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Juniper: Chris Jones Succeeds Frank Vitagliano

Juniper (NYSE:JNPR) has named Chris Jones to succeed Frank Vitagliano as its VP for Americas Partner Sales. Vitagliano recently exited Juniper to join Dell (NASDAQ:DELL). Jones, a Juniper veteran, previously held VP-level and director-level positions at Proxim and Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO). So what are Jones’ top priorities? Here are some clues.

Jones shifted into the channel partner position effective April 1, according to a Juniper blog entry. He led Juniper’s Partner Advisory Council (JPAC) meeting last week in San Diego. Juniper is touting Jones’ expertise in the enterprise market, and previous channel experience at Cisco WebEx and Proxim.

In a prepared statement, Emilio Umeoka, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Partners, said Jones’ priorities would include a commitment to cloud-enabling partners.

Juniper has been mostly quiet following the company’s global partner summit in January 2013, at which time the company announced its Software-Defined Networking (SDN) strategy.

Dozens of companies are now promoting SDN initatives. Jones and the Juniper channel team will need to balance long-term SDN vision with near-term partner sales opportunities.

Sophos Names Krause New Americas Channel Chief

Security vendor Sophos has tapped Kendra Krause as channel sales vice president to oversee the company’s Americas partner initiatives.

Krause, who Sophos squired away from rival Fortinet (NASDAQ: FTNT), will be based in Chicago. She reports to Dick Faulkner, Sophos North American Sales vice president.

Krause’s background includes prior stints in channel sales, marketing and operations for IT security vendors, comprising most of her 15 years of industry experience, according to her LinkedIn profile. Prior to joining Sophos, Krause served as Fortinet’s channel sales director from 2007-2009, when she was promoted to Channel Sales and Operations vice president, her most recent assignment. She previously served as SonicWall’s director of National Accounts for two years, territory sales manager at WatchGuard, and Network Product Marketing manager at reseller CDW.

Krause is said to be well-versed in channel enablement, new business development and partner management.

“Kendra brings a fantastic track record of channel success and we are excited to welcome her to Sophos,” said Faulkner. “With her experience, we will look to her to not only help grow out the channel by recruiting new partners, but also enabling and empowering existing partners for further success.”

Krause said she is tasked with improving Sophos channel programs and partner enablement profile. “At Sophos, we have a huge opportunity in the channel and my appointment is part of Sophos’ initiative to increase and strengthen our programs in the United States,” she said. “Sophos’ channel model ensures that all of our partners have the proper tools and programs to be successful in their business, which in turn equates to Sophos success. This type of collaboration is a win/win for everyone and that is one of the biggest draws to joining the Sophos team.”

Krause is the second significant former Fortinet Channel Sales executive Sophos has hired in the past few months. In February, Sophos hired Michael Valentine away from Fortinet as Worldwide Sales vice president. Valentine’s resume sported similar stops as Krause’s, with positions at SonicWall and WatchGuard in addition to his tenure as Americas sales and support vice president at Fortinet. Valentine, who specializes in channel building, has said that he intends to boost Sophos sales in North America, contending that the company boasts the proper products, has shored up its channel program and, with new management, can significantly up its presence.

Dell SMB Channel Sales: Vitagliano’s New Gig

We all know it’s a good idea to pay attention to us. After all, whose ear is closer to the IT channel ground? Not many, as it turns out…Dell (NASDAQ:DELL) confirmed late Friday that Frank Vitagliano, the iconoclastic channel guru, is the vendor’s new channel sales vice president, just as our sources told him. Amazing, ain’t it?

Starting today, Vitagliano will oversee Dell’s small- and medium-sized VAR channel accounts and the vendor’s two-tier distribution partners, and also will develop growth strategies for small and mid-market business in North America. Vitagliano will report to Greg Davis, Dell’s channel chief, who said, of him, “Frank’s years of experience and outstanding relationships within the channel community will be a great asset to Dell and further demonstrates commitment to our channel business.”

How Dell’s possible equity buyout may or may not affect Vitagliano’s job responsibilities is anybody’s guess at this point, but for now, it is business as usual until otherwise notified.

Since word surfaced in March that Vitagliano would be leaving networking vendor Juniper (NYSE: JNPR) after six years as senior vice president of Americas partner sales, industry buzz has grown louder about where he might land, especially considering his considerable experience and strong reputation in the channel. Before his tenure at Juniper, Vitagliano put in 33 years at IBM (NYSE: IBM), where, in 1994 he was named channel marketing director for IBM PCs. In 2000, Vitagliano was upped to IBM distribution channels management vice president and two years later tapped as IBM worldwide distribution channels vice president.

