Desmond calls time at Exclusive Networks

An end of an era is coming at Exclusive Networks, with the announced departure of Barrie Desmond from the distributor.

Desmond, who is COO at the channel player, has been one of the key architects helping the distributor grow its business internationally and in terms of revenues over the past seven years. He is set to leave at the end of this year to “pursue other interests”.

As Desmond starts to get ready to head for the exit, Exclusive Networks has revealed that Andy Travers has become its senior vice-president of worldwide sales and marketing.

His name will be familiar with anyone who has worked with Fortinet, F5 Networks or most recently RSA when he was there.

Travers is coming on board to help drive growth and help Exclusive hit its targets of reaching revenues of $10bn over the next 5 years.

Desmond has become known in the industry for spotting the need to react to digital disruption and form vendor relationships to meet emerging needs.

“My work here is done. We’ve had an incredible journey and built a VAD [value-added distribution] model that continues to disrupt, grow sales at an extraordinary rate and expand its footprint at an astonishing tempo. Along the way, we’ve reinvented distribution and redefined value,” said Desmond.

“But now it’s time for the next generation of disruptors to take on the challenge of growing the world’s largest specialist VAD,” he added.

He will spend his last few months at the firm working closely with Travers to ensure a smooth transition.

Olivier Breittmayer, Exclusive Group’s CEO, said it had made the Travers appointment to keep the focus on growth.

“Following our recent investment from Permira funds, we set ourselves high expectations for executing against our new growth strategy. Andy has the skills and experience necessary to contribute to us achieving our goals and understands our unique culture and values,” he said.

Commenting on the decision by Desmond to stand down, Breittmayer said it was an amicable parting.

“Barrie’s decision to stand down at the end of the year is totally respected by myself and the board. We’ve worked well together these past 7 years, architecting and driving the growth of this business and telling the story only we can tell. It’s been a great journey together and we wish him all the best for the future,” he said.

Travers said he was coming into a business that still had plenty of opportunities for growth because of the ongoing demand for security solutions and cloud transformation technology.

“Exclusive Networks has earned a world-wide reputation for doing what no other VAD has been able to do – delivering genuine value-add at scale. I’m joining at a pivotal time for the business as we commit to exploiting the global opportunities around cyber security and cloud transformation to reach another step-change in growth,” he said.