AV distributor Midwich has promoted Lee Harris and Ross Floyd to Divisional Director, following the planned retirement of long-serving Commercial Director, Lee Baker.
Lee Harris will become Divisional Director focusing on AV (Midwich Ltd) and Ross Floyd will assume a wider role as Divisional Director covering AV, Document Solutions and further technologies.
Lee Baker will be passing over his responsibilities to Lee Harris and Ross Floyd in January following an extensive handover period.
Global SD-WAN contender Silver Peak announced three new senior executive appointments as part of its future plans.
The new appointments include Ken Laversin, Chief Revenue Officer, Kathleen Swift, Senior Vice President, Human Resources and Rick Valentine, Chief Customer Officer.
A company spokesperson said the executive appointments, which follow a series of regional and channel leadership appointments, will enable Silver Peak to
Sound outfit Jabra has appointed Ismail Mitha to its North EMEA Channel team. Mitha will be field-based, but will report into Jabra’s UK HQ in Langley, Berkshire.
This news follows a string of new hires and promotions as Jabra has seen increased demand and strong financial growth across the organisation. Mitha joins as Telco Account Manager and will utilise his vast experience in the industry to build upon the strong foundations laid by his predecessor, Lee Davis, who was recently appointed Enterprise Account Manager at Jabra.
UK omni-channel Payment Service Provider (PSP) Anderson Zaks, has announced a new focus on its partner channel, with several new partners signed in recent months. The company is undergoing an expansion across the board with new appointments in its sales, marketing, development, quality assurance and support teams as it broadens its product and service offering in light of payments industry deregulation associated with the second Payment Services Directive (PSD2).
Data protection firm Arcserve has appointed Vince Blackall as its new EMEA Channel Director. Again.
The company said that Blackall comes with a proven track record of delivering transformational revenue growth and sales productivity across existing and new sales teams, and will oversee the development and delivery of Arcserve’s EMEA channel growth strategy.
Aura Alliance today announced Jonathan Harris will join full time as Chief Technology and Strategy Officer.
Harris will lead the global strategy and technology roadmap to support the company’s move from being an Avaya centric specialist to becoming a multi-vendor global alliance in the deployment of global enterprise communications.
Harris said: “I’m delighted to take up this new challenge at such an exciting time for the business.
Boys thrashing tops in 1560 – Brueghel
The Canalys Channel Conference closed at 3PM prompt this afternoon, Barcelona time, but not before one of the few channel journalists left standing was given a five minute slot to stand and address the thousand or so attendees at the conference.
Cristoph Hugenschmidt, a journalist at Inside Channels CH, made an impassioned speech about how the community of vendors, distributors and resellers need the independence that real journalism – rather than fake news or marketing spin – offers that influential group.
Cristoph reckons – and ChannelEye agrees – that the hugely lucrative market needs independent journalism more than ever before. He gave as an example a Canalys event he attended a year or two back where a marketing spinner told the assembled hacks that journalism wasn’t necessary any more because his company could put out the message it wanted via social media and using impoverished hacks to write online press releases.
Nevertheless, after delivering this insult to the hackettes and hacks at the table, according to Cristoph, he tipped up a couple of hours later and said: “I do expect you journalists to be at my 9AM roundtable tomorrow.”
The Swiss hack was basically saying that unless the channel supported free and independent journalism as part of the community, we’ll all wither away and companies will lose the insight, gossip and spinicide that hackettes and hacks deliver.
Why does the channel need journalists like Cristoph and the few of us that are left? My feeling is that despite the noise of Twitter and other social media, and PR and marketing executives spinning like tops, there is a need for a cool third party appraisal of what’s going on. “Going forward”, to use an infamous marketing perversion of the phrase “in the future”, company CEOs need to decide whether they can afford the ridiculous price of marketing spin and decide whether it’s worth it.
ChannelEye of course, is notorious as purveyors of “fake news” – via The Rogister and theINQUIRER.net, and coined the term “wide awake news” two years after Donald Trump was born.
Channel Marketing agency Sherpa is expanding its global operations outreach by hiring a new Client Services Director.
Lee Walker, former Business Development Director for Stylus, has joined Sherpa as the Client Services Director and will head up the operations team.
Lee brings extensive marketing expertise from previous agency roles and his experience of managing numerous, successful teams throughout his career will be integral in his role as Client Services Director and ensuring Sherpa’s customers continue to be fully supported.
Lee said he was delighted to be joining Sherpa as the business looks to continue its successful growth.
