The Most Noteworthy Channel People on the Move of 2021
We revisit some of the biggest personnel moves of the year.
![John DeLozier, Intelisys John DeLozier, Intelisys](https://eu-images.contentstack.com/v3/assets/blt10e444bce2d36aa8/blt3c4e7117210deddb/65243a943bad6c4d4753e029/DeLozier-John_Intelisys_square.jpg?width=700&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale)
In a shake-up at Lumen, Dave Young stepped in for the outgoing Garrett Gee as channel leader. Young oversees channel partner relationships, as well as system-integrator, hyperscaler and digital venture units for the communications giant.
He talked to us in a Q&A about some hot news — the company’s ILEC sale, changes in partner program structure, and more.
Since the naming of Rodney Clark as its new channel chief, wee knew for some time now that Gavriella Schuster would likely be leaving the business. We found out this past summer that it would indeed happen in August.
Schuster said she would step away from the software giant on Aug. 31 after 26 years with the company.
Schuster explained that she would become an adviser to various organizations, IT solution providers and other businesses. Included in her mission will be helping organizations advance their diversity and inclusion efforts, one of her life passions.
She has since joined the boards of Berkshire Partners, ChinaSoft International and Open Systems.
Dan DeLozier became area VP of channels and alliances at LiveVox, which offers a “next-generation” contact center platform.
The 16-year channel vet most recently was regional VP of channel sales at Everbridge, where he helped spearhead the company’s global expansion.
Speaking of DeLoziers …
John DeLozier, our 2020 Channel Influencer of the Year, left 8×8 to take charge as president at Intelisys, the technology solutions brokerage.
The channel stalwart is also well-known from his days at CenturyLink.
Bobby Hall is the new man with the plan at 8×8, replacing channel chief John DeLozier, who moved on to Intelisys. It was a promotion for Hall, who previously was 8×8’s VP of North America channels.
Hall’s long history in the channel has included stops at CenturyLink, Unify, Arrow, ShoreTel and Avaya.
Read more about Hall’s promotion.
Logically looked to Michelle Accardi, former president and CRO of Star2Star, to spearhead its acquisition growth strategy as the company’s new chief executive officer.
Accardi, Logically’s first woman CEO, brings extensive leadership experience and a background driving successful mergers and acquisitions.
Logically is a managed service provider.
Jim Regan (pictured) took over the job of channel chief at Vonage, a promotion from vice president of channels.
He fills the role vacated by Curt Allen, who chose to leave a few months after new CEO Rory Read took the reins.
“I believe they are on a path to success, but that given the shift, I was not the right leader for the channel organization at this time,” said Allen.
Learn more about Regan’s ascendency and Allen’s departure.
A well-known name in the IT channel, Jim Lippie, left Kaseya at the start of the year for the top job at SaaS Alerts, an MSP security vendor. The company’s platform allows MSPs to protect and monetize their customers’ SaaS applications.
The startup only opened its doors in August. As CEO, Lippie wants to build “the most MSP-friendly software company in the ecosystem.”
Read more about his plans.
Cloud distributor Pax8 promoted seven people, with Jennifer Bodell (pictured) perhaps the most channel-facing of the group.
Bodell now is senior VP of global channel. Six others got “senior” added to their titles.
“My leadership team is highly regarded in the industry and well-positioned to expand Pax8 into its next phase of growth,” said Nick Heddy, Pax8’s chief revenue officer.
Microsoft ISV partner AvePoint recruited Jason Beal from Palo Alto Networks to lead its channel team. Beal’s job is to build out the company’s first broad partner program.
AvePoint historically has provided its SharePoint and Office 365 management tools directly to enterprises.
Get to know Beal.
Eric Martorano left Nextiva in August, then landed at Kinly, where he is executive VP and managing director of the Americas.
Kinly is a global collaboration services provider, offering video conferencing and audio visual workplace technology.
Get more info on Martorano.
Marc Stein, Nextiva’s channel chief, came to the business communications provider from Splunk. As VP of channel sales, he leads Nextiva‘s global channel business. He also manages NeXus, the Arizona-based company’s partner program.
At Splunk, Stein was VP of the commercial partner business for the cloud-based data platform provider.
Craig Patterson took the channel chief reins at cloud-based WAN provider Aryaka. You might know him from his days at CenturyLink/Lumen.
Patterson is in charge of Aryaka’s channel partner program and its agent, reseller and distributor partners.
Former channel chief Olen Scott moved on to becom CRO at Stored Energy Systems.
Learn more about Patterson’s new gig.
The cable community and its partners knows Bill Steen well for his most recent gig at Comcast Business, where he was director of indirect channel and alliance partner marketing.
