8x8 Taps Former Salesforce, Oracle Executive as Sales SVP

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

You might say that 8×8’s new sales chief knows his way around the cloud.

The company, which provides unified communications, contact center and collaboration services, has named Puneet Arora its new senior vice president of global sales. He has the task of leading 8×8’s global, direct and channel sales businesses.

Arora’s job history includes stints at Salesforce.com and Oracle, and most recently, LivePerson, the New York City-based company that does online marketing and Web analytics. At LivePerson, Arora was vice president and head of North America sales, where he managed all aspects of demand generation, revenue creation and customer success across a wide array of accounts that included enterprises and small businesses. He managed cloud CRM sales for North America West at Oracle and was vice president of corporate sales at Salesforce, based in the Southeast.

“8×8 has played a pivotal role in the development and early adoption of groundbreaking cloud communications solutions, and I look forward to working closely with the rest of the senior management team, existing sales staff and channel partners to accelerate revenue growth in all of its key market segments,” said Arora. “This truly is an exciting time to be involved in the UCaaS industry, and there is no company better positioned than 8×8 to capture the increasing demand we expect to see in 2015 and beyond.”

Arora’s hire is just one of a handful to start the new year. My Digital Shield (MDS), which sells security as a service through channel partners, has named Rick Green its executive vice president of channel sales.

Green has 30 years of experience in the networking industry, most recently as VP of sales at Voice Carrier, the VoIP reseller, where he developed a channel program that peaked at $2.5 million in sales within two years. He’s also held technical, marketing and sales management positions with Nortel, GE, Lucent and Alcatel, and has led sales teams at various VARs. Now he has the job of growing MDS’ channel.

“My Digital Shield offers a unique product to an underserved market …” said Green. “I look forward to applying my experience to expand MDS’ partner community and ensure that the channel is empowered to serve the growing cyber security needs of the small business owner.”

Green now has more resources with which to work. My Digital Shield says that it has secured $300,000 in its latest funding round led by private investors. The company will use the money to expand channel partner marketing and boost product development.

Partners also might recognize a pair of names in new jobs at BlueData, which calls itself the pioneer in big-data private clouds.

Jim Lenox, a former VMware executive, takes on the role of worldwide sales VP. Greg Kirchoff comes directly to Mountain View, California-based BlueData from Microsoft, where he led the software giant’s global business development and strategic alliances organization for 15 years. Kirchoff is BlueData’s new vice president of business development.

“Jim and Greg bring highly prized expertise to the BlueData team, both having strong industry backgrounds at companies known for their innovation and execution,” said Kumar Sreekanti, CEO of BlueData. “Today, leveraging big data has evolved from cutting-edge to mission-critical, and BlueData is positioned to eliminate cost and complexity from the equation. Jim and Greg’s extensive experience uniquely enables them to help propel our company’s growth as we continue to simplify and democratize big data.”

Lenox will be responsible for leading sales strategy and execution. He spent 13 years at VMware, including time as senior director of cloud services. Kirchoff will have close channel ties, driving strategic business deals and partnerships with key customers, tech partners, OEMs, resellers and systems integrators, the company said.

Follow senior online managing editor @Craig_Galbraith on Twitter.