People on the Move

Former Microsoft Exec Knight New Rackspace Channel Head

Will Knight, a former 15-year Microsoft (MSFT) veteran, is Rackspace Hosting’s (RAX) new channel sales head, charged with building strategic partner relationships and sprinkling the program with incentives to improve profitability and sales.

Knight’s role is to show Rackspace’s partners how to make more money by simplifying the program and clarifying how to best engage […]

Microsoft Exec Leblond to Exit, Completing Post-Sinofsky Makeover

Longtime Microsoft (MSFT) executive Antoine Leblond, a 25-year company veteran and head of Windows Services, said he will exit after March 31, to “go out and see what the non-Microsoft world has to offer,” as he told colleagues in an email.

Leblond spent 20 years in Microsoft’s Office unit, mostly working with ex-Windows boss and […]

Symantec Axes CEO Bennett, Names Brown Interim Boss

Symantec’s (SYMC) board of directors abruptly ousted President and Chief Executive Steve Bennett, whose tenure at the security company’s helm lasted a short but eventful 20 months, replacing him on an interim basis with board member Michael Brown, a former Quantum (QTM) boss.

Bennett, who took previous chief Enrique Salem’s job in July 2012, vowed […]

Aruba Taps Soderlund for Worldwide Channels Slot

Aruba Networks (ARUN) has named former Avaya channel exec Karl Soderlund to its Worldwide Channels position. The announcement was made at Aruba Atmosphere, the company’s annual partner conference this week in Las Vegas.

As vice president of Worldwide Channels, Soderlund will be responsible for all things channel-related, including recruitment, developing global alliances and managing Aruba’s […]

Colin Powell Joins Salesforce.com Board

Salesforce.com (CRM) on Thursday said it has appointed Ret. U.S. Gen. and former Secretary of State Colin Powell to its board of directors, effective March 13.

Powell joins a board comprised of leaders including Salesforce chairman and CEO Marc Benioff and John Roos, former U.S. Ambassador to Japan.

Benioff, who is well-known in the tech […]

Former Microsoft Channel Chief Roskill Joins Cloud ERP Provider

Four months after departing Microsoft (MSFT), former channel chief Jon Roskill now is at the helm of Acumatica, a 7-year-old, cloud-based ERP specialist focused on SMBs.

Roskill, a 20-year, high-profile Microsoft channel veteran, takes Acumatica’s top spot immediately from outgoing chief executive Yury Larichev. He said the ERP market’s potential and Acumatica’s commitment to sell […]

The New Microsoft: Nadella CEO, Thompson Chairman

As expected, Microsoft (MSFT) today played the three key pieces in its grand plan, naming 22-year company veteran Satya Nadella as the third chief executive in its 38-year history, shifting board director John Thompson to chairman and sliding Bill Gates to technology advisor.
Microsoft credited Nadella, formerly the company’s Cloud and Enterprise group executive vice […]

VMware Appoints Former Gartner Analyst as Americas CTO

VMware (VMW) has appointed former Gartner (IT) research vice president Chris Wolf as its new chief technology officer for the Americas, just a few weeks after it named Ben Fathis as its CTO.

Wolf made the announcement Jan. 27 in a blog post, offering his reason for making the career move. “I always thought that […]

Red Hat’s Channel Chief Search Narrows Candidate Field

Red Hat (RHT) Global Channel Sales Senior Vice President Mark Enzweiler told us yesterday that the company is still searching for a new channel chief, but that doesn’t mean there hasn’t been movement.

The company began its search after Roger Egan, the company’s former chief, moved on to open source engine Docker.

While Enzweiler would not […]

Juniper Appoints New U.S. Channel Chief

Juniper Networks’ 2014 Global Partner Conference begins tomorrow, and the company will be going into the conference with a new Americas channel chief. It slipped out last week that Jonathan Belcher, the company’s vice president of Partner Sales for Asia-Pacific, has shifted his focus to the Americas and taken on the channel chief role.

The […]