Now, Steen has a new challenge as director of channel and field marketing at OpenText, parent of Carbonite and Webroot, the backup and security providers. He is leading the North America channel team for the company’s small, midsize and consumer division, focused on cybersecurity and resilience, data security and protection.
Steen also brings 13 years of experience at Level 3 Communications to the job.
Get the full story on Steen’s move.
Ken Lamneck announced his retirement after 11 years at Insight Enterprises, which was No. 1 on Channel Futures’ 2020 MSP 501 list.
Lamneck is transitioning to an advisory role, with longtime Dell exec Joyce Mullen replacing him at the first of the year.
During Lamneck’s tenure, Insight took a giant leap from VAR to the massive intelligent technology solutions company that it is today. Sales have doubled since the day he arrived on scene.
Vince Bradley, who the entire telco channel knows as founder of WTG and then later a top executive at AppSmart, ventured out on his own again with a new business, Abundant IoT.
He talked to our James Anderson about it in this Q&A.
Well-traveled channel leader Lori Cornmesser jumped at the chance to become the new channel chief at CyCognito, the cybersecurity provider. She will lead CyCognito’s global channel strategy and execution.
Cornmesser is a veteran of Infoblox, Ixia, Juniper Networks and Riverstone Networks.
In a Q&A with Channel Futures, Cornmesser said she’ll be gunning for rivals RiskIQ and Expanse.
Mark Palomba replaced Bronwyn Hastings as Citrix channel chief. Hastings left for Google Cloud earlier this year.
Palmoba, who has been with Citrix for about a year, previously was with SAP’s financial services market unit. He also is a former CEO of Critical Path.
Get to know Palomba and the work he will do with partners.
Pat Watkins was named the new channel leader at T-Mobile early in the year. The company is poised to make a significant push now that its merger with Sprint is complete.
Watkins, a Sprint veteran, holds the title of VP of channel and IoT sales for T-Mobile. She said the magenta carrier decided at the end of 2020 that now is the time to make a serious move.
“We’re going to spend a lot more time with [partners], hearing from them. What’s working? What’s not working? And once we have that communication, we’re going to act fairly quickly on that,” Watkins told Channel Partners.
That wasn’t the only thing she told us.
Former IBM president Jim Whitehurst, who previously led Red Hat, stepped down in what many deemed to be a surprise move.
Whitehurst was president and CEO of Red Hat before IBM bought it. His departure is one of several changes among the top ranks at Big Blue.
Whitehurst remains a senior adviser to the company. He just this week joined the Tanium board of directors.
Learn more about his exit from the presidency.
Cisco vet Ruba Borno took over as channel chief at Amazon Web Services, replacing Doug Yeum, who is moving to Amazon’s retail division.
Borno most recently was SVP and general manager of customer experience centers and managed services at Cisco. She at one point was the only millennial executive at the company.
Read more about Borno and the transition at AWS.
2021 was a wild ride for Scott Forbush. Saying Upstack “wasn’t a good fit for me,” Forbush accepted a job to head agent channel development at PPT Solutions, the provider of customer experience and contact center consulting solutions.
Forbush, a former Telarus exec, spent five months at Upstack.
Read more about his move.
It’s safe to say that Tracy Pound is staying busy these days.
The managing director of Maximity, the digital training and transformation partner, took over as chair of the CompTIA board of directors. Pound is the first industry exec from Great Britain to lead CompTIA’s board.
She also is a member of the Channel Futures Advisory Board.
Learn more about her assignment.
It’s safe to say that Tracy Pound is staying busy these days.
The managing director of Maximity, the digital training and transformation partner, took over as chair of the CompTIA board of directors. Pound is the first industry exec from Great Britain to lead CompTIA’s board.
She also is a member of the Channel Futures Advisory Board.
Learn more about her assignment.
If you read this space very often, you know that Channel People on the Move is our most popular recurring segment.
Why? You want to see if your friends and colleagues have been promoted. Maybe your “rival” has taken a new job with a new company.
Every month we offer up a large sampling of people on the move at companies throughout the IT and telecom channels. So this year, we decided to make a “best of” edition. What were some of the most impactful channel promotions and hires in 2021?
This list is entirely subjective. No one person on the move on this list is necessarily better than those excluded. But we wanted to revisit some of the most popular names and biggest companies making the biggest personnel moves in the past year.
You don’t have to wait for our next monthly update to see who’s on the move. We have a webpage specifically devoted to channel people on the move around the clock.
Miss our last monthly edition? Check it out.
Want to contact the author directly about this story? Have ideas for a follow-up article? Email Craig Galbraith or connect with him on LinkedIn. |
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