Channel People on the Move: TPx, TBI, Avant, T-Mobile

The entire channel was hopping with people on the move in February. That includes master agents (TBI, Avant), security providers (OneLogin, Cybereason), connectivity providers (TPx, Megaport) and more.

We’ve got all the movers and shakers, from regional channel managers on up to the C-suite. You better believe if they make channel-oriented decisions, you’ll find them in our gallery below. In fact, there was so much happening in February, we packed more than two-dozen people into this edition.

Don’t forget: While we love that you peruse our gallery, you don’t have to wait until the first of every month. We have this page dedicated to people on the move around the clock. You’re also welcome to  investigate last month’s gallery to see who was on the move in January.

Follow executive editor @Craig_Galbraith on Twitter.

JS Group's Meredith Caram

Meredith Caram, well known for her days in AT&T's channel, just joined channel consultancy JS Group as chief revenue officer. At JS, she will be responsible for developing sales strategies, recruiting clients and consulting on channel programs.

Caram's other stops in the channel include Cytracom and Intrado.

T-Mobile's Pat Watkins

Pat Watkins is the new channel leader at T-Mobile. The company is poised to make a significant push now that its merger with Sprint is complete.

Watkins, a Sprint veteran, holds the title of VP of channel and IoT sales for T-Mobile. She said the magenta carrier decided at the end of 2020 that now is the time to make a serious move.

“We’re going to spend a lot more time with [partners], hearing from them. What’s working? What’s not working? And once we have that communication, we’re going to act fairly quickly on that,” Watkins told Channel Partners.

That wasn't the only thing she told us.

TPx's Mark Roberts and Ashley Arbuckle

TPx made a couple of big executive appointments.

First, Mark Roberts (left) is the company's new chief marketing officer. He joins TPx from PGi, where held a similar position. Next, Ashley Arbuckle is the company's new chief product officer. He was at Cisco for seven years before making the move.

TBI's Marco Sanchez and Stephanie Heap

Master agent TBI made a pair of personnel moves last month. Marco Sanchez (left) was promoted to vice president of sales for the West region. This gives him responsibility for all channel sales in his area.

That's Stephanie Heap on the right. She joined TBI as a channel account manager. Her previous experience includes stints at TPx, CenturyLink and Broadview Networks.

Zoom's Jim McGarry

Jim McGarry left Mitel for the growing channel at Zoom. There, he will take a newly created role leading master agent sales in the central region.

McGarry was with Mitel for three years in a variety of channel roles, most recently regional VP of field sales. Now his job is to strengthen relationships with Zoom's top partners, and continue to build the company's program. A big key will be growing its presence with master agents.

Don't know Jim?

Avant

Master agent Avant Communications is growing and says it plans to add members to its team this year. But in the meantime, the company is promoting a few of its execs to regional vice president.

Clockwise from top left: Rob Merhej (U.K./EMEA), Bana Qashu (East), Isaiah Hogberg (West) and Rick Reed (Central).

Avant president Drew Lydecker explained to us the reasons behind the promotions.

Bigleaf's Kwasi Joseph

Kwasi Joseph joins the Bigleaf team from Xillio, where he was a national sales manager. At Bigleaf, he is a channel sales manager.

Before Xillio, Joseph was a partner manager at Veeam Software.

ThreatProtector's Carl Katz

After six-and-a-half years at Nextiva, it's off to ThreatProtector Cybersecurity Advisors for Carl Katz. He will lead worldwide partner sales for the company.

In a Q&A, Katz told us exciting to take a position in cybersecurity considering its relevance today.

AireSpring's Scott Henkel

Scott Henkel comes to AireSpring from Nuspire, where he was director of product management. That's the same role he will hold at his new company.

Henkel has a long and varied career in telecom services, managed security and cybersecurity awareness. His other career stops have included Flexential and CenturyLink (now Lumen).

Megaport's Rodney Foreman

Australia-based Megaport, the network-as-a-service provider, hired Rodney Foreman as chief revenue officer. It is a newly created role.

Foreman is a veteran of IBM and Cobalt Iron. He also launched successful channel programs at Nutanix and Informatica, Megaport noted.

"[Foreman's] experience with product and managing scalable direct sales programs will help us further our capabilities with direct-to-customer sales while also creating even better customer and partner experiences," said Megaport's CEO.

Calabrio's Ross Daniels

Ross Daniels is the new chief marketing officer at Calabrio. It's a promotion for Daniels, who previously was VP of the company's global partner organization.

He spent nearly 18 years at Cisco before joining the Calabrio team in 2017.

