Telarus Hires Megapath, Fusion Connect Vet Dan Foster as Latest CRO

Telarus has hired longtime channel vet Dan Foster, previously with Ericsson and Fusion Connect, as its newest chief revenue officer.

The company hired Lumen Technologies/CenturyLink vet Meghan Hambacher Wilkinson to fill that role in January, but she left the company after just four months.

Telarus’ Dan Foster

Foster will be responsible for all revenue streams. He’ll also work with Telarus area vice presidents and senior partner development managers in the field as they build awareness of tools for partners.

Moreover, Foster will oversee the advanced solutions teams. Those include the contact center, cybersecurity, cloud, unified communications, IoT and SD-WAN practices.

Before joining Telarus, Foster most recently was with Ericsson. There, he was head of global sales for the company’s Wireless Office unit. Before that, he was StratusWorX‘s chief revenue officer. He joined Ericsson when it acquired StratusWorx last summer.

He also was chief revenue officer at Fusion Connect; before that, president and COO of MegaPath, from which the channel knows him best. Fusion Connect bought MegaPath.

Adam Edwards is Telarus‘ CEO.

“We’re excited to welcome Dan as our new chief revenue officer,” he said. “I’ve worked with Dan for over 10 years and have always regarded him as an amazing executive and, even more importantly, a partner-first executive. The rapidly changing channel creates an opportunity for us all. And Dan will be key to helping us unlock those opportunities with our partners.”

Last month, Ericsson entered a strategic partnership with Telarus to market Ericsson Wireless Office through its ecosystem of technology consultants.

In a Q&A with Channel Futures, Foster talks about his plans in this new role.

Channel Futures: Why did you want to take this role with Telarus?

Dan Foster: It was too good of an opportunity to pass up — great market, a phenomenal team with great culture, and a dialed-in product for one of the largest growth markets in technology. I’m super excited about being part of the digital transformation that partners are delivering in the market. We are investing in tools, technology and training to make them rock stars with their customers. It sounds like a great opportunity, right?

CF: Is this a big change from what you were doing at Ericsson?

DF: Not really. At Ericsson, I was building a team and driving go-to-market strategies through the partner channel. You will see them make great moves this year. Telarus is very similar. Here, I’m another level closer to the partner and customer, which allows me to drive customer satisfaction and enable partners to succeed.

CF: What will be your responsibilities in this new role?

DF: My responsibilities are first off, to our partners and the team. We are hyper-focused on the partner experience. And from sales discovery to customer renewal, we want to support our partners in how and where they want to be supported in that journey. So my role is guiding the industry-leading team in that goal. From innovation to partner experience, we will try to be ambitious in our enablement of partner success.

CF: What’s your take on Telarus’ overall strategy? Any changes needed?

DF: Telarus is on a journey of enabling the partners to transform their customer’s business through technology. As a leader in partner enablement, the strategy is to make the technology consultant role more and more relevant in the buyer journey. My role is not to change that strategy, but rather to put more resources in the direction. As you see it today, Telarus is hiring more technical architects, engineers, project managers, sales engineers, the list goes on, to enable and supercharge the partner. We are also creating scale for our largest partners to ensure we protect their position in the market as one of the largest players in an industry influencing the largest technology providers in the world.

CF: What’s at the top of your to-do list?

DF: Deliver on our strategy, build a world-class team and ensure our partners see the value we add.

CF: What are the biggest challenges facing Telarus and its partners? What will be your role in addressing those?

DF: The challenges are evolving. Today will not reflect a year from now. So the mandate is to be flexible and carry out our strategy in an agile manner that tailors our products and services to the needs of our partners. But at the end of the day, it’s about partner enablement and satisfaction. And to that end, I view it as the paramount challenge. Make it easy for the partner to be successful.