Cisco Partner Leader Oliver Tuszik Moves to EMEA Role

Oliver Tuszik, who led Cisco’s global partner organization for five years and proclaimed “the age of the partner” at the vendor, is taking on a new position.

Tuszik announced on LinkedIn Friday that he is leaving his position of senior vice president of global partner sales and general manager of routes to market. He will start as lead Cisco’s EMEA region, starting Aug. 1. The German executive will succeed Wendy Mars, Cisco’s president of EMEA. Mars is retiring, a Cisco spokesperson confirmed.

Cisco’s Oliver Tuszik

“I’m excited about my new adventure with the #CiscoEMEA team,” Tuszik wrote on LinkedIn. “I’ll carry forward all that I’ve learned and experienced in the US and across the globe and apply it in this next chapter of my journey. No doubt, I’ve got big sneakers to fill, Wendy Mars. You and the team have done amazing work, and I look forward to learning from everyone and winning together.”

The former Computacenter CEO director joined Cisco in 2013 to lead Cisco’s Germany unit. He accepted the nod to lead Cisco’s global partner organization in 2018.

“When I first took the partner role, I described it as the perfect job at Cisco. Today, I’m even more convinced of this. I’ve worked with what is without question, the absolute best partner community in the world,” Tuszik wrote.

In the meantime, Cisco has not named a successor for Tuszik in the global partner organization. Tuszik said that person will be named “in the coming weeks.”

Tuszik oversaw a shift in Cisco’s go-to-market strategy to grow more flexible in its approach to different customer segments. In particular, the vendor has deepened its SMB play, grown its partnerships with managed services providers and explored opportunities with cloud marketplaces.

The provider has also retooled its specializations and brought on a specialization for sustainability.

Techaisle’s Anurag Agrawal

“Five years ago, [former Cisco chief customer and partner officer Gerri Elliott] recommended that Oliver run the Cisco GPO. Over the last years, Oliver built an unparalleled partner momentum and most recently charted an SMB acceleration path which Cisco will continue to benefit from for years,” Techaisle chief global analyst Anurag Agrawal said. “Not many know that Oliver identified and gave opportunities to several executives to build new partner programs and services.

Cisco in February appointed Rhonda Henley as the vice president of the Cisco Americas partner organization. She replaced John Moses, who now works at ScienceLogic as senior vice president of sales.