An Open Letter to Avaya's Tom Mitchell

Hey, Tom Mitchell:

I hear you're leaving Avaya at the end of September and Pierre-Paul Allard, senior vice president of Global Strategy and Development, is taking your slot. So what's the deal? Where ya going?

I'd ask you this in an interview, but when I asked for one Avaya reps flat out denied me the opportunity (though they're saying you didn't want to talk). Which makes me wonder why—is there something more here? I know your colleague John Spiliotis, Avaya's worldwide channel chief, also has left for a VP of Americas Sales position at Palo Alto Networks, so at this point I can only speculate.

I know you joined Avaya as a consultant to help the company expand its channel program, and to your credit, some good things have happened in the three or so years you've been there. And I think there's more that can be done, especially as the market is shifting more to cloud-based services and, frankly, Microsoft Lync is owning the UCC space these days. In short, it doesn't seem like the best time for Avaya to lose a guy such as yourself.

At any rate, I hope we can chat at some point. And I hope you'll let me know where you're headed. I do believe you still owe me a drink. But, hey, I'll buy.