“Sherpa already has a strong client focus, as evidenced by its long-standing relationships and recent business wins. I am joining a remarkable team who are extremely experienced across the full marketing mix, from data management, strategic planning and ABM to content marketing, SEO and paid traffic. The skill set is incredibly diverse, and I am confident that through our combined efforts our global operations will not only become more efficient but also develop stronger and more valuable business relationships with our clients.”
Sherpa CEO, Tom Perry added: “Sherpa has a wide range of clients, made up of some of the largest companies in the tech space at present and as our client base grows and the marketing landscape continues to change, so do the required skillsets of our core team. I am a big believer in championing our team and investing in them, ensuring the right person stepped into the role of Client Services Director has been paramount. I do not doubt that we have found someone in Lee who can actively lead our expansion and grow our operations teams as we take on more global marketing programmes.
“Our vision of creating the world’s best channel marketing agency requires people of Lee’s calibre, and I’m delighted he has joined Sherpa at this time of rapid expansion”.
IFS has appointed respected industry veteran Gabrielle Deeny to drive the company’s partner business.
She will lead the global alliances and channels programme, which will “strategically accelerate” the growth of IFS’s commercial channels, an area of increased priority for the company.
The company proclaims: “With a focus first on adding value to IFS customers, this growth will be accomplished by leveraging existing channels and creating new ones all the while ensuring partners continue to be rigorously vetted to provide customers with best-in-class solutions, services and support.
“With a background in international business, Deeny has a sound track record of reinventing business models, creating customer-centered value propositions and providing leadership in Forbes’ Global 2000 companies, including Microsoft, EMC, Wipro & ABB, where she was Global VP Alliances & Channel Sales.”
So what does Gabrielle say herself?
“This is an incredibly exciting time to be joining IFS, the extension of our portfolio of solutions through recent acquisitions and the establishment of a new leadership team all point toward the accelerated growth of the organisation. Our success will also be reliant on our partner ecosystem, ensuring we have the right mix of enabled and accredited partners is of paramount importance. IFS is in excellent shape to grow its global footprint through existing and new alliances. I look forward to working with the IFS team and our trusted partners to continue to deliver best-in-class solutions to our mutual customers.”
We think IFS needs a good sub or a copy editor – way too many stock phrases like ecosystem, global footprint, and best-in-class. Perhaps there’s artificial intelligence at work here.
Bromium has announced that Kevin Mosher has joined the company as its Chief Revenue Officer.
Mosher will oversee all revenue generation processes, and lead Bromium’s global field operations and go-to-market efforts.
Bromium CEO Gregory Webb said he was delighted to have Mosher join the Bromium team.
Mosher joins at a time when Bromium is poised for rapid growth with a differentiated, market-leading solution, he said.
“Along with his network of trusted CIO, CISO, sales, and partner relationships, Kevin’s expertise running high-performing field and channel organizations makes him the ideal leader for increased customer time to value and growth.”
Prior to joining Bromium, Mosher was SVP of Worldwide Sales at cyber security start-up ArcSight, where he oversaw revenue growth from $4 million to $700 million in seven years.
He was also instrumental in helping take the company public in 2008. Mosher then led Global Sales at data security company Delphix, where over a period of three years he significantly grew revenues, increased deal size, and expanded the company’s market share. Mosher also held leadership roles at Oracle, Portal Software, and Accel Partners, a venture capital firm.
Sage CEO Stephen Kelly has stepped down from his role at the accountancy software vendor, Sage despite apparently turning the outfit around.
Sage’s numbers had been pretty dire this year, but showed signs of recovery during an update to the London Stock Exchange at the start of August.
On his resignation Kelly said: “I joined Sage four years ago and am immensely proud of the extraordinary change that I have had the privilege to lead. I joined a fragmented organisation with minimal presence in the cloud. The major cultural transformation has created Sage Business Cloud which has now grown to £386 million of annualised recurring revenue from a standing start and has driven total shareholder return for Sage of over twice that of the FTSE100 during my tenure.”
Chairman Donald Brydon said: “Stephen has much to be proud of in the very heavy lifting he has led as the group is transformed.
“He energised the group, drove change with relentless focus on customers, and under his leadership the strategy to become a leading SaaS business has been defined. The board remains fully supportive of the overall strategy. We wish Stephen well in the next phase of his life.”
Tech Data’s Advanced Solutions boss Rob Tomlin is set to join Dell EMC as UK channel VP, replacing Sarah Shields who is headed off to greener pastures in a more European role.
Shields announced in June that she would become VP of enterprise channels but said she would stay on in Blighty until a suitable replacement had been found.
Tech Data has announced to staff that Rob Tomlin will be leaving to join Dell EMC as VP of channels.