To make room for Vitagliano, Jim Defoe, who has served as Dell channel sales vice president for the past two years, now will lead the vendor’s large VAR, DMR and global systems integrator team for North America, based on a strategy he crafted to work with that class of partner.

“We think there is a huge opportunity to invest in more relationship programs and resources to continue this growth,” said Davis. “I am excited to announce that Jim will lead our strategy and the team focused on our large VARs, DMRs and global systems integrators in North America.”

Defoe is a 27-year sales and service IT veteran, the last 15 of which have been at Dell, initially as healthcare and life sciences organization sales vice president prior to moving to the channels unit. Before joining Dell, Defoe managed CompuCom regional offices in Denver and Salt Lake City.

Cisco Names Liebo New Global Partner Marketing Leader

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) has turned to an internal top services and customer segment marketing executive to lead its partner-facing marketing initiatives, tapping Sherri Liebo as its new global partner marketing vice president, filling a slot vacant since last summer after Amanda Jobbins unexpectedly left the networking giant.

Liebo, who joined Cisco in 2005 after a 16-year stint at Hewlett-Packard‘s (NYSE: HPQ) partner marketing organization, will take on “ultimate responsibility for Cisco’s global partner marketing programs and initiatives,” according to Bruce Klein, Cisco Worldwide Partner Organization senior vice president, who disclosed her ascension in a blog post. Liebo will report to Klein and Karen Walker, Cisco senior Marketing vice president, who has filled the post in the interim.

Specifically, Liebo will oversee Cisco’s strategic partner marketing, channel programs, services partner marketing and strategic partner communications teams. Those units collaborate with the Worldwide Partner Group, sales teams and regional marketing to drive partner growth and profitability.

Liebo’s reach also will extend to Cisco’s Velocity partner marketing conference (slated for April 16-18 in Cannes, France) and the offerings and co-marketing resources available on Cisco’s Partner Central site, Klein said. The newly appointed Liebo is expected to meet and greet Cisco partners at the Velocity event.

Her most prominent role at Cisco to this point has been to lead marketing for Cisco Services, the vendor’s $10 billion global services business. In addition, she has served as Services and Service Provider Marketing vice president and Customer Segments Marketing vice president.

Klein credited Liebo with creating and managing the launch of Smart Care, Cisco’s SMB-centric vehicle for add-on service sales.

It will be interesting to see if Liebo can make an immediate splash in much the same manner as Jobbins, who, herself, had large shoes to fill in replacing Luanne Tierney, the Velocity conference architect who left Cisco in 2011 to take a similar position at Juniper Networks (NYSE: JNPR). Jobbins has resurfaced as chief marketing officer at Sage Group.

“We’ve been without a full-time global partner marketing lead since last fall, and I personally want to thank Karen Walker, senior vice president of Cisco marketing, for leading the effort to keep our partner marketing programs strong during that transition,” Klein wrote.

Microsoft Hires Oracle Channel Chief Judson Althoff for North America Sales Push

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) has hired former Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) Channel Chief Judson Althoff. According to a Microsoft press release, Althoff will become president, North America Sales and Marketing, and corporate VP. Althoff’s leap to Microsoft, effective March 29, comes only a few days after Oracle announced disappointing Q3 2013 earnings. This could be a huge win for Microsoft as the company attempts to position against Oracle for enterprise database, Big Data and social business opportunities.

According to the official statement from Microsoft:

“Althoff will manage a team of sales, marketing and services professionals across the United States and Canada, within a division that was a significant contributor to Microsoft’s US$73 billion in revenue in fiscal year 2013.

A business technology leader with more than 18 years of experience, Althoff previously served as senior vice president of worldwide alliances and channels and embedded sales at Oracle Corp., where he led worldwide indirect and embedded sales. During his 14 years at Oracle, Althoff held a number of senior positions, including group vice president for worldwide alliances, and vice president of global platform and distribution sales. Before Oracle, he held several sales leadership roles at EMC Corp.

“Judson has a track record of successfully developing, growing and leading global sales organizations with a culture of execution excellence,” said Kevin Turner, chief operating officer at Microsoft. “Judson’s proven leadership will enable us to continue to excel in delivering the best devices and services experience to our customers including businesses and consumers.”

Althoff will assume his new role at Microsoft on March 29, 2013, reporting to Turner.”

You read it right: Althoff has a direct line to Turner, meaning that he is part of Microsoft’s inner executive circle the day he starts. We are checking with Oracle to determine if the company has named a new channel chief.

