The 30 Blockbuster Channel Executive Moves Of 2014 (So Far)
Movers And Shake-Ups
Channel executives have been on the move in 2014 so far. From channel chiefs at major vendor companies, to leading VAR executives, 2014 has been a turbulent year so far for those in leading channel roles.
Take a look back at the 30 biggest channel executive moves of the year so far.
Marc Dupaquier
IBM decided to kick off the New Year with a brand-new channel chief, naming Marc Dupaquier as general manager of IBM Global Business Partners in January. Dupaquier replaces General Manager Mark Hennessy. Hennessy will remain with IBM in a new role, the company said. Dupaquier isn't a stranger to the IBM ecosystem after spending more than 30 years with the company, most recently as vice president of marketing and strategy in IBM's Systems and Technology Group. Prior to that, he held notable positions as general manager of IBM's global midmarket business and head of marketing for IBM Software Group.
Tami Duncan
Alongside a new global channel chief, IBM also shook up its North American channel chief lineup, naming Tami Duncan as the new vice president of IBM's business partner and midmarket sales for North America. Duncan will fill the shoes of Bill Donohue, who retired the previous summer after more than 30 years at IBM. Duncan is no stranger to IBM, with more than 10 years of experience at the company, most recently serving as vice president of IBM's Northeast Region general business. In addition to that, she held positions at IBM, including director of strategy for IBM Global Services North America.
Edison Peres
In a move that surprised its partners, Cisco announced in May that it had moved channel chief Edison Peres to a new position as senior vice president of cloud and managed services. Peres had served in a previous role as senior vice president of worldwide channels for more than 10 years. In his new role, Peres will be charged with driving partner recruitment and enablement for Cisco's recently announced cloud organization.
With the Peres announcement came a broader organizational shake-up within Cisco around its InterCloud initiative, including an announcement that Guido Jouret, who had been overseeing the company's Internet of Things group, had left to pursue other opportunities.
Leonard Iventosch
Leonard Iventosch unexpectedly resigned from EMC in January, listing himself as a "restricted free agent" on his LinkedIn profile. Prior to his resignation, Iventosch served as vice president of Americas channels for two years at the storage vendor. Iventosch has a strong channel background, with roles as vice president of worldwide channels at Isilon Systems and as vice president of channels at NetApp. Iventosch came to EMC in 2010 when Isilon Systems was acquired by the Hopkinton, Mass.-based company. As of July, Iventosch still had not announced a new role for himself.
Rob Claus
Huawei was on the hunt for a new U.S. channel chief in January after former channel chief Rob Claus left the Chinese networking company. Claus took a new position as vice president of sales at Tely Labs, leaving his position at Huawei as vice president of U.S. channel sales and marketing for the Enterprise Business Group. Prior to Huawei, Claus built a name for himself in the channel during an eight-year tenure as channel chief at Polycom. Claus also held roles at ShoreTel and Hewlett-Packard.
Jonathan Belcher
After channel executives were departing Juniper left and right, the networking vendor finally secured a new U.S. channel chief in Jonathan Belcher. First coming to Juniper in 2010, Belcher most recently served as vice president of partner and alliance sales for Juniper's Asia Pacific, Greater China and Japan region, before stepping in as the company's new vice president of Americas partner sales in January. In addition to experience working with partners with Juniper, Belcher also brings experience as vice president of worldwide sales at Augmentix, Neterion and Quantum.
Steve Dallman
After more than 35 years at the company, Steve Dallman retired from Intel in March. After first joining the chip maker in 1979, Dallman served in various channel roles, including those around channel sales, marketing and distribution. Most recently, Dallman was vice president and general manager of Intel's Original Design Manufacturing Channel Engagement business. Throughout his long tenure at the company, Dallman also served as Intel global channel chief, as well as general manager of Intel's worldwide Reseller Channel Organization (RCO).
Prashant Ranade
In February, Syntel, No. 40 on CRN's SP500 list, announced CEO Prashant Ranade would be stepping down in March as CEO of the $825 million solution provider after four years at the helm. However, Ranade won't be leaving Syntel entirely, taking over as the executive vice president of the company's board of directors. Taking Ranade's place as president and CEO will be Nitin Rakesh, the former president of Syntel's business development and near shoring center for the Americas. Ranade has been at Syntel since 2007 in various positions, previously serving in executive positions at Indus Ventures, Demantic and Siemens.
Karl Soderlund
In March, Avaya channel chief Karl Soderlund announced he was picking up a new role as channel chief at Aruba Networks. Soderlund had been at Avaya since 2011, most recently as head of Americas channels. Prior to that, Soderlund spent time in executive roles at Certeon, HP and Fortinet.
