Comstor Taps Cisco Veteran to Head U.S. Business

Written by DH Kass 1
November 1, 2012

Geoff Fancher, a 17-year Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) veteran, is taking over U.S. sales for Westcon Group’s Comstor business unit, a specialist in the networking vendor’s products and solutions.

Fancher, formerly Cisco’s vice president, U.S. Field Partner organization, is tasked as new Comstor senior vice president with P&L responsibility for the distributor’s U.S. business, reporting to Dean Douglas, Westcon president and chief executive. He will work out of Comstor’s Louisville, Colo., headquarters.

“As Geoff boasts more than 17 years of experience at Cisco, with a proven ability to develop, align and execute key channel strategies, he’s a perfect fit to bring us into our next stage of growth,” said Douglas.

Fancher, who was highly regarded by Cisco’s partner community, is credited with crafting strategic channel initiatives and ran the vendor’s Channel Advisory Board, where he presided over channel program changes, linked partners to Cisco executives and promoted partner loyalty.

“I’ve always considered Comstor one of Cisco’s strongest partner relationships,” Fancher said. “Our team was consistently impressed with their deep knowledge of Cisco technology, along with a seamless ability to execute core channel strategies. I firmly believe the company has what it takes to become Cisco’s top distributor in the United States and am honored to help make this happen.”

Westcon also said that Andy Banks, who has been with the company since 2009, will move from his post as Comstor vice president North America Cisco Sales, to serve as vice president, North America Data Center Practice, reporting directly to Dan Papes. Banks is tasked with building Westcon’s channel programs for the data center and cloud markets.

Westcon bought Comstor in July 1999 from GE Capital IT Solutions for about $100 million. The distributor’s annual U.S. revenue currently is approximately $750 million, more than twice that globally, and a bit shy of half of Westcon’s overall $4 billion in yearly sales.