Fusion Connect Hires Intelisys Vet as New Channel Chief

In yet another unexpected move, Rick Ribas has left LogMeIn after less than a year to become senior vice president of channels and alliances at Fusion Connect.

Fusion Connect’s Rick Ribas

In this role, Ribas is responsible for all activities related to managing and expanding the base of company‘s channel partners.

Last April, Ribas left Intelisys after nearly 11 years to become LogMeIn‘s vice president for global channel sales.

Ribas said he wanted to take this new role for two reasons.

“Fusion Connect’s vision for enabling the connected enterprise and supporting hybrid workforces along with its customer-focused culture is what brought me to the company,” he said. “In addition, the senior management team at Fusion Connect are true channel champions and second to none in the technology space, including the UCaaS and network services business.”

Primary Objective

Ribas said his primary objective is to ensure the partner community has a “world-class experience” when working with Fusion Connect.

“The leadership team has attracted some of the best-of-the-best talent to achieve this mission and we’ll continue to strive every day towards this goal,” he said. “We have a great set of channel partners, primarily master agents, and I really see this as an asset to the company. I plan to spend my time further strengthening and expanding these relationships, as well as expanding our new breed of sales partner, including VARs, MSPs, distributors, resale [and] white label, to round out our long-term channel strategy.”

Ribas has more than 30 years of experience helping technology companies work with channel partners. During his career, he has founded and sold two telecommunications companies.

Ribas was Intelisys‘ senior vice president of channel and alliances for more than 10 years. There, he tripled revenues before the company sold to ScanSource.

Building Momentum

“One of the exciting things about Fusion Connect is the leadership team, from the CEO down, is hyper-focused on removing the friction to take this company from good to great,” Ribas said. “In the past six months and even in the last few weeks, we’ve made some great strides. And we’ll continue to build on our momentum. We realize that without our partners, the channel is nonexistent. So I look forward to getting feedback from all angles to ensure we are developing not only what we want, but what they need.”

Mario DeRiggi is Fusion Connect’s chief revenue officer. He said Ribas will support taking the company’s channel efforts “to the next level.”

Ribas will also support Fusion Connect’s key business objectives.

“With Rick, we’ve filled out our senior leadership team at Fusion Connect,” he said. “I know that he will have an immediate impact on the company, our customers and partners.”