Former Cisco channel man Roberts pitches up at Mitel

Mitel continues to reshape its senior EMEA management team bringing in another industry veteran to run its channel operations across the region.

Back in October the comms specialist appointed former Avaya and Westcon executive Jeremy Butt as its svp of EMEA and it has followed that appointment with the decision to bring on board Richard Roberts as vice president for UK/Ireland and EMEA channels.

Roberts has a CV that includes a 14 year spell at Cisco, which included time spent working with the networking giant's channel, and more recently as EMEA sales and worldwide channel business head at Purple.

He joins the firm at a time when it has made it clear it is looking to fend off competitors across Europe in the comms market and is looking for growth through its channel to support that ambition. Since the ShoreTel acquisition was sealed last summer the firm has also gained more access to hybrid UC technologies that should appeal to those users looking to move into that area.

The firm also revealed just before the close of last year that it had hit the one million subscribers for worldwide cloud services, with a customer base that included businesses of all sizes.

“As customers of all sizes increasingly turn to cloud technologies to provide a path to the future, it’s important we are able to support end-users while empowering our channel partners on their transformation journey,” said Butt.

“Richard’s dual role will enable him to drive forward our expanded UK and Ireland business, while ensuring the EMEA-wide channel strategy is best suited to customers’ needs. Given his wealth of experience in this space, I have no doubt Richard will excel in the role," he added.

Roberts said that his task was to ensure that the technologies that Mitel could deliver were given to partners looking to exploit the growth in demand for unified comms products and services.

"Through cloud-enabled communications and collaboration, we will be able to help channels meet customers’ needs for new ways to buy and consume unified communications and collaboration services,” he said.