Global Sales Chief Out at Avaya, Replaced by IBM, Cisco Vet

**Editor’s Note:


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to see which channel people were on the move in April and May.**

Tom Mitchell, Avaya‘s senior vice president of global sales, is leaving the company at the end of September.

A spokeswoman told Channel Partners the move “is part of the natural progression of the transformation of Avaya.”

Mitchell has worked for Avaya since 2010; earlier this year, he took over global sales efforts for both the indirect and direct channels. In his elevated role, Mitchell “was a huge help in aligning the channel and our sales force in a single direction,” the spokeswoman said. “Now we are able to bring together all go-to-market motions and further align our efforts as we move into new markets and new geographies.”

As such, Pierre-Paul Allard who has been with Avaya as senior vice president of global strategy and development since May 2012, and has also worked for IBM and Cisco will take over global sales. Avaya said the idea is to bring all strategy, marketing and sales under one leader so that the company “will be able to better segment the market, understand the needs of the customers, and target new buyers and new audiences for Avayas technology.” 

Mitchell became well-known in the industry in the early part of the 2000s as one of Cisco’s most prominent channel chiefs. Avaya did not say what opportunities Mitchell might pursue after September 30, which also happens to mark the end of Avaya’s fiscal year 2013.

Avaya has seen a series of channel personnel shifts since going private in 2007 and buying bankrupt Nortel’s enterprise division in late 2009. The company, born as a communications equipment maker, has been working to keep pace with rivals as cloud and unified communications services dominate the industry and more organizations spurn opex-intensive deployments.