Ingram Promotes Channel VP, Adds to Security Portfolio

Global distribution behemoth Ingram Micro (NYSE: IM) has promoted Kirk Robinson to senior vice president, Commercial Markets and Global Accounts for North America, expanding his prior role to include ownership of the distributor’s global accounts and supervision of additional strategic key business units. He is responsible for managing the business leaders responsible for Ingram’s SMB, public sector and VAR business units along with some top-performing system product categories and vendor relationships.

Robinson, who has been with Ingram for 20 years, is credited with making a significant impact on Ingram’s U.S. sales teams and spearheading the launch of the distributor’s Business Intelligence Center in 2009. Under Robinson, Ingram’s commercial markets division and its SMB business unit have posted record growth rates and brought on hundreds of new channel partners, according to the company.

In 2006, Robinson was named vice president of Ingram North America channel marketing and in 2010 he was appointed vice president of VAR sales, market development and business intelligence followed shortly afterward by his ascension to vice president of Ingram’s U.S. commercial markets business.

“Year-over-year, Ingram Micro earns its title as the IT channel’s most strategic and valuable distributor. I am eager to work side-by-side with my team and our channel partners to break new territory and exceed our shared goals,” Robinson said in a prepared statement.

Part of that new territory Ingram Micro hopes to make its mark in is physical security, which is fast becoming a hot market for channel partners to take advantage of the growing demand for solutions tied to identity protection. To that end, the distributor has added HID Global’s secure identity solutions to its line card, offered through its Physical Security division.

HID Global offers a portfolio that includes physical and logical access control including strong authentication and credential management, card printing and personalization, visitor management systems, highly secure government and citizen identification and identification RFID technologies used in animal ID and industry and logistics applications. Target markets include government, financial services, corporate, education, retail and health care.

The company maintains a channel partner program consisting of 232 OEMs, distributors, resellers and integrators worldwide. Program members receive sales leads and marketing assistance, and, along those lines, Ingram plans to offer both its and HID Global’s partners sales and support services including cross-trained technical support and training programs.

“As security threats become more complex, the business need for more advanced and highly integrated security solutions, such as secure identity, authentication management and access control, becomes increasingly more important and presents a growing business opportunity for channel partners specializing in this space,” said Tom Burns, Ingram Physical Security business unit director.

Brocade Taps Former Micromuse Chief Carney to Top Slot

Storage area networking vendor Brocade Communications (NASDAQ: BRCD) has named Lloyd Carney, a 30-year high tech industry veteran, as its new chief executive replacing Michael Klayko, who held the post since 2005 and whose planned resignation the company announced some four months ago as it continues to search for a suitable buyer.

Carney, who most recently headed Xsigo Systems and Micromuse, brings with him some experience in selling companies, a factor that likely entered into the company’s decision to hire him, considering its sustained interest in finding a buyer. This past July, Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) bought Xsigo, a network virtualization specialist, and seven years ago IBM (NYSE: IBM) landed Micromuse, a network management software developer, for $865 million. Both deals occurred on Carney’s watch.

David House, Brocade chairman, said Carney will take the company “to the next level,” owing to his “relentless passion for driving innovation and operational excellence. These characteristics, combined with his track record of execution including delivering growth and increasing shareholder value, make him an outstanding choice to lead Brocade into its next phase.”

House credited Klayko with shepherding Brocade’s market gains in storage networking and Ethernet fabrics and building the vendor’s portfolio of networking products.

In addition to his Xsigo and Micromuse stints, Carney’s background also spans tenures as Juniper Networks’ chief operating officer, president of Nortel Networks’ Core IP, Wireless Internet and Enterprise businesses, and executive vice president and general manager of Bay Networks’ Enterprise business unit.

“I believe Brocade is poised to leverage its heritage of strong innovation and significantly disrupt the status quo in the data-networking industry,” said Carney. “There are profound changes happening across high tech today and Brocade has a great opportunity to lead that transformation through differentiated products and customer focus. Success here will accelerate profitable growth for our company and drive further value for our shareholders. I am very excited and honored to lead Brocade at this time.”

New Cisco Americas Boss: Timed for Juniper Conference?

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) has named Nick Adamo (pictured) to succeed Chuck Robbins as its top executive in the Americas, CRN reported today. The news comes as rival Juniper Networks (NYSE: JNPR) wraps up its Global Partner Conference in Las Vegas. We wonder: Did Cisco leak the news to shift the spotlight away from Juniper’s partner and software strategy — which has garnered a lot of attention this week? Hmmm…

Juniper CEO Kevin Johnson and the executive team announced a Software-Defined Networking (SDN) strategy on Jan. 15. Media coverage extended from channel pundits all the way to The New York Times. That same day, Juniper Executive VP Bob Muglia suggested that Cisco would have a hard time transitioning to SDN.

