Channel People on the Move: Sophos, Avaya, RingCentral, More

An industry analyst at Frost & Sullivan for 13 years, Michael Brandenburg joined the team at cloud-based communication and collaboration giant RingCentral as senior product marketing manager, verticals and programmable communications.

Before Frost & Sullivan, he worked for several tech industry publications including Information Week, now an Informa company.

Well-known channel marketer MeiLee Langley is back at Nextiva, where she spent two-and-a-half years between 2019 and 2021.

In between those stints, she worked at Xcitium and LiveVox. She's also a RingCentral and 8x8 alum.

We asked her about her move.

That's John Tavares, the new SVP of worldwide partner and alliances sales at Orca Security. His job will be to advance Orca's 100% channel-led go-to-market strategy.

He most recently was at Zscaler where the company says he both increased partners' profits and "accelerated multi-partner engagement." Before Zscaler, Tavares was at Commvault, where he was focused on a partner-first strategy for the company's SaaS transformation business, Metallic.

Avaya announced the passing of the torch from CEO Alan Masarek to new CEO Patrick Dennis (pictured). Almost immediately after, the business communications company's new leader sat down for an interview with Channel Futures.

"If you're going to sell enterprise software in any category, especially with communications software, your large customers are going to expect you to have a set of ecosystem partners that you integrate with since no two stacks look alike at large enterprises," Dennis told us.

Cyber resilience and data protection provider Commvault landed a new chief technology and AI officer in Pranay Ahlawat (right). In fact, the position of CTAIO is a first for the company.

He comes to Commvault from Boston Consulting Group, where he advised SaaS companies on cloud and infrastructure.

“Organizations today are facing unprecedented levels of cyber threats and attacks and require innovative solutions that can help them stay ahead of bad actors and get the most value out of their data,” said Ahlawat. “I’m thrilled to join Commvault and help build the next generation of cyber resilience solutions that address customers’ most critical security challenges.”

On the left, that's Gary Merrill. Commvault shifted him from chief financial officer into a new role as chief commercial officer. He will help lead the company's global sales and partner teams.

You can get the full scoop on why the company made this shift.

Connecticut-based MSP ADNET Technologies, which provides managed IT, cloud and security services, promoted Mike Konderwich to VP of service operations.

The eight-year company veteran formerly was director of professional services.

ADNET is part of the New Charter Technologies national platform.

After several months of interim leadership, Intelisys, the ScanSource-owned technology services distributor, got a new president in Ken Mills (center).

Mills, who brings 25 years of leadership experience to the job, most recently was CEO of Epic iO Technologies, a SaaS company and Intelisys supplier partner. He's Intelisys' first president since John DeLozier left for C1 last year.

Read about Mills' vision for Intelisys.

Based in Colorado, Jay Littleford (left) is new to the company. The Telarus, Genesys and Windstream alumnus accepted the role of director of partner sales for Intelisys' Mountain region.

Last but not least is Rich Saldana (right), based in Chicago, who Intelisys promoted to national channel director. He previously was senior director, strategic business development for Illinois and Indiana.

Sue Anders, a 26-year veteran of Mitel, is settling in to her new role at C1, the provider of cloud, collaboration and digital modernization solutions.

Her last role at Mitel was general manager of SLED and public sector. She'll have a similar role as director of public sector at C1.

Security software provider Forcepoint promoted Ryan Windham, formerly chief customer and strategy officer, to CEO. He replaces the retiring Manny Rivelo.

Windham, in his previous role the company says, was instrumental in leading "cross-functional collaboration across customer success, product management and go-to-market functions."

We learned last month that Nadav Zafrir will step into the role of chief executive officer at Check Point Software Technologies, the global cybersecurity provider. The news came several months after Gil Shwed, the company's founder, announced he will step down from day-to-day duties and become executive chairman.

Zafrir was the co-founder and managing partner at Team8, a global venture creation and capital fund. That company actively invests in businesses focused on cybersecurity, data and AI.

Learn more about this changing of the guard.

Scott Goree, most recently with Skyhigh Security, signed on with Optiv as its new SVP of partners, alliances and ecosystems. He replaces Alan Mayer.

Goree was Skyhigh's global first-ever channel leader, creating new relationships with AWS and CrowdStrike. He's also a Nutanix alum.

Get to know him better.

Pia, the AI-led automation platform for MSPs, introduced Molly Lindsay as its new VP of marketing.

She brings 15 years of experience in managed services, with most of those from ConnectWise. She will be tasked with managing key industry events and flagship conferences in the U.S., enhancing customer relationships and expanding Pia’s presence in North America.

Lydia Gallegos left 8x8 for Cavallo, the order intelligence software company, where she is the new head of channel and strategic partnerships.

She previously was national channel sales director at 8x8, also bringing channel experience from NICE and VergX.

Based in California, Bob Faber is a new channel manager representing the West for Megaport, the network-as-a-service, data center and cloud connectivity provider.

He recently did a short stint at Electric Red after more than nine years at Intelisys.

Dominic Mignano is the new VP of solution engineering at CommandLink, a tech stack partner of AT&T, Cisco, Cato Networks and Comcast Business, to name a few.

Mignano's last job was with Cato; he also was with Masergy for eight-and-a-half years.

Congrats to Elizabeth Liszka, now an associate marketing account manager with distribution giant Ingram Micro. It's a promotion from category sales representative.

Liszka has been with the company for more than four-and-a-half years and has multiple promotions to show for it.

That's Wade Wegner on the right, the first chief ecosystem and growth officer at DigitalOcean, the independent cloud computing provider. He will oversee developer relations, marketing, growth and partnerships.

You might know him from RapidAPI, Twilio, Salesforce and Microsoft.

