Channel People on the Move: Intelisys, Five9, Kaseya, Pax8

Patrick Zammit has taken over as chief executive at distribution giant TD Synnex.

Zammit has worked his way up the distribution ranks, promoted from chief operating officer to replace Rich Hume, who led the company through the merger of Tech Data and Synnex.

He was with Avnet for many years as global president and EMEA CFO before Tech Data bought the company.

Estee Preciado has been named director of global alliances at Devo, the security data platform. Her job is to develop strategy and go-to-market efforts for Devo's MSSPs, VARs and strategic technology partners.

It's a promotion for Preciado, was director of channel sales. She started with the company in 2021 as a channel sales manager. She's also a West UC and Barracuda veteran.

Partner alliance manager. That's Mike de Haan's new title at channel partner giant ePlus.

The experienced solution-based cloud consultant and channel manager spent nearly three years at RapidScale before accepting this latest job.

Ashley Lujan's new title is director of business development, VARs and agents at Kore.

She joins the company from Sensata Technologies, where she was a channel sales manager. IntelePeer and Cradlepoint are two of her career stops.

Bruce Ware (left) is celebrating his appointment as channel manager for the Southwest region at Intelisys, the tech services distributor.

Based in Houston, Ware is an AppDirect, TBI and Vonage veteran, to name a few.

Then there's Jolynn Antonnaci, the company's new VP of marketing.

Her career is a who's who of companies doing business in the channel, including Rackspace, Aryaka, PPT Solutions and Nextiva.

Congrats to Dakota Hippern, who joined GoTo as a senior partner marketing manager. He will support the company's MSP marketing strategy and execution, as well as broader channel partner event initiatives.

Based in New Hampshire, Hippern brings six years of experience to the role, including JumpCloud, where he developed and executed go-to-market and partner program strategies.

After more than five-and-a-half years at tech services distributor Telarus, Sara Pina is off to ForgeOS, the operating system for the telecom life cycle.

As a marketing manager, Pina's tasks will include developing plans to promote the company's services, grow its brand and generate leads.

Connex One, known for its contact-center-as-a-service platform and AI capabilities, hired channel veteran Bobby Hall as VP of channel sales.

He brings deep experience working with technology advisors and tech services distributors after leading channels at 8x8 and LiveVox.

Hall also has worked for Avaya, Unify, CenturyLink and many more.

Mike Sickle (right) has rejoined Bridgepointe, the tech advisory firm, as a partner.

Sickle's company, Dynamic Network Advisors, was acquired by Bridgepointe last year. After a short hiatus, Sickle is back working with the acquiring company.

On the left, that's Melanie Thomas, Bridgepointe's new vice president of cybersecurity. It's a newly created role.

Thomas comes over from LevelBlue, formerly AT&T Cybersecurity, where she was principal, overseeing managed threat detection and respond (MTDR) and managed endpoint security.

Based in Denver, Violet Minnella is a new channel director for Avant Communications, the tech services distributor, with responsibility for Colorado, Wyoming and Montana.

She most recently was VP of sales in the Mountain region for Nitel. Minnella also brings experience from Masergy, Lumen/CenturyLink, GTT and more.

The new director of North American channels at Asimily, which does IoT and IoMT security for connected devices, is Priya Sharma.

Sharma most recently was North American alliances director at PlainID. Before that, she was at HP, Informatica and ForgeRock.

Data infrastructure company NetApp just upped its cloud computing cred by hiring Mike Sakalas as VP of U.S. enterprise sales.

He last oversaw sales at Pure Storage. EMC is another of his former employers.

Dermot McCann will lead the operations for Kaseya, the IT management software behemoth, in Europe after many years with the company in Australia.

Noting to Channel Futures that Kaseya has "built a very strong business in Asia Pacific," McCann now turns his attention to recreating that success in Europe. It comes as Kaseya's EMEA business also has grown 50% over the past year.

Illumio, the cybersecurity that specializes in zero-trust segmentation, appointed Pete Wilson as director of channel sales, EMEA. Based in the U.K., he will lead and grow Illumio's channel and alliances in that part of the world.

Wilson's last job was director of EMEA partnerships at Okta. He's also worked for Auth0, SailPoint and RSA.

Christine Morris brings more than 25 years of experience in telecom to her new role as SVP of sales and marketing at GeoLinks, the enterprise-level telecommunications company and managed SD-WAN provider.

There's a good chance you know her from previous jobs at Integra Telecom and Frontier Communications.

That's Julie Sterl, now senior director of global partnerships at Five9, the contact-center-as-a-service company.

