VMware Picks Ex-Oracle Channel Exec for Americas Chief

VMware on Monday said it has named Bill Swales vice president of its Americas partner organization. This latest move continues to reshape top echelons of the VMware channel group.

VMware’s Bill Swales

Swales, an IT veteran who most recently served as group vice president, North America channel chief and strategic alliance leader at Oracle, will report to Brett Shirk, senior vice president and general manager, Americas, who joined VMware a little more than two years ago. As the new Americas channel chief takes his post at VMware, his predecessor, Frank Rauch, moves on to Check Point Software Technologies as head of worldwide channel sales.

“VMware has a long history of close engagement with our partners, and I am very excited to continue this tradition as the Americas channel chief,” said Swales. “Together with our partners, VMware will empower customers to quickly and easily run, manage, secure and connect their applications in this multicloud, multidevice world.”

Swales’ responsibilities are to develop and drive initiatives and alignment with VMware’s Americas partners, the vendor said.

The virtualization giant scored a big win with the appointment of Jenni Flinders as global channel chief nearly a year ago, after her long tenure with Microsoft, including positions as vice president of the partner group and general manager, worldwide partner group.

VMware’s parent, Dell Technologies, went public last year after a swap of VMware shares. Dell owner Michael Dell controls about 80 percent of VMware.