On the left you have the company's new chief revenue officer, Larry D'Angelo. He was chief customer officer at Rapid7 before accepting the DigitalOcean gig.

Bridgenext, the digital consulting services company, named Roman Ptakowski its new chief commercial officer, customer experience. He will oversee the company's global CX practice. This included creative, design, UX, sales, service, marketing automation and more.

He comes from digital design and communications agency AKQA, where he spent more than eight years.

It's a promotion for Stephen Semmelroth at tech services distributor Avant Communications, where he leaps from senior director to vice president.

Semmelroth has been with Avant for two years; before that, he was VP of cyber at StrataCore.

3DG Partners, the technology advisor and consulting company, snatched up Rodrigo Martineli for his expertise in cloud and the market in Latin America.

Martineli, a veteran of Rackspace and HPE, will be an executive advisor for the Texas-based company. Look for him to play a major role in helping 3DG to expand internationally.

Brandon Mitchell is shifting duties at security company ThreatLocker, where he now will be an enterprise account executive. He's been an MSP sales rep for the past 18 months.

But don't worry, he wrote on LinkedIn, "if you're an MSP currently working with me, don't worry - I'm not going anywhere and I'm still your guy!"

A familiar face returned to business cloud communications giant Vonage to lead its channel.

It's Kristy Thomas, the company's new SVP of global channels and alliances. She joins from E78 Partners, where she was VP of enterprise solutions.

Thomas worked for Vonage from 2018-2020, where she helped establish the company's contact center business.

Read what people are saying about her.

HYCU, the global multicloud backup-as-a-service provider, named Chris Nelson its new VP of global sales and business development.

A new role at the company, Nelson's job will be to drive global pipeline growth and topline revenue expansion.

He joins from DomainTools, where he was CRO.

After a four-year run at Tanium, Ian Williamson is on to Secureworks, where he is general manager, global service providers.

The Secureworks Taegis platform combines security analytics and human intelligence.

Williamson is based in Colorado.

Senior director of channel sales: That's the new title for Jean O'Neill at Performive, the VMware cloud MSP.

O'Neill is a longtime channel veteran, with Appgate, Cyxtera and Involta among her career stops.

Matt Harrell is the new chief partner officer at Dataminr, the AI company that detects risks in real time. He's a former Google and Cloudflare channel exec with 25 years of industry experience.

Harrell will be responsible for identifying new partner opportunities to bring emerging AI applications, services and solutions to market.

Roger Egan joined the list of former VMware leaders to exit Broadcom after the latter bought the former.

Egan is now with OneTrust, the data security and governance provider, where he is chief revenue officer. OneTrust wants him to expand its market share in helping businesses use data and AI.

Learn why Egan is committed to his new role.

Anthony Saitta just joined up with Claro Enterprise Solutions, the global integrator that's a subsidiary of América Móvil, the Mexican telco behemoth. In his role as channel sales manager, he will focus on nine states covering the Midwest, parts of the South and mid-Atlantic.

Verve Cloud, Sangoma and AireSpring are just three of his former employers in the channel, all in the past two years.

Mach Networks hired Sean Corrigan as its director of channel sales.

Corrigan has a lengthy career at tech companies, including Sangoma, Liongard and Star2Star Communications.

Mach offers fully managed wireless solutions.

Jason Riedel is taking on a new role as account manager at C3 Complete, the technology solutions and service provider based in Florida.

Before C3, Riedel was with Momentum Telecom. His first channel job was channel manager at Crown Castle.

A slew of important personnel moves at Aryaka, the unified SASE-as-a-service company, made headlines last month.

New at the company, left to right: Louise Crawford, senior director of growth marketing, a Tata Communications and NetFoundry alum; Justin Lim, VP of customer success, previously senior director of customer success at Wiz; and Aditya Sood, VP of security engineering and AI strategy, most recently at F5 Networks.

Not pictured is Naveen Maveli, Aryaka's new VP of engineering.

Security provider Blackfog, which specializes in anti-data exfiltration and ransomware prevention, made two personnel moves that it says will lay the groundwork to enter new markets, including SLED, and to develop partnerships with MSPs and MSSPs.

Mark Griffith (left) is the company's new VP of strategic sales. It's a promotion for Griffith, who has been with the company for nearly two years. John Sarantakes (right) is Blackfog's new CRO. He has held executive roles at InMotion Software and Absolute Software. Before that, he cut his teeth with 15 years at Dell.

Not pictured, but also moving up the ladder at Blackfog is Brenda Robb, one of its founding team members, now president of the company.

Matthew Fromm just got a promotion at TPx, the managed IT services and UCaaS provider.

Moving from inside channel manager to channel sales manager, Chicago-based Fromm has responsibility for a coverage area that includes Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and Indiana.

Verve Cloud, which provides cloud-hosted voice and internet solutions to SMBs, has a new channel sales manager. It's Amir Hojjatnia.

Hojjatnia, based in Silicon Valley, brings experience from Verizon, Level 3, TPx and more.

Distributor TD Synnex announced that come Sept. 1, Phil Brown will step in as its new VP of sales for the U.K. and Ireland.

Brown has been the U.K. commercial director at SCC for the past three years. Before that, he spent more than 10 years in senior sales and commercial roles in IT distribution.

Sophos in July appointed Teresa Anania chief customer officer. Her job is to help customers and partners be more successful maximizing the value of Sophos' cybersecurity services.

Anania brings more than 25 years or experience to the role in both direct and indirect sales channels. She joins Sophos from Zendesk, where she also was chief customer officer.

Sophos in July appointed Teresa Anania chief customer officer. Her job is to help customers and partners be more successful maximizing the value of Sophos' cybersecurity services.

Anania brings more than 25 years or experience to the role in both direct and indirect sales channels. She joins Sophos from Zendesk, where she also was chief customer officer.