It's a homecoming for Sterl, who left Five9 in 2022 for Sprinklr after nearly two years at the company. Avant, Dialpad and Fuze are other past employers.

Dave Nankervis took the reins last month as CRO of Cork Protection, which provides cyber warranties for MSPs serving small businesses and the ISV solutions they manage. He will be responsible for go-to-market strategy and operations, partner success and business development.

Nankervis' last position was VP of sales at Mailprotector.

ComTec Systems hired David Sherman as its new VP of channel development.

It's a big change for Sherman, who joins the cloud voice and cost reduction solution provider after 15 years at Spectrotel.

Geoff Waters, new chief revenue officer at Barracuda Networks, the cloud-first security giant, sat down with Channel Futures to discuss his plans for the company.

His last position was president of Americas sales at rival Check Point Software Technologies. Before that, he was SVP of global channel sales at VMware.

Two names you should know at Auvik, the network management software provider.

Mark Ralls (left), president, will be responsible for all customer-facing functions, including marketing, sales and customer success. He most recently was president and COO of Invicti Security.

That's Bryan Getz on the right, Auvik's new chief sales officer. He's held numerous sales leadership roles at Druva, Cohesity and more.

Alix Jordan is supporting technology services distributors (TSDs) across North America in her new role as national alliance manager at Zoom.

She spent the last four years at RingCentral, where she finished as senior national TSD manager. You might also know her from Intelisys.

It's a shift in duties for Danielle DeCosta at Upstack, where she's now VP of strategic partnerships. Her last role was VP of supplier and sales enablement.

She's been with the company now for almost three years after two at Pax8 and 13 at Intelisys.

Jillian Kronfuss has stepped in as senior technology advisor at TruPoint Communications Solutions, the technology consulting firm. She has 24 years of experience in the industry with cloud, SaaS and customer experience just a few of her specialties.

Talkdesk, West Corp. and PGi are three of her former employers.

You know her from Zoom, Mitel, TPx and more. Now, Kristen Vick is taking up a new challenge as head of TSD channel at SuccessKPI, the experience analytics platform for contact centers.

She most recently spent nine months as director of global partnerships at Sprinklr.

You're looking at Ruchir Purwar, who just joined Pluralsight, the online education company, to lead its partner organization and to continue scaling the company's ecosystem across GSIs, hyperscalers, generative AI and strategic partnerships.

He last spent two-and-a-half years as VP of channel sales at Salesforce. He also brings experience from Google, Dell and AWS.

Jake Alosco is the new VP of global partnerships at Valence Security, which just announced its first global partner program, dubbed Valence Fusion.

Alosco joins Valence after stints at Cyolo, Contrast Security, Veracode and more.

Valence specializes in SaaS security. Read more about Alosco's new role and the new program.

Cisco veteran Geoff Works (left) is the new VP of global channel sales for UJET, the contact-center-as-a-service provider. He takes over for Steve Infante, who left for rival NICE last fall.

We asked him about his new role.

Another new face at UJET is Keith Dennis, senior VP of sales. His last job was with Six 8 Advisors, one of Avant Communications' largest partners.

Dennis, also a RingCentral and 8x8 alum, explained to Channel Futures why he signed on with UJET.

Heather Conaway started a new position as director of partner enablement, advanced solutions, at tech services distributor Telarus. It's a promotion from sales enablement program manager.

Conaway has been with Telarus for a little more than a year.

Reveille Software, the provider of management and monitoring solutions for enterprise content management systems, named Wayne Ford its vice president of corporate development. He will be responsible for developing strategic partnerships with independent software and hardware vendors, and systems integrators. He also will expand the company's number of channel partners, and evaluate and propose M&A.

Ford most recently was SVP of sales at Stats Perform, a sports AI company.

Pax8, which held its annual Beyond event last month in Denver, made two key appointments.

First, Nick Heddy (left) added president to his title of chief commercial officer. We sat down with him to ask about his plans going forward.

Eric Stevens (right), formerly an SVP with Pax8, is the company's new chief AI officer. Expect the role to be prominent with the cloud marketplace company as more MSPs continue their expansion into AI products.

Read more about Stevens' new role.

Pax8, which held its annual Beyond event last month in Denver, made two key appointments.

First, Nick Heddy (left) added president to his title of chief commercial officer. We sat down with him to ask about his plans going forward.

Eric Stevens (right), formerly an SVP with Pax8, is the company's new chief AI officer. Expect the role to be prominent with the cloud marketplace company as more MSPs continue their expansion into AI products.

Read more about Stevens' new role.