Juniper Names Former Microsoft Exec as Global Channel Chief
Juniper Networks has made its third executive appointment of the week, naming Microsoft veteran Emilio Umeoka (pictured) as senior vice president, worldwide partners, to head up the company’s global channel efforts. There’s also a side story here: Quite a few Microsoft veterans have left the software giant in recent months, even as Microsoft strives to hire 144 cloud computing experts. Here’s the update on both Juniper and Microsoft.
Umeoka, who served as president, Asia Pacific at Microsoft, fills the shoes of Frank Vitagliano, who vacated the position in May 2010 to take on the role of senior vice president of partners, the Americas. In his new position, Umeoka will be tasked with leading Juniper’s global channel strategy and partner initiatives — something Vitagliano had been doing until a replacement was named.
Juniper has been busy on the hiring front; in addition to Umeoka, the company has added Brad Brooks as vice president of worldwide enterprise marketing and solutions and Luanne Tierney as vice president of worldwide partner marketing, all in the space of a week.
Brooks, former corporate vice president for Windows consumer marketing and product management at Microsoft, will be responsible for developing and executing marketing strategies for the enterprise segment and defining go-to-market plans and roadmaps for Juniper’s vertical and horizontal solutions, according to the company. Tierney, meanwhile, hails from Cisco, where she was vice president of global partner marketing – so her new role at Juniper will be a familiar one.
To be sure, these hires are good for Juniper’s channel, as it finally will have someone providing direction and leadership on a global basis. But perhaps the larger question is this: Does anyone stay at Microsoft anymore? Umeoka and Brooks both jumped ship, and STB President Robert Muglia is departing come this summer (although signs point to his departure being a forced one). And back in September 2010, John Zanni and Birger Steen both left Microsoft to join Parallels. The list goes on …
What is happening at Microsoft that is creating the mass exodus of executives? Has the corporate culture changed to the point where it’s now become untenable to veteran executives? Did they feel stifled or stalled career-wise? Do they no longer feel challenged?
If you take a look at the companies most of these executives have jumped to, the argument could be made that they no longer feel like they’re part of a dynamic and growing company. Juniper has made some serious headway in the networking space and is well-regarded among its partners, despite its lack of global channel leadership of late. And Parallels, likewise, has made its share of noise in the cloud computing space. Whatever the reason, however, Microsoft’s loss is the rest of the IT community’s gain.
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