Cisco, McAfee, BlackBerry Alum to Oversee Riverbed Channel Program

Riverbed|Aternity, better known as Riverbed Technology, has named a new senior vice president of global partners and alliances.

Alex Thurber will oversee the network and application performance platform provider’s partner and channel ecosystem. Riverbed works with resellers, system integrators, service providers and technology partners.

Riverbed’s Alex Thurber

Thurber joins from hybrid infrastructure management provider Virtana, where he was chief revenue officer in 2021. Before that he worked as Pulse Secure’s chief revenue officer for a year. He ran longer stints at BlackBerry (five years), where he led the company’s mobility unit. He led worldwide sales for WatchGuard Technologies and Tripwire from 2009-2012.

Perhaps Thurber’s worked Cisco from 1999 to 2009 moving from a product sales specialist to senior director of go-to-market strategy.

Thurber ran his own company before joining the corporate world. He built a network and security consulting business, Thurber Technology Group, up from the ground to reach $20 million in annual revenue. He sold the company to Central Design Systems in 1999.

Riverbed’s Craig McCullough

“I am thrilled to join Riverbed | Aternity and take the helm as head of the partner and channel ecosystem. The foundation is there to take the company to the next level of growth, with one of the most innovative partner programs in the industry and with partners that are heavily invested in our mutual success, and in helping our collective customers deliver an exceptional digital experience,” Thurber said.

Bridget Bisnette, Riverbed’s senior vice president of global channels sales, programs and operations, retired in 2021.

Public Sector Leader

Riverbed also appointed Craig McCullough as senior vice president of public sector. He comes over from BeyondTrust, where he led that company’s public sector. McCullough has also worked at Commvault and Hewlett Packard.

“I am excited to join the company at such an important juncture in its trajectory as it redefines the market for unified observability and maintains the most comprehensive visibility and acceleration solutions directed at the public sector,” McCullough said. “Our team will be laser-focused on delivering top-notch solutions to our public sector customers, including for the largest government defense and civilian agencies, helping them support their missions, and accelerate their digital and cloud strategies.”

He and Thurber will both report to chief revenue officer Shaun Bierweiler.

Riverbed announced in December that it had completed a recapitalization, reducing more than $1 billion in debt and brought on more than $100 million in cash. The company began referring to itself as Riverbed|Eternity at that time.

Riverbed acquired application performance monitoring company Aternity in 2016, a year after private equity firm Thoma Bravo bought Riverbed. It launched its Aternity digital experience monitoring (DEM) division in 2019.