Commvault ushers in fresh channel chief

Commvault has decided that the best way to start the year from a channel perspective is with a change in its leadership.

John Tavares has been appointed as vice-president of global channel and alliances, stepping into the shoes that were recently filled by Mercer Rowe, who will now be moving into the role of area vice-president for the vendor’s business in Japan.

Tavares should be a name the is recognisable to those who have operated in the Dell EMC channel, as he has spent 25 years working on the datacentre side for Dell.

“I am excited to bring my long-standing sales expertise to Commvault and aid the company in continuing to grow its reputation for providing trusted enterprise-grade data management solutions across the global channel,” said Tavares.

“The global partner organisation has done some amazing things, especially during such uncertain times this past year. I look forward to building on this momentum and creating long-lasting partnerships that will truly benefit our customers,” he added.

Travares comes in with a brief to strengthen relationships with partners worldwide, and the task for his predecessor Rowe will be to drive growth for the firm’s software-as-a-service (SaaS) division Metallic across the Asia Pacific.

“John is joining Commvault at the perfect time – bringing his wealth of valuable expertise to the global partner organisation and serving as a barometer of what we can expect in this next fiscal year,” said Riccardo Di Blasio, chief revenue officer at Commvault.

“With John as the head of our global partner organisation, working closely with our regional leadership, I am confident that our partnership opportunities will flourish, reaching new audiences and increasing productivity.”

In December 2020, Commvault outlined the areas where it expects to gain growth in the year ahead and advised partners about what to expect in the “new normal”.

The vendor held its Connections event in December and put the focus on not only data management but information security, with the company keen to highlight the ransomware area.

Marco Fanizzi, vice-president and general manager of Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) at Commvault, said there were three main areas where the business was expecting growth as the world starts to move beyond Covid-19.

That list included protecting data from malicious attack and ransomware, using the cloud as an operating model with the flexibility to manage data on and off-premise, and expecting SaaS to be a growth area.