Windstream Names New Channel Chief as EarthLink Purchase Closes

**Editor’s Note: Click here to see which channel people were on the move in January.**

Windstream named EarthLink’s Olen Scott as the combined company’s new channel chief just after the $1.1 billion merger closed Monday.

Scott, previously EarthLink’s vice president of partner channels, is now Windstream’s vice president of channel sales. Jason Dishon, Windstream’s former channel chief, has left the company to pursue other opportunities.

Scott will be responsible for designing, operating and supporting Windstream’s channel sales organization. He spent more than four years at EarthLink, where he led the company’s indirect distribution channel, focusing on agent and VAR partnerships in managed network and cloud services. Prior to joining EarthLink, he led sales organizations at XO Communications and Verizon Business.

Scott tells Channel Partners the channel chief role now has an extended scope.

“We’ve changed the model a little bit to create a more consistent partner experience, specifically throughout the sales organization,” he said. “So we’ve realigned the way our sales leaderships roll up, now rolling up through myself – the channel organization leadership – versus rolling up through specific, individual regions. There was a leader (Dishon) that was over the channel organization in its older form, which now will change, and he has made the decision to leave the organization and I come over from the EarthLink side of the house.”

Scott said the opportunities that the combined company will bring to the partner marketplace with its combined customers “grow tremendously … we just fit together extremely well.”

“We are pleased to welcome such an experienced and talented channel sales executive as Olen to Windstream,” said Jeff Howe, Windstream’s executive vice president of enterprise sales. “We are committed to the success of our channel partners, and Olen’s leadership will be instrumental as we continue to simplify and strengthen our channel program.”