RiverBed Taps Ex-Brocade Exec for Americas Sales Top Post

WAN optimization honcho Riverbed (NASDAQ: RVBD) has tapped Ian Whiting, formerly Brocade’s Worldwide Sales executive vice president, to lead its sales efforts in the Americas, particularly to mold the vendor’s sales channels to meet customer demand.

Whiting, who will report to Dave Peranich, Riverbed Global Field Operations executive vice president, is tasked with reworking the company’s go-to-market scheme to build sales and profits, interacting both with enterprise accounts and channel partners, uncovering new markets and nailing down the vendor’s strategic vision and execution.

Reading between the lines, it’s not much of a stretch to say that Riverbed wants to step up its ability to hone in on and refine its sales execution — an area that Whiting, who Peranich called “a true sales professional,” will be expected to improve. Indeed, Whiting carries a reputation as a builder and motivator of high-performance sales teams, and, said Peranich, he will be “key in our efforts to drive increasing revenue, productivity and profitability for Riverbed and our partners.”

Whiting’s background includes some 20 years in sales, with his most recent an 11-year stint at Brocade (NASDAQ: BRCD) where he was credited with adding channel and service provider sales to the networking vendor’s legacy go-to-market model of OEM and direct sales — moves that helped up annual revenue to about $2 billion.

In addition to Brocade, Whiting has held a variety of sales roles at Compaq, Cognos, Networth and Data Translation Networking.

“Riverbed has developed a reputation in the industry for delivering innovative solutions that solve performance problems,” Whiting said, adding that he expects to work “closely with our customers, partners and sales organization to help solve the needs of enterprises and maximize the value of IT investments in end-user organizations.”

The Whiting appointment comes on the heels of Riverbed naming new Americas and EMEA channel chiefs last month. Rob Rosiello took over as vice president of Channel Sales for the Americas and Nino D’Auria filled a similar role for EMEA. Both new channel execs are responsible for building partner success, customer satisfaction and sales within their regions.

Earlier this month, Riverbed unwrapped a new Whitewater appliance that increased the cloud storage capability of the line and launched version 2.0 of the Whitewater operating system.