Channel Changes: Who's Going Where?
The end of summer has brought about a flurry of activity and leadership changes across the channel. The VAR Guy pinned down the latest executive movements and to tell you who you need to know. Read on to get the scoop.
September 30, 2016
![Channel Changes: Who's Going Where? Channel Changes: Who's Going Where?](https://eu-images.contentstack.com/v3/assets/blt10e444bce2d36aa8/blt133f94048a6023db/652464a6322ab6fa19c564fd/Hiring_TS_0.jpg?width=700&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale)
The end of summer has brought about a flurry of activity and leadership changes across the channel. The VAR Guy pinned down the latest executive movements and to tell you who you need to know. Read on to get the scoop.
Alan DiPietro, Chief Revenue Officer
DiPietro is a 27-year sales veteran and entrepreneur with a solid background in developing channel and partner sales programs. DiPietro has a proven record in leading early-stage startup sales organizations from product launch to IPO and/or acquisition and fostering new channel partnerships, both key to the company’s rapid expansion plans.
Prior to joining Bedrock Data, DiPietro was the Vice President of Worldwide Sales for Infinio Systems. He's previously served as the Vice President of Worldwide Sales for vKernel (acquired by Dell/Quest Software) and in sales leadership roles for Interliant and MapInfo.
"It's an exciting time to join Bedrock Data. The company is perfectly positioned to help customers integrate all their SaaS and cloud-based applications," said DiPietro. "Bedrock Data is driven by our key platform partners' needs for deeper and more widespread connections to other SaaS products. Our single focus on solving this problem has allowed us to aggressively expand sales in partnership with companies like HubSpot, Marketo and ConnectWise."
Zak Pines, Vice President of Marketing
Pines joins DiPietro as part of a unified revenue team at Bedrock Data. Pines has deep roots as a marketing leader with more than 15 years of experience in forging channel relationships and delivering closed loop demand generation growth driven by integrated marketing. He joins Bedrock Data from Ipswitch, Inc. where he was Senior Director, Marketing. Prior to Ipswitch, Pines held marketing technology leadership roles with Avitage and LiveTechnology. Pines holds a bachelor's degree in economics from Yale University.
"Marketing automation and CRM systems are the backbone of today's data-driven organizations. However with so many specialized systems populating and reporting data across the customer lifecycle it can be very challenging to drive, track, monitor and report on customer engagement," said Pines. "Bedrock Data is uniquely delivering a comprehensive platform to solve this challenge by connecting disparate cloud systems to drive better business insights, alignment and decision making. I'm thrilled to join the company's leadership team to help evangelize their value and support the company's continued growth."
Jay Phillips, Vice President of Global Sales
Stratoscale, a cloud infrastructure provider, recently announced the appointment of Jay Phillips to vice president of global sales. Jay is a software industry veteran with more than 25 years of sales management experience under his belt. He has been instrumental in the channel-sphere from early on, adding value to customer-facing sales campaigns, building and managing channel programs, fueling startup growth and bringing cloud offerings to market. Jay will be leading the conversations with partners and customers that are transforming their data center infrastructure into a cloud environment.
Most recently, Jay served as vice president of worldwide sales at AccelOps, a network security monitoring and analytics software company, where he helped build their channel program and worked closely with the acquisition and integration of AccelOps into Fortinet. Prior to joining AccelOps, Phillips managed and built the software portfolio team at Fusion-io, a computer hardware and software systems company, until the acquisition by SanDisk. He also held sales leadership roles at NetApp, IO Turbine, Inc., Dell and PepsiCo.
“The traditional data center is transforming itself from isolated storage, virtualization and networking tiers, into a comprehensive experience that is mimicking what people see and love in AWS,” said Phillips. “I’m excited to be a part of Stratoscale, leading the global sales team to help our customers see the value of Stratoscale’s approach to democratizing the cloud through continuous innovation.”
Tony Craythorne, Vice President of Sales
Nexsan, a unified storage solutions company, announced last Wednesday the appointment of Tony Craythorne to the role of Senior Vice President of Worldwide Sales. Reporting directly to CEO, Robert Fernander, Craythorne will be responsible for driving sales growth, market expansion, and channel partnerships for Nexsan worldwide.
Craythorne brings over 25 years of channel sales and marketing experience in the IT channel, SMB and Fortune 500/enterprise customer markets. He has also been involved in the development of channel programs and has been outspoken about the opportunities for channel partners to educate their customers about disaster recovery (DR) plan/strategies.