SoftIron's Phil Crocker

Crocker, an EMC, F5 Networks and Cisco vet, is the new channel chief at SoftIron.

The data center appliances provider says Crocker will lead the company's growing business development team. He'll also grow SoftIron's partner program, focusing on HyperDrive, its software-defined storage offer.

This is where to learn more about Crocker and SoftIron.

Sage's Aziz Benmalek

Software firm Sage hired a new global channel chief. It's Aziz Benmalek, who will help partners evolve their businesses toward subscription revenue models.

The longtime Microsoft veteran's new job is executive VP of the U.K.'s biggest listed tech company. He looks forward to helping partners "add more value, more managed services and more IP." That, he says, is "where the value is."

Learn more about Sage and Benmalek.

AvePoint's Jason Beal

Microsoft ISV partner AvePoint recruited Jason Beal from Palo Alto Networks to lead its channel team. Beal's job will be to build out the company's first broad partner program.

AvePoint historically has provided its SharePoint and Office 365 management tools directly to enterprises.

Get to know Beal.

Deep Instinct's Geoff Kreiling

Geoff Kreiling is Deep Instinct's new VP of MSSP and channel. He comes to the security company from Fortinet after seven years there.

Deep Instinct applies end-to-end deep learning to predicts, identify and prevent cyberattacks. It covers a range of verticals from finance to retail to education.

Get the full scoop on Kreiling's move.

Commvault's Jamie Farrelly

Former Veritas Technologies channel exec Jamie Farrelly is the new EMEA channel chief for Commvault. The data protection and management company says Farrelly will oversee its EMEA partner organization. That includes channel engagement best practices, global programs and enablement plans.

Farrelly says key routes to market and MSP relationships will be a major focus.

Get more detail on Farrelly's new role.

OneLogin's Doug Erickson

Identity and access management provider OneLogin hired Doug Erickson to lead its Accelerate partner program. As VP of global channels, strategic alliances and GM of Asia Pacific, Erickson says first on his to-do list is "listening."

OneLogin partners are responsible for 40% of the company's sales opportunities.

Learn more about Erickson's new gig.

Cybereason

Cybersecurity software provider Cybereason added some top talent to its team.

Stephan Tallent (right), new VP of MSSPs for North America, comes to the company from Fortinet. Abigail Maines (bottom left) is the new VP of commercial and channel sales for North America. Ahmed Saleh takes the reins as VP of incident response services.

Cybereason's CRO says the new hires will help the company meet the demand for its products and services in North America. He explains why he's "thrilled" to have them on his team.

Invicti Security's John Andrews

Andrews takes the reins as vice president of global channel for Acunetix and Netsparker at Invicti Security. The company specializes in dynamic application security testing (DAST) and interactive application security testing (IAST).

The new chief most recently was director of international channels and VP of worldwide channels at Rapid7. Before that, he was director of EMEA channels at Centrify. He brings 20 years of experience to the job.

RapidScale's Lanny Gray and Randy Sanders

Gray (left) and Sanders are new cloud solutions consultants for RapidScale, a Cox Business Company.

Gray most recently was a cloud, colocation and security consultant for Flexential. Sanders' last gig was territory business manager at Spectrum.

Also new at RapidScale is Johnson Cauthen (not pictured), director of solutions engineering. His background includes work at Hosted Solutions, TierPoint and Pureport.

Learn why these gentlemen are happy with their landing spot.

SolarWinds' Kevin Bury

Kevin Bury is the new chief customer officer at SolarWinds' MSP division. His goal is to strengthen the company's investment in partner success for MSPs worldwide. It's a promotion for Bury, who previously was senior vice president of customer experience.

“I am excited to be part of an organization filled with so many talented and passionate people tightly aligned around the idea of building great products and services that help fuel our partners’ success," said Bury.

Alteryx's Dean Darwin

Dean Darwin resigned just weeks into his job as CRO at Alteryx after a racially charged tweet. Darwin wrote on Twitter that the U.S. government should kick all Chines developers on visas out of the country.

The tweet drew fire on Twitter and led to Darwin's departure one week after it hit social media.

Amazon's Andy Jassy

Jeff Bezos is stepping down as Amazon CEO. That opens the door for Andy Jassy, previously Amazon Web Services' (AWS) CEO, to jump into his boss' chair.

Jassy, who has been with Amazon since 1997, has proven himself more than capable, leading the cloud behemoth. AWS is the leader in public cloud and can thank its partner community for a significant chunk of that success.

Read why Bezos says now is the time for this transition.