Telarus Moves Into Canada, Hires Level 3, EarthLink Alum for Midwest

Telarus has beefed up its presence in Canada and the midwestern United States.

The master agent hired Toronto native Brian Ochab as regional vice president for Canada. He’ll target potential UCaaS, CCaaS, and network suppliers as well as potential subagents, which Telarus is calling “cloud brokers.”

Ochab has his work cut out for him. Scott Forbush, senior vice president of global sales, said Telarus aims to become the top master agent in Canada.

Telarus’ Brian Ochab

“To accomplish that, we’ll need Brian Ochab to educate and recruit the first batch of true cloud brokers, help them develop go-to-market strategies that work, refine their marketing, and give them the blueprints to grow their staff,” Forbush said. “At the same time, we’ll be working closely with our many suppliers – some of them with assets currently deployed in Canada – to gain their unfair share of the market. Brian is going to be the best friend cloud brokers and cloud service providers could ever have.”

It’s Telarus’ second market outside of the U.S. The company moved into Oceania last year with plans to start an office in Sydney. Forbush said the broker model is “in its infancy” in both Canada and Australia.

“This is a monumental step for Telarus, although our business inside the United States has continued to grow at a robust 40% in each of the past three years,” Forbush said. “We feel it’s important to establish a presence in other geographies that hold even greater growth potential. For us, that place is Canada.”

Ochab most recently led managed service sales for Ontario-based MSP Pathway Communications. He has also run his own consultancy and directed sales for Rogers Communications, the Canada telecommunications giant that boasts more than 10 million wireless subscribers. His 10-plus years at Rogers included a role developing the indirect channel. He was also the managing director of Unity Connected Solutions‘ cloud and recurring revenue businesses.

Ochab said he hopes to build a Canadian version of Telarus.

“From my time at Rogers, Utility Connected Solutions, and Pathway Communications, I’ve worked alongside channel partners that focused on solving technology solutions using services they built themselves and/or resold under their brand,” Ochab said. “While that business model is what’s popular now, I believe, as Telarus does, that the broker model will win out in the coming years. The opportunity will be to help these early adopters jump out to what could be an insurmountable lead.”

Rival master agent Avant Communications last year announced future plans to build an offiice in Canada.

Telarus’ Shawn Berry

Telarus also hired a senior partner development manager for Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota. Shawn Berry will recruit partners and help the existing base develop voice, data, cloud and contact center practices. Cybersecurity and cloud contact center are growing faster than any other area of technology brokerage, according to Telarus central area vice president Mike Gottwalt.

“We are excited to welcome Shawn as our new senior partner development manager of Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota,” Gottwalt said. “We have worked with Shawn during his very successful career supporting our partner’s UCaaS and SD-WAN sales and are a huge fan of his work. He knows this business, he knows who the players are, and most of all, he knows the value Telarus brings to our partners.”

Berry has worked at several unified communications companies, including …… EarthLink (now owned by Windstream), Arkadin and Level 3 Communications (now owned by CenturyLink).

He most recently served as a national channel manager for Net2Phone. Telarus hired a Net2Phone alumna as its director of sales operations earlier this year.

“I have already met many Telarus partners during my tenure at Net2Phone and am very excited to help them unleash their growth potential using all the 200 providers in our portfolio,” Berry said. “I’m looking forward to the opportunity to help Midwest partners expand beyond their traditional product lines, so they can benefit from the opportunities that the cloud represents.”

Telarus, founded in 2002, boasts approximately 180 U.S. employees. The master agent previously announced that Kirk Avaiuisini, a former Windstream and Nextiva employee, joined as senior partner development manager of the Pacific Northwest. Telarus also consolidated its six geographical regions into three.

Telarus will host its annual partner summit in Aurora, Colorado, next month.