Avaya announced in June that it had chosen former VMware executive Joe Lohmeier to replace Soderlund. Lohmeier brings experience most recently as VMware vice president of America Sales, as well as more than 12 years at Cisco.
Stephen Boyle
Longtime Oracle executive Stephen Boyle joined Microsoft's executive team in March as vice president of enterprise partners. At Oracle since 1991, Boyle most recently served as the company's vice president of ISV and OEM alliances. Before joining Oracle, Boyle spent several years at Sun Microsystems, which was later acquired by Oracle in 2010.
Glen Ziegler
After Rob Claus left the company in January for Tely Labs, Huawei was on the search for a new channel chief. In March, the company found a new channel chief in Glen Ziegler. Bringing with him extensive channel expertise from executive roles at HP and 3Com, Ziegler will serve as senior director of channel sales. Ziegler joined HP with the company's 3Com acquisition, where he served as director of channel partners, and ultimately led HP's channel strategies for its Americas networking business.
Pete Howard
As part of its layoff rounds, NetApp lost two key channel executives in March. The storage company lost Pete Howard, vice president of global channel sales, after eight years at the company in various channel roles. Howard boasts a long career in the channel, previously serving as principal of channel strategy consultant Rohner and Associates, as well as channel positions at Business Objects and Sybase.
Al Danza
In addition to Pete Howard, the NetApp channel team also lost Al Danza, channel director of NetApp's U.S. East region, in March. Danza had been with the company more than 12 years. Similar to Howard, Danza also has a long channel career, including senior director of strategic alliances at Symbol Technologies, as well as channel-related roles at Sterling Software and Ericsson Mobile Communications.
Janet Hendrickson
Intelisys got a new channel team addition in March, adding Janet Hendrickson as senior manager of strategic VAR partner development for the West and Central U.S. regions. To her new role, Hendrickson brings experience most recently as vertical program manager at ShoreTel, as well as senior channel marketing management at Ruckus Wireless. Hendrickson will be in charge of developing the Intelisys VAR community in her new role, including recruitment and training.
Kevin Murai
The Global Technology Distribution Council (GTDC) announced a new vice chairman to help lead the strategic direction for the world's largest industry group for IT distribution, with members driving $130 billion in annual revenue. In February, GTDC announced Synnex President and CEO Kevin Murai would be stepping into the role, replacing Westcon Group President and CEO Dean Douglas. Murai has extensive experience in distribution, serving as Synnex CEO since 2008 and prior to that as president and COO at Ingram Micro for nearly 20 years.
Roger Egan
Just two weeks before the Red Hat partner conference in January, Red Hat's Roger Egan stepped down from his position as channel chief of the software company. Egan left his position as vice president of North America channel sales at Red Hat to take a new position at open-source startup Docker. Egan had been with the Red Hat channel program for seven years, including as senior director of North American channels and business development. Prior to that, Egan spent more than 15 years at IBM.
Luanne Tierney
Amidst marketing cuts at Juniper Networks, vice president of global partner marketing Luanne Tierney left the company. In her role, Tierney was in charge of helping partners boost their marketing efforts, for example, helping partners revamp their websites for mobile viewing. Before joining the networking vendor in 2011, Tierney spent more than 10 years at Cisco in several senior marketing roles. An avid Women of the Channel advocate, Tierney said in the meantime that she plans to write a book for women in the workforce around best practices and strategies.
D. Robert Martin
Since channel chief Roger Egan departed the company in January, Red Hat has been on the hunt for a replacement. In April, Red Hat named D. Robert Martin as its new North American channel chief. Coming from a position as vice president of global indirect channel for VCE, Martin will lead Red Hat's channel strategy as vice president of North American partner sales. To his new position, Martin also brings executive-level channel experience from Cisco.
Rajeev Gupta
In yet another departure for the networking vendor, Rajeev Gupta left Juniper Networks in April for Big Switch Networks. In his new position, Gupta will be the company's first ever head of worldwide channels. Gupta will be well-qualified for his new role after more than six years at Juniper as director of worldwide channels and partner development. Prior to that, Gupta also held channel and management roles at Fortinet, Altera and LSI Logic.
Will Knight
After spending more than 15 years at Microsoft, Will Knight headed to Rackspace Hosting in April as the company's newest vice president of channel partner sales. At Microsoft, Knight most recently served as senior director of the company's Asia-Pacific small and medium business division. He also held previous positions in cloud sales and geographic expansion in the same region. In his new role, Knight will be charged with driving the development of a more strategic partner approach. For his part, Knight said Rackspace partners can expect him to reinvest in the channel and refocus the company on partners.
