said.

Shortly after Nick Tidd's departure as channel chief, 3Com tapped Alex Dobson as its new vice president and general manager for North America. Dobson, who joined 3Com from Broadsoft, is charged with increasing 3Com's sales presence and marketing awareness with end users while also improving channel effectiveness in the U.S. and Canada.

At Broadsoft, a VoIP application provider, Dobson was vice president of sales for North America and helped the company win key new accounts and increase revenue from existing large customers. Before that, Dobson was vice president of business development for NetMotion Wireless, a mobile productivity software maker.

Dobson is also no stranger to 3Com, having spent three years with the company in the 1990s in senior sales positions at the company's former USRobotics unit.

With Ricoh Americas eliminating her position, channel chief Ann Moser was forced into early retirement. Moser, who served as senior vice president for the former printing solutions division, was pushed out as the company consolidated its printers divisions into one unit.

Moser joined Ricoh in 2001 in the printing solutions division and has implemented a number of initiatives, including a managed-services program. Moser increased the number of channel partners participating in Ricoh's partner program by 30 percent, and increased Ricoh's market share.

Moser received a number of accolades in her role as channel chief, including membership in Everything Channel's Channel Chiefs, and the Everything Channel Most Powerful Women of the Channel, for the past two years.

In Moser's stead, Ricoh has appointed Matt Sakauchi as the new head of the consolidated Office Printer Business Group. Sakauchi, who was formerly the director for printer marketing at Ricoh, will no handle "all channel functions."

Ricoh has said it will not appoint a new channel chief in the immediate future.

Dave Dickison was shifted from vice president of North America channels at security vendor McAfee and is now vice president of channel operations. In his new role, Dickison will be heading up a comprehensive channel program that aims to "rebalance" the channel and reassess the company's go-to-market strategies.

With Dickison changing positions, McAfee brought aboard Lisa Loe as its new vice president of North America Channels.

Loe moves to McAfee after nine years as senior director for strategic partner sales at Symantec. Loe left Symantec in April due to a company-wide layoff that allowed "fewer opportunities" for her position.



In her new role, Loe said she and McAfee will look to increase the company's midmarket opportunities.

Pat Bernard, Novell's vice president of global channel sales, suddenly left the company in August "to pursue other interests," the company said.

Bernard was named to the role in November 2007. She came aboard at Novell from Hyperion Solutions when Novell's channel executive ranks underwent major changes, including the departures of Steve Erdman, vice president and general manager of channels and alliances, and James Simzer, director of North America partner sales.

Novell has not provided additional information around the circumstances surrounding Barnard's departure.

In September, Novell tapped inside man Javier Colado as its new channel chief. Colado was previously manager of the software company's Europe, Middle East and Africa operations.

Colado has been with Novell for two-and-a-half years and his EMEA duties included managing the company's channel operations in those regions. Before joining Novell he held positions at security software vendor McAfee and telecommunications equipment maker Lucent Technologies.

Tim Wolfe, president and general manager of Novell Americas, who has been managing Novell's channel efforts since Bernard's departure, will return to his main duties.

Leslie Conway, Adtran's top marketing exec, resigned from her post in June to take a similar position with Digium, maker of Asterisk-based open source VoIP gear.

Conway had served as Adtran's vice president of global marketing for nearly seven years as part of her roughly 17-year career in the channel. With Adtran, she was credited with rolling out a new global channel program in 2007; launching a telesales effort to bolster support for SMB resellers; and implementing an opportunity-registration and management system, along with an automated lead-distribution system. She was also instrumental in expanding certification training programs for Adtran partners.

Digium has said it will tap Conway's marketing and channel experience and expertise to get Digium products into the hands of resellers.

In her new role, Conway will be responsible for the traditional promotional side of marketing and will be charged to build out and grow the Digium/Switchvox channel, including VAR recruitment, enablement and education. Conway will also be responsible for spreading Digium's wings internationally, where traction has been slow.

In late July, Leonard Iventosch ended his eight-year run with storage provider NetApp, giving no reason for vacating his post as vice president of global channels.

With Iventosch out, NetApp announced that Pat Linehan, senior vice president of worldwide sales, and Eric Mann, senior vice president of Americas sales, were tapped to jointly head the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company's channel program until a permanent replacement is found.

Iventosch had been in his position since 2007 after serving as NetApp's vice president of Americas channel sales. In his role, he was charged with overseeing worldwide channel sales and marketing. At the time of his appointment, Iventosch said he wanted to expand certain NetApp North American practices internationally.

Nancy Reynolds had a busy September. First, Reynolds resigned from her post as vice president of channel and SMB sales for the Americas at Trend Micro. Then, she announced she will join Palo Alto Networks to lead its global channel sales organization.

Reynolds resigned from her Trend Micro position after five years with the company, citing a personal desire to forward her career and "go worldwide."

At the time of her resignation, Reynolds said: "Channel is in my DNA. It's really about opportunity. It was my decision to go toward an opportunity, not just run away from something."

Reynolds has said that she would stay with Trend Micro until the end of the quarter, and "leave on a high note."

In Reynolds' absence, Tom Miller, Trend Micro general manager of its business unit, will take over her duties as the interim channel chief until a replacement can be found. Miller said that he hopes to settle on a replacement in the next four to eight weeks.

APC promoted vice president of North American channels Robert McKernan to senior vice president and president, North America in August.

In his new role, McKernan is responsible for ensuring the North American region remains focused on customers and partners by developing customer-oriented processes, driving the delivery of innovative, energy efficient solutions in the data center, and developing successful relationships. In his prior role, McKernan was responsible for the development of go-to-market strategy, sales, and marketing to APC's 10,000 partners.

McKernan has more than 15 years of sales and marketing experience in channel and end user sales. McKernan first joined APC in 1994 serving in various inside sales, outside sales, and management positions within the sales organization. He left APC in 2002, to become vice president of sales for Philips Business Solutions. McKernan rejoined APC in July of 2006.

APC has not announced a new channel chief to fill the role McKernan left vacant.

In mid-June, Avaya named former Motorola channel head Jeremy Butt as its first ever worldwide channel chief.

In the global channel chief spot, Butt leads Avaya's channel sales organization on a global level to develop strategies and programs for its worldwide network of more than 3,400 solution providers, VARs, systems integrators, service providers and distributors.

Before joining Avaya, Butt held the top channel spot in Motorola, as vice president of worldwide channels where he was credited with transforming its channel operating and focusing on international regions and global sales.

Donny Ward, long considered the second in command in Avaya's channel organization, left the company in September. While the circumstances around his departure were not made public, Avaya said in a statement that Ward left is role as vice president of North American channel sales "to pursue other opportunities."

Capping off a year of major shifts for Avaya, the Basking Ridge, N.J.-based company has tapped former Seagate channel executive Carol Giles Neslund as its North America channel vice president. Neslund is slated to start Oct. 1 and will report to voice president of worldwide channels, Jeremy Butt.

At Seagate Neslund was the lead for the Americas channel organization. Before her role with Seagate, Neslund led OEM channel development at McDATA and has held various positions with StorageTek, IBM and Hitachi Data Systems.