Most recently, Craythorne was Senior Vice President Worldwide Sales at NexGen Storage, and led the company through a spin-out from SanDisk through to their recent acquisition by Pivot3. Prior to NexGen, he held senior management positions at a number of storage companies including Brocade, Hitachi Data Systems, Bell Micro and Connected Data.
"It's an exciting time to join Nexsan as the company revolutionizes the storage market with its innovative UNITY platform for superior business productivity and data mobility," said Craythorne. "Nexsan has a proven track record of success and I look forward to accelerating our growth worldwide."
Ben Levitan, Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
Metalogix, the market-leading provider of solutions to move, manage and protect content within enterprise collaboration platforms, last week announced that Ben Levitan has joined the company as Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
Levitan, who brings with him an impressive track record of building channel partnerships, sales, finance and operational execution, succeeds acting CEO Abe Peled, who remains Executive Chairman of the Metalogix Operating Committee. He has a technology leadership career extending over 25 years with leading companies including IMN (now Reynolds & Reynolds), EnvoyWorldWide, Inc. (now Nuance Communications), Viand Corporation, In-Q-Tel, James Martin + Company and Cambridge Technology Partners.
"The momentum in the industry towards managing content in the cloud offers the strongest opportunities yet for organizations like Metalogix that can balance the productivity needs of the end user with the security and compliance needs of the business," said Levitan. "What attracted me to Metalogix was its unique position and heritage… exceptional partner network and a strong product portfolio. I am excited to leverage that foundation and help our customers master what it takes to be successful in an increasingly complex cloud-based collaboration space."
Ben also serves as a Director of OGSystems and as a Trustee of Spaulding Rehabilitation Network as well as other venture-backed companies. Levitan is a graduate of Union College in Schenectady, NY and studied at the London School of Economics in London, England.
Paul Christensen, North American Director
Logicalis US, an international IT solutions and managed services provider, announced earlier this month that Logicalis Financial Services, an international ICT financial solutions and services business, has appointed Paul Christensen as its North American Director.
Christensen will be responsible for leading Logicalis Financial Services’ business strategy and operations as well as driving growth of its financial solutions and products portfolio to Logicalis’ North American customers. The company will now be able to provide financial solutions to North American customers as part of an integrated offering from the beginning of the engagement.
Christensen has over 25 years of experience in the financial services industry, making him a seasoned veteran and expert in the areas of sales and business development, sales team management, risk management and relationship management. His most recent position at GSG Financial, Inc. leveraged relationships to connect manufacturers, value added resellers, end users and financial institutions with flexible financial packages. Christensen also worked for CIT as Chief Sales Officer of Avaya Financial Services and Regional Finance Manager of EMC Global Financial Services.
“We are now in a unique position as a finance company within the North American ICT channel,” Christensen says. “Investment decisions are no longer about lease vs. buy, and Logicalis Financial Services can provide creative and innovative financial solutions tailored to today’s ‘everything-as-a-service’ business model.”
Paul Christensen, North American Director
Logicalis US, an international IT solutions and managed services provider, announced earlier this month that Logicalis Financial Services, an international ICT financial solutions and services business, has appointed Paul Christensen as its North American Director.
Christensen will be responsible for leading Logicalis Financial Services’ business strategy and operations as well as driving growth of its financial solutions and products portfolio to Logicalis’ North American customers. The company will now be able to provide financial solutions to North American customers as part of an integrated offering from the beginning of the engagement.
Christensen has over 25 years of experience in the financial services industry, making him a seasoned veteran and expert in the areas of sales and business development, sales team management, risk management and relationship management. His most recent position at GSG Financial, Inc. leveraged relationships to connect manufacturers, value added resellers, end users and financial institutions with flexible financial packages. Christensen also worked for CIT as Chief Sales Officer of Avaya Financial Services and Regional Finance Manager of EMC Global Financial Services.
“We are now in a unique position as a finance company within the North American ICT channel,” Christensen says. “Investment decisions are no longer about lease vs. buy, and Logicalis Financial Services can provide creative and innovative financial solutions tailored to today’s ‘everything-as-a-service’ business model.”
The end of summer has brought about a flurry of activity and leadership changes across the channel. The VAR Guy pinned down the latest executive movements and to tell you who you need to know. Read on to get the scoop.
About the Author(s)
You May Also Like