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Channel roundup: Who’s gone where?
Another busy week in HR departments across the industry with some significant channel appointments being made
We are still nowhere near the moment when robots run the world and those seeking growth continue to reach out for industry expertise and hire people they believe will make a difference to the business. Some well-known vendors were among those making changes in the last week.
SAP
Laura Atkinson has been appointed chief partner officer for SAP UK & Ireland. She was previously head of partners and alliances, SAP UK & Ireland, and has been with SAP for four years. Before that, she spent 15 years at Microsoft UK.
“Our ambitions are clear – we want to double the all-up partner contribution to the UKI business by 2023,” said Michiel Verhoeven, managing director, SAP UK and Ireland. “We want to create customers for life by delivering better outcomes and choice via our partner community, continue to develop a partner ecosystem that supports our cloud growth strategy, and provide an outstanding and consistent experience for all our partners.
“Laura has done a fantastic job over the past four years building greater trust, collaboration and advocacy within our partners and alliances network, particularly with our most strategic systems integrators and hyperscaler partners, and will no doubt build on this success and leverage this strategic mindset in her new role.”
Sage
The cloud business management player has reached out to a former Microsoft and Splunk staffer, Aziz Benmalek, to come on board as executive vice-president of the global partner organisation. His CV is packed with channel roles and in his position at Sage, he will be leaning on all that experience to work with resellers, IUSvs, app developers and strategic alliance partners to increase growth.
Lee Perkins, COO at Sage, said: “As our partners and customers continue to adapt their businesses to succeed in the current climate, the need for digital transformation is rapidly accelerating. Customers are looking to our partners for cloud solutions that make it easy for them to do business. Aziz joins us with deep knowledge and experience in channel-first cloud computing and a passion for customer success.”
Cradlepoint
The cloud-delivered LTE and 5G specialist has appointed Former Infoblox EMEA channel director Darryl Brick as its vp partner sales for EMEA. As well as Infoblox, his CV includes time at HP Europe and Juniper Networks. He will be responsible for making life better for partners, with plans to enhance the current benefits Cradlepoint offers the channel.
“5G is going to be revolutionary, especially for enterprises,” said Brick. “Preparing customers for the adoption of 5G is a task I will relish in my new role at Cradlepoint and I’m excited to be on board. We are in the early stages of building out the partner community, who will seize the opportunity being presented by both the market movement as well as the leadership position Cradlepoint has established.”
Nutanix
The cloud player has turned to Rob Tribe to make a difference as vice-president, systems engineering, for the EMEA region. He was one of the first two EMEA Nutanix employees, joining in 2012. In his most recent role as senior director of systems engineering, he was responsible for all technical resources in the region, engaging with the channel, users and OEMs.
Andrew Brinded, vp and general manager EMEA sales at Nutanix, said: “As a longstanding Nutanix employee, Rob has been pivotal in the many stages of the company’s evolution. He is a talented and respected leader with the technical knowledge, industry relationships and business acumen to help guide the EMEA business to the next level.”
IP Integration
The digital contact centre specialist has made a couple of appointments, welcoming Sat Sanghera as CEO and Andy Scopes as COO. Sanghera comes to the role with a wealth of experience accumulated during a number of senior leadership positions, including co-owner of DatapointEurope – sold to Sabio in 2017. Scopes is also a former Sabio staffer, most recently as vp of group operations.
As part of the new leadership team, Joe Prentis is also named as the new IPI chairman. “Sat leads from the front and by example, enacting positive change across the organisation,” he said. “In the short amount of time he has been with our company, he has fostered a culture built around championing our people and celebrating our clients. I believe our company will be all the stronger with him and Andy at the helm.”
