Schneider Electric welcomes European channel chief

Schneider Electric has shuffled its channel team turning to an internal candidate to find its next European channel chief.

Power specialist Schneider Electric has announced the appointment of Hanne Sjøberg as its Europe vice-president of channels, secure power division, with a brief to lead the firm’s partner organisation.

She replaces David Terry, who had been running channels for more than a decade, but now moves into a newly formed role leading the firm’s emerging artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem.

Sjøberg has been with the vendor since 2016, and has held the role of vice-president of customer satisfaction and quality for the past two and half years. Her input was crucial in enhancing the firm’s position and the focus on CX fed into the EcoXpert partner programme that was introduced in July.

Her CV includes some serious channel experience, with a spell as managing director at TD Synnex Denmark before she joined Schnieder.

“I have always been fascinated by the speed of transformation taking place within the technology sector, and more so considering the growing demand for AI, critical IT, and sustainability solutions. I’m excited to begin my new role and look forward to working with our partners to ensure they’re equipped with the tools, training and support to meet these evolving market opportunities,” she said.

Sjøberg joins at a time when the incentives and enhancements for partners have been coming along on a regular basis, including increased support for e-commerce partners and enabling more sustainability progress through products and programmes.

Marc Garner, Schneider Electric’s senior vice president of secure power for Europe, said that Sjøberg had the skills the firm was looking for, including “her passion for people, sustainability and innovation”, which he said would be integral to both the success of the EcoXpert partner programme, as well as planned product, commercial and partner initiatives.

At the same time, Garner took the time to mark the contribution made by Terry running the channel and underlined the importance of his next role: “I’d also like to take the opportunity to thank David Terry for his exceptional channel leadership during the past eleven years, and I look forward to our continued work together as we target the evolving ecosystem around AI.”

Terry was responsible for making some fundamental changes during his tenure, including extending distribution relationships with Arrow Electronics, ATEA and Bechtle, and was in the channel hot seat during a period when sustainability became increasingly important and required answers from both the vendor and its channel.