Channel People on the Move: Avaya, 8×8, Verizon, More

A number of big channel players – notably 8×8, Avaya and Verizon – are celebrating the new year with new employees.

We’ve got a bevy of new hires and promotions to tell you about in this edition of channel people on the move. It features people who took new jobs or advancements within their companies in December.

The announcements ran the gamut, from new channel managers to CEOs, whose business decisions will trickle down to the channel.

Take 8×8 and Frontier, for example, which tapped new chief executives. Frontier’s, in particular, will have his hands full leading the company out of chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Verizon is revamping its partner program and needed a new channel chief to lead it.

If that’s not enough, we also offer up new hires and promotions at CallTower, NetFortris, Avant and more in the gallery below. And don’t forget! You don’t have to wait for our monthly gallery to keep up with our People on the Move coverage in real time.

Looking for more? When done, check out last month’s gallery to see who was on the move in November.

Follow executive editor @Craig_Galbraith on Twitter.

Avant's Shane McNamara & Jen Gallego

Master agent Avant promoted a pair of well-known execs to oversee global channel sales and engineering.

Shane McNamara now is executive VP of engineering and operations, while Jen Gallego's title is executive VP of global sales. McNamara has been with Avant for three years; Gallego for 11.

The move, the company says, comes after a year of "record growth."

Get the full scoop on Avant's promotions.

Verizon's Wendy Taccetta

Verizon has a new channel chief during what it calls a "historic revamping" of its partner program. Wendy Taccetta is Verizon Business Group's senior VP of global commercial operations and channel chief. It's a promotion for the executive.

This comes as Verizon centralizes its channel program. All of the company's channel enablement and operations staff will now work in a single organization. All "support, governance and controls" now reside in one place, the company said. The centralization brings together the wireless and wireline sides of the channel.

Learn more about this important executive.

Also of note: Verizon's Tom Zimmerman (not pictured) got a promotion as well. He will oversee day-to-day channel operations as vice president of channel enablement, strategy and operations.

Avaya's Mike Coleman

After four years at Samsung Mobility, Mike Coleman is the new North American channel chief at Avaya.

Coleman's predecessor at Avaya, Jon Brinton, was there for less than a year. Coleman was behind the launch of Samsung's new Ascend program, which offers a common portal for its display and mobility businesses. 

Here's why Coleman could be a good fit for Avaya.

CallTower's Bryan Green

Bryan Green is CallTower's new channel director for Illinois.

Green, who comes to the UCaaS provider from Access One, has nearly 20 years of "strategic channel experience."  He was with Access One for 11 years as its IT and cybersecurity adviser. Green's background also includes gigs at First Communications and Globalcom.

Learn why CallTower CRO William Rubio is so high on Green.

Frontier's Nick Jeffery

Nick Jeffery will be the key cog in leading Frontier Communications out of chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Jeffery, the 30-year telecommunications veteran, is Frontier's new CEO. The company heaps praises on him for a "turnaround" at Vodafone UK. Bernie Han, who took the helm as chief executive last year, is stepping aside to make way for the new guy.

Partners who sell IoT solutions will be excited to know that Jeffery set up Vodafone Global Enterprise and developed the company's IoT practice.

Find out what else he brings to the table.

8x8's Dave Sipes

Dave Sipes, formerly COO at RingCentral, is 8x8's new CEO. He replaces Vik Verma, who led the company for seven years, and will continue in an advisory role.

At RingCentral, Sipes was in charge of go-to-market, product and engineering. 8x8 says he was instrumental in leading the UC and cloud provider from a $10 million company to one that now has more than $1 billion in revenue.

Learn more about what Sipes brings to 8x8.

Informa Tech's Robert DeMarzo

Robert DeMarzo joins Informa Tech, Channel Partners' parent company, on Jan. 4, as content lead for media and events. He will be responsible for leading the content strategy for our events and aligning that content with the Channel Partners and Channel Futures websites.

He most recently was senior VP, event content and strategy, at The Channel Company.

See why DeMarzo made the move.

Anexinet's Brian Glahn

Brian Glahn is the new president of infrastructure and cloud at Anexinet, which bills itself as a digital business transformation solutions provider. His goal will be to accelerate growth of infrastructure, cloud, managed and automation services through M&A and organic activities.

Glahn has 20 years of experience, with more than half of that as president and CEO within the infrastructure, VAR and services industry.

NetFortris

NetFortris, the cloud and network services provider, made a slew of personnel announcements in December. Two are new channel managers, while another is a senior marketing manager. Furthermore, the company created a new role — VP of strategic partnerships.

Tasked with focusing on complex solutions, Aaron Kanahele (bottom right) will fill that strategic partnerships position. It's a promotion for Kanahele, who has been with the company for 14 years.

Jay Wicker (West, bottom left) and Colm Armstrong (New England, top right) are the new channel managers. They come from AireSpring and Ecessa, respectively.

Rachel Turkus (top left) is the new senior channel marketing manager. You might know her from marketing roles at Broadvoice and Packet Fusion.

Get to know them all.

OneLogin's Damon Dean & Matt Hurley

Identity access management (IAM) company OneLogin has a new chief product officer. It's Damon Dean (left), formerly of Flexport and Docusign. Dean brings more than 25 years or experience in product-building to the company.

Also noteworthy is Matt Hurley's promotion at the company. Joining OneLogin a year-and-a-half ago after stints at Juniper Networks, Bell Canada and Sun Microsystems, Hurley now is chief revenue officer.

Get to know these gentlemen better.

iboss' May Mitchell

Cybersecurity industry veteran May Mitchell took over as senior VP of marketing at iboss. Her job is to oversee sales and marketing of the company's SASE cloud network security services and zero-trust network access solution.

Mitchell has 25 years of experience under her belt, including her last job — VP of global channels, alliances and marketing for Cylance.

Ramp's Doug Collins

Doug Collins is the new VP of global channels and partnerships at Ramp, which provides enterprise video delivery solutions.

He will be responsible for Ramp's global channel sales strategy to identify new business and growth opportunities. The company wants him to oversee all elements of its channel program, developing and leading initiatives that benefit partners.