“Rob has been a key player in the integration of both SDG and Avnet into the Tech Data business and we thank him for the work he has done in setting up the Advanced Solutions division. “He leaves a very strong management team behind him in which we have every confidence. The leadership of the Advanced Solutions management team will be picked up by [UK MD] David Watts and we have total belief that the division will continue to grow and build upon the value it is bringing to the channel.”
Tomlin is expected to set up in Shield’s office early in Q4.
Steve Castle has joined the blockchain payments and identity brand Nuggets as a non-Executive Director.
Castle has already been supporting Nuggets as a strategic adviser for over a year, and was an early investor.
Alastair Johnson, Founder and CEO of Nuggets, said: “It’s a great pleasure to welcome Steve as a Non-Executive Director. His strategic advice has been invaluable to us for some time now, and we’re looking forward to drawing on even more of his 35 years’ experience in financial services.”
Castle’s most recent high-profile role was as a key part of the ‘Senior Management Walk-In’ team briefed with turning around Liverpool Victoria General Insurance Group in 2006.
As Group Finance Director, he was instrumental in transforming the business into the LV= brand as it is today. By 2012, the business had been grown five-fold to become the third-largest motor insurer in the UK. The (previously loss making) company was also delivering annual profits of over £100m and had the highest customer satisfaction levels in the industry.
Before LV=, Castle held senior Group Board positions in the RBS Insurance, Direct Line and Churchill. He was previously a director at AIG, ACE & CIGNA.
Of his new role, Steve Castle said: “Having seen how rapidly Nuggets has developed in markets around the world over recent months, I’m delighted to be joining the team as Non-Executive Director.
“Nuggets offers a unique solution for making simple e-commerce payments and other transactions without having to share personal data. I’m convinced it’s a product that will transform e-commerce as we know it.”
This latest announcement follows the recent appointment of former Managing Director of Visa, Kevin Jenkins, to establish Nuggets in Europe and lead on business development.
At the end of June, Nuggets also announced a partnership with QFPay, the Chinese payment provider used by Asian commerce giants Alipay and WeChat. QFPay has managed more than 500 million mobile payment transactions to date. Now, Asian merchants using QFPay can also benefit from Nuggets’ unique payments and identity features.
Engine today announced the appointment of Kasha Cacy as the company’s global chief executive officer.
Effective 4 September, Cacy will oversee Engine’s 17 offices across North America, the UK, Europe and Asia-Pacific, leading the company’s marketing offering, from insights and content to distribution and technology.
Cacy joins Engine from UM, the full-service marketing and media agency network of IPG Mediabrands, where she served as US CEO. She will be based out of Engine’s headquarters in New York, and will report to Engine Executive Chairman Paul Caine.
Caine said: “I’m delighted to welcome Kasha to the Engine family. Her talent, drive and vision will be tremendous assets as we enter an exciting time for the company and our clients. Kasha has deep expertise across media, data, marketing and consulting. She will be key in leading Engine as we build upon our differentiated offering of data, insights, content, distribution and technology, with the goal of helping our brand, publisher and agency partners succeed in driving business growth.”
Cacy said: “I am excited to join Engine because I think it has unlimited opportunity to serve clients’ marketing solutions needs. Individually, each of the practice areas is so impressive. And together, it creates the kind of solutions clients are going to be really excited about. I can’t wait to join the talented leaders and teams around the globe in leading a nimble, open ecosystem that will provide clients with a better way of working and greater value than ever before.”
In her ten years at UM, Cacy was most recently responsible for all US operations, including more than 1,200 people in five offices, while also overseeing US-based clients, including J&J, Chrysler, Coke, Hershey, Sony Pictures, USPS, CVS, and Charles Schwab. Prior to UM, she held positions at McCann Erickson, Ogilvy, Cheil Communications, Wunderman, and Accenture.
Cisco’s global channel boss Wendy Bahr is to step down this year after 18 years with the outfit.
Bahr joined Cisco in 2000 as SVP of US and Canada channels and has been a key contact for the networking giant’s partners.
Cisco said that it plans to have a new channel lead appointed by the time of its partner conference, which will be held in Las Vegas in November.
Cisco said: “We respect Wendy’s decision to leave Cisco and want to thank her for 18 years of leadership at Cisco, most recently leading our Global Partner Organisation.
“Our partner community is one of our strongest assets and we are committed to their success and helping them evolve with Cisco’s transformation.”
Bahr has been credited with helping to reshape Cisco’s partner business as the vendor goes through its transition.
Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins acknowledged Bahr’s contributions to Cisco in a tweet that said: “Special thanks to Wendy Bahr for all of your great contributions to Cisco. We will miss you but we wish you the best in all you do and we will always value our friendship.”
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