Schneider Electric has appointed Gordon Lord as vice president of its U.S. channel sales organization, Secure Power, after a long tenure at the company. Lord is now responsible for driving revenue, strategy and profitability within the channels organization, with an increased focus on software, services and sustainability. Prior to this appointment, he served as the senior director of IT distribution and channel strategy.

Schneider Electric’s Gordon Lord

He replaces Shannon Sbar who was channel leader for Schneider Electric for 16 years. As for Lord, he has spent more than 27 years at Schneider. He started his career as an intern at the company, then worked his way up to various positions within the channel division.

Schneider Electric and Commitment to Partners

Lord explains why he’s been with the company for so long.

“I think it all starts with culture. I’ve been with Schneider Electric for 27 years, and my entire time has been in the channel. I initially started by supporting resellers in Chicago from the inside,” he said. “Then I was outside as a regional channel rep in Manhattan and New Jersey. After that, I handled national accounts. The channel is really a great place to be.”

He added: “When I look at the landscape of the channel now, things have gotten more and more complex. It’s so much more than just selling hardware. Our partners are looking at software services. And I feel that when a lot of partners think of Schneider and products, they think about us as really a hardware vendor. That’s a large majority of what we’ve done. But if you look at where the larger Schneider is – what we do around sustainability, what we do around driving energy efficiency – I think the channel has a real role to play there. And I’m looking forward to getting out and talking to partners more and more about that.”

When it comes to what partners are looking for, Lord said they want to collaborate more, they want more consistency with programming, with engagement and with enablement. In conversations with partners, Lord acknowledged how necessary it is to understand what’s important to them and to go back and “build a program that tries to support them but doesn’t do it from a one-size-fits all approach,” he said.