Channel roundup: Who's gone where?

The first week of a fresh year has been concluded and the pace is picking up on the recruitment front. There has been plenty of action in HR offices across all tiers of the channel in the past few days. 

Commvault
The storage player has appointed Carmen Sorice as vice president of worldwide route services, which includes responsibility for global partner engagement. The role is a freshly created one and is designed to ensure that the firm's sales teams are in the best position to help partners.“Commvault has undertaken a major redeployment of resources across its sales, partner and field marketing organisations to create new teams dedicated to Commvault’s Alliance Partners, Value Added Resellers and Distributors, Service Providers and Global Systems Integrators,” said Owen Taraniuk, head of worldwide partnerships and market development, at the vendor. “Commvault has improved all aspects of partner engagement to make it easier to do business with Commvault, understand our product offerings, and take full advantage of the growing opportunities with customers in the backup and recovery and data management markets."

Littlefish
The managed services provider has appointed Katy Hinchcliffe as its head of cyber security. She joins from Capgemini, where shed led the global cyber security outsourced capability for blue chip clients. Littlefish services director Richard Roome said that the firm was beefing up its position in the security space: “Investing in the expansion of our Cyber practice is a natural progression for our Services portfolio and forms part of our long-term growth strategy – not only are our existing managed services customers increasingly seeking our support in combatting the latest cyber threats, we see the Service Desk as a central component in any organisations Cyber strategy, acting both as the front line and early warning system.”

Maintel
The cloud player has looked to Czarina Sheikh Mathew to come on board as customer experience director making sure that users remain satisfied with the firm. She will be kicking off a company wide programme looking at how the experience for customers can be improved at every point where they interact with the firm. “We’ve always set the bar high when it comes to customer experience, and we’re excited to have in place an open and honest forum to help us continue to improve services wherever needed” said Eddie Buxton, CEO at Maintel. “Czarina’s expertise and vast experience in developing improvement plans with a customer focus makes this the perfect fit, and we’re delighted to have her on board.”

ActiveOps
With John O'Connell retiring from the role of chairman the firm has looked for a replacement and found that former EDS staffer Sean Finnan fits the bill. Prior to joining ActiveOps as a Non-Executive Director Sean’s role was GM and VP Strategic Outsourcing for Europe at IBM, heading up the $7bn business at Big Blue. “ActiveOps is growing rapidly and on a truly global scale, with expansion not only in our well-established markets in UK, South Africa and Asia Pacific, but now most rapidly in the US. With this scale of opportunity - either directly or through our strategic partners – my focus will be on supporting the Executive Team as they continue the implementation of their exciting strategic plans," he said.

Infovista
A new year has become the moment for a fresh CEO with José Duarte taking over the top job. He has a CV that includes 20 years at SAP, and stints as CEO at Unit4 and Infinitas Learning. Philippe Ozanian, who has served as CEO since 2008, will assume the role of Senior Advisor to the CEO. “This is the perfect time for José Duarte to become Infovista’s next CEO. We’ve selected a very strong leader at a pivotal time when Infovista is positioned for accelerated growth in the SD-WAN and 5G spaces,” said Gilles Rigal, Infovista Chairman and Partner at Apax Partners. “José is unique in his ability to transform teams into an engine of growth and realize maximum potential.”

Software AG
Dr. Wolfram Jost, who engineered Software AG’s digital transformation technology as the company’s CTO, will leave Software AG to pursue new opportunities. That leaves a vacancy, which is being filled by Bernd Gross. At the same time the firm also revealed that Dr. Stefan Sigg, member of the Software AG Management Board, will take on an expanded role of Chief Product Officer, encompassing all aspects of Software AG’s products, including product management, product development and support. Plus from next week Paz Macdonald will join the company as Chief Marketing Officer.

UiPath
The robotic process automation specialist has appointed former HP and Compaq staffer Marie Myers as CFO. She replaces Mihai Faur, who becomes a corporate controller and chief accounting officer. “It’s an incredible opportunity to join UiPath during this phase of growth and development and to help the company meet the skyrocketing demand of RPA. I can tell you firsthand how this technology can deliver real value within an enterprise and that is what really excites me,” said Myers. “I am looking forward to being part of the team to usher in the ‘Automation First’ era, giving organizations across the globe the technology and support required to help them transform their operations.”

Virtual Reality Industry Forum (VRIF)
Paul Higgs of Huawei has taken over from Rob Koenen as President of the forum. He helped found the organisation and has more than two decades of industry experience. He leads the strategy and research activities for the video production line, including media related virtual reality at Huawei. “We hope to bring together more of the best technology companies to further progress interoperability through the sharing of ideas, mutual understanding and the discussion of best practices. Every technology goes through phases. Together, with new and contributing members, the VRIF can break down any barriers to ultimately progress the industry," he said.