Joe Hyek
After more than six years with the company, PCM President of Sales Joe Hayek stepped down to take a position as vice president of M&A and corporate development at Worthington Industries. The April announcement came after news of a potential takeover bid at PCM, as 5 percent of its stock was purchased by Firoz Lalji, chairman of PCM rival Zones. Hayek had been with the company since 2008, previously serving in an executive position at Raymond James.
Harish Krishnamurthy
To help drive its new cloud strategy, Insight Enterprises, No. 14 on CRN's SP500 list, named Harish Krishnamurthy as senior vice president of cloud services. To his new role, Krishnamurthy will bring more than 15 years of experience at IBM with multiple executive positions, most recently as vice president of sales for the Systems & Technology Group. Prior to IBM, Krishnamurthy was at A.T. Kearney.
Jorge Benitez
In May, Accenture announced its U.S. CEO and senior managing director of North America Jorge Benitez was retiring from the solution provider, No. 3 on CRN's 2014 SP500 list. Benitez said he would retire at the end of August, to be replaced by Stephen Rohleder, who was most recently Accenture group chief executive of health and public service and had previously served as COO. Benitez had been in his current position since 2011 and said he will continue to stay involved with clients and represent the company until he retires at the end of the summer.
Rodolpho Cardenuto
SAP created a new organization for Global Partner Operations in May as part of a larger company reorganization. To head up the company's effort, SAP chose Rodolpho Cardenuto. Working at SAP since 2008, Cardenuto most recently served as the German software company's president of SAP Americas.
Merk Ferrer, who had been managing the SAP Ecosystems and Channels organization prior to the reorganization, will not leave the company. Ferrer will serve as COO of customer operations.
Adam Famularo
In an unexpected May announcement, CA Technologies' Adam Famularo stepped down as North American channel chief. Famularo was on the job for less than six months when he stepped down after what CRN sources said was a conflict over CA's strategic direction for the channel. Just two months later, CA announced it was spinning off its ARCserve data protection software business, one of the remaining 100 percent channel pieces of the business. In his 16-year tenure at the company, Famularo had been driving the push behind a "channel first" strategy for CA before his departure.
Michael Boustridge
As the solution provider continues its restructuring efforts, Ciber has named a new president and CEO in Michael Boustridge. Ciber, No. 38 on CRN's 2014 SP500 list, brought Boustridge on in 2012 as a member of the board of directors. In his new role, Boustridge will replace Dave Peterschmidt, who had been president and CEO since 2010, and Ciber said the two will work together to ensure a seamless transition.
Earlier in the year, Ciber COO and Executive Vice President Richard Genovese also left the company.
Garrett Jones
After spearheading many changes for Symantec's channel program in recent months, Garrett Jones left the company in June to spend more time with his Austin, Texas-based family and work for a smaller company. Jones was Symantec's worldwide channel chief and was replaced on an interim basis by Zachary Mandeville, Symantec manager of marketing strategy and operations. Jones had been with Symantec since 2006 and left to join a cloud-based services backup startup, Spanning, in Austin.
Mark Arman
At the beginning of June, Polycom announced it had named Mark Arman as its new vice president of worldwide channels, replacing former Polycom Global Channel Chief Mike Conlon. Partners cheered the news at the time, saying Arman had a strong channel record. The former ShoreTel channel executive will now oversee the company's global channel strategy and partner program.
In recent months, Polycom has undergone quite a few executive shuffles. In May, the company promoted Laura Durr to CFO, after appointing a new CEO in December with Peter A. Leav.
Bob Skelley
In June, Dell promoted channel veteran Bob Skelley to executive director of North American channel sales. In his seven years at Dell, Skelley has helped architect the company's channel program. Before he was promoted, Skelley served as executive director of global channel programs.
"I'm excited about getting back in front of the partners on a more regular basis and being out in the field and working with our teams more closely," Skelley said in an exclusive interview with CRN at the time.
John Murdock
For its new channel sales chief for North America, Kaspersky Lab turned to top Juniper Networks executive John Murdock. In his new role as vice president of channel sales for Kaspersky Lab, Murdock will help manage the company's channel program and resellers. He is replacing Christopher Doggett, who took a new role in the security company earlier in the year.
Murdock isn't new to the channel -- with more than seven years at Juniper in various channel roles, helping build out the networking company's inside sales team, and planning and implementing Juniper's worldwide channel partner program. He most recently served there as senior director of worldwide partner sales programs.