The mood at Juniper Global Partner Conference is upbeat but also one of transition. Some hardware partners are a little nervous about all this SDN talk. But Juniper outlined a comprehensive strategy. The roadmap is now publicly available. The Juniper SDN chatter is loud. All is well…

Pardon the Interruption

…Until Cisco comes along and grabs some of the spotlight. A few hours ago (Jan. 16, 5:52 p.m. ET), CRN reported :

“Cisco (NSDQ:CSCO) has named Nick Adamo to succeed Chuck Robbins as its top executive in the Americas, CRN has learned.

According to an internal memo authored by Robbins and viewed by CRN, Adamo will take over as senior vice president, worldwide field operations, the Americas. The job has been open since Robbins was named senior vice president of global sales back in October.”

Hmmm… Did Cisco leak the news to shift some of this week’s channel spotlight away from Juniper? Perhaps. We have attended plenty of conferences where rivals dial his cell phone to share “some timely news” on background…

Pure Speculation (Isn’t That the Best Kind?)

But the alleged Cisco leak and alleged timing with Juniper’s conference is pure speculation on our part. Plus, there’s this fact to consider: The CRN editor who penned the story, Chad Berndtson, is a news hound who does his homework, develops sources, and stays ahead of the news curve. So there’s a high probability Berndtson was working his sources and scooping this story without any Cisco-timed leaks.

Either way, it’s been a heck of a week. And it’s only Wednesday. Juniper has outlined an ambitious SDN strategy. And Cisco continues to evolve its executive team while ramping up its own SDN initiatives. Long live channel conflict — at least between the networking vendors 😉

Ingram Micro Shuffles Execs, Avnet Buys Services Firm

While the IT industry last week took a collective holiday break, two distribution giants made moves worth noting: Ingram Micro (NYSE: IM) made three executive management appointments impacting its consumer electronics division, and Avnet (NYSE: AVT) scooped up TSSLink to beef up its services expertise.

At Ingram Micro, Brent McCarthy moves from executive director and general manager of the distributor’s Consumer Electronics unit to executive managing director of the U.K. and Ireland operations, replacing Matt Sanderson, who returns to Australia to head the company’s operations down under. Tom Bamrick, who most recently served as executive director of Global Sales and handled global partner development, will take McCarthy’s former post.

McCarty has led Ingram’s Consumer Electronics unit since 2009, after heading VAR sales for Ingram’s Canada division. He will report to Johan Vandenbussche, regional vice president, U.K., Belgium and Netherlands, with Ingram’s EMEA operation. Bamrick, who joined Ingram in 1994, will report to Brian Wiser, Ingram Specialty Division senior vice president.

Paul Bay, Ingram North America president, called McCarthy and Bamrick “seasoned and respected industry leaders, and we are confident they will deliver new growth and opportunity for our business.”

Meanwhile, Ingram rival Avnet continued to flesh out its services lineup by purchasing TSSLink, a $10.5 million, San Jose, Calif.-based IT professional services organization specializing in consulting for storage and virtualization solutions.

TSSLink, which provides technical support, consulting and outsourcing services, field product installation, end-user training and technical staffing, will be folded into the services organization of Avnet’s Technology Solutions (ATS) distribution arm. The eight-year old TSSLink also provides IT audit and compliance leadership, disaster recovery and business continuity planning consulting and technical support.

“A key component of our solutions distribution strategy is the ability to drive growth for our suppliers and value-added resellers in markets where demand is continually increasing, such as storage and virtualization,” said Jeff Bawol, ATS president.

Avnet said that the TSSLink acquisition is expected to be immediately accretive to earnings and that it maps to the company’s stated goal of 12.5 percent return on capital. The purchase price was not disclosed.

In the last year, Avnet has made significant gains to its services capabilities with a number of key acquisitions, including last October’s purchase of BrightStar Partners (BSP), a Rolling Meadows, Ill.-based, $10 million consulting specialist in IBM (NYSE: IBM) business analytics and performance management, and BSP Software, its software development unit. In March, Avnet acquired Ascendant Technology, an IBM middleware reseller and consultant, continued its shopping spree in July by adding Mattelli, an IT contract compliance solution provider, then in August buying Pepperweed Consulting, an HP (NYSE: HPQ) Software Elite Partner.

So far, Avnet appears to be keeping the requisite arm’s length distance from its acquisitions that otherwise might pose questions of impropriety owing to a perceived conflict of interest.

In mid-December 2012, Avnet tapped Kevin Moriarty, a 10-year veteran of Honeywell International’s (NYSE: HON) aerospace business, as its new chief financial officer (CFO) to succeed Ray Sadowski, a 34-year company veteran retiring from the post after a 20-year stint.