New Oracle Channel Chief: HP's Rich Geraffo

Oracle (ORCL) has named Rich Geraffo as senior VP, worldwide alliances and channels. Geraffo most recently was senior VP and managing director at Hewlett-Packard (HPQ). He now reports directly to Oracle President Mark Hurd — another HP veteran. Here’s the spin from The VAR Guy.

Geraffo has extensive enterprise sales experience — most recently leading HP’s enterprise business in the Americas. He’s also held key executive slots at VMware, IBM, BEA Systems and more. Geraffo joins a lengthy list of executives and channel leaders who have jumped from HP to other enterprise-focused technology companies — including Oracle, Cisco, and VMware.

Oracle’s global channel chief post had been vacant ever since Judson Althoff jumped to Microsoft in March 2013. The recent Oracle OpenWorld 2013 conference was filled with channel partner news — for VARs and cloud integrators, in particular. But the lack of a designated channel chief was clear to The VAR Guy.

Now, Oracle has filled that void.

HP, meanwhile, must face the reality of continued executive changes. Over the past three years, Hewlett-Packard has watched numerous executives exit.

But more recently, CEO Meg Whitman has assured investors, customers and employees that the company is stabilizing. Moreover, Whitman has taken steps to mitigate potential sales conflicts between HP’s enterprise sales team and channel partners.  Among the most recent moves: Promoting Sue Barsamian to the newly created position of senior VP, worldwide indirect sales.