Channel People on the Move: Avaya, RingCentral, More

Call it the motherlode. January kicked off the year with a flurry of new hires and promotions from the likes of Vonage and Avaya.

Speaking of unified communications players, the technology was well represented overall, with RingCentral hiring a new chief information security officer. Also, LogMeIn hired a chief marketing officer.

The IT giants weren’t left out. Intel snapped up a well-known CEO from VMware. Moreover, HPE named a worldwide distribution leader.

As usual, the new hires and promotions range from regional channel managers all the way up to CEOs. If they have an impact on decisions in the channel, you’ll find them in our gallery below.

Looking for more big names besides Vonage, Avaya and the others mentioned above? We feature moves at Microsoft, AireSpring, Telarus and other channel stalwarts here as well.

Are you a people on the move junkie? When done, check out last month’s gallery to see who was on the move in December. Of course, you don’t have to wait till the first of the month every time. Investigate our page dedicated to people on the move 24/7!

Follow executive editor @Craig_Galbraith on Twitter.

Vonage's Jim Regan

Jim Regan (pictured) took over the job of channel chief at Vonage, a promotion from vice president of channels.

He fills the role vacated by Curt Allen, who chose to leave a few months after new CEO Rory Read took the reins.

“I believe they are on a path to success, but that given the shift ,I was not the right leader for the channel organization at this time.”

Learn more about Regan's ascendency and Allen's departure.

Telarus' Meghan Hambacher Wilkinson

Meghan Hambacher Wilkinson comes to master agent Telarus from Lumen Technologies, the former CenturyLink. She's part of Telarus' senior leadership team as chief revenue officer.

Not unexpectedly, Wilkinson's job will be to oversee revenue streams and drive growth. She will also work closely with area VPs and senior partner development managers in the field.

Don't know enough about her?

Avaya's Darcey Harrison

Harrison is Avaya's new VP of North America cloud sales. She comes to the company from Ujet, where she was chief revenue officer.

Harrison and her team will be responsible for meeting Avaya's cloud sales goals and helping partners to be successful. 

She's also a veteran of Cisco. Get the full scoop on Harrison's new gig.

RingCentral's Heather Hinton

Heather Hinton is the new chief information security officer at RingCentral. She'll put her 30 years of experience at big names like IBM to the test at the UC provider.

“I am excited for the opportunity to provide RingCentral customers with a trusted, reliable, and secure platform that supports customers’ digital transformation and enables their people to work from anywhere,” said Hinton.

AireSpring's Mike James

James will lead customer experience efforts for AireSpring, the cloud and managed connectivity provider. He spent more than 19 years at TPx.

As SVP of customer experience, a new role for AireSpring, James fills the same position he had at TPx. He played a key role in helping that company transition to managed services.

Learn more about what he expects to do at AireSpring.

Pax8's Jennifer Bodell

Cloud distributor Pax8 promoted seven people, with Jennifer Bodell (pictured) perhaps the most channel-facing of the group.

Bodell now is senior VP of global channel. Six others got "senior" added to their titles.

“My leadership team is highly regarded in the industry and well-positioned to expand Pax8 into its next phase of growth,” said Nick Heddy, Pax8's chief revenue officer.

Telesystem's Emily Champagne

Network services provider Telesystem hired Emily Champagne as a regional channel manager based in Florida. She will recruit and train agents to sell the company's services through any of its elite master agents.

“I worked heavily within the SMB channel specializing in AI and robotics before landing my dream job with Telesystem and moving into the telecom space,” said Champagne.

She's an alumnus of Gartner, where she was an account executive.

Microsoft's Tyler Bryson

Tyler Bryson will lead the Microsoft partner program in the U.S., replacing Dave Willis as corporate VP of Microsoft's U.S. Partner Group.

Willis announced last summer he would depart after 28 years. Bryson, a longtime Redmond vet himself, most recently was VP of the company's small, medium and corporate segments.

We've got the full scoop here.

SaaS Alerts' Jim Lippie

A well-known name in the IT channel left Kaseya for the top job at SaaS Alerts, an MSP security vendor. The company's platform allows MSPs to protect and monetize their customers' SaaS applications.

The startup only opened its doors in August. As CEO, Lippie wants to build "the most MSP-friendly software company in the ecosystem."

Read more about his plans.

IBM NewCo's Martin Schroeter

IBM, which is spinning off a managed services unit only called "NewCo" for now, hired Martin Schroeter to lead it.

Schroeter, a 28-year IBM veteran, once led the company's global technology services business. He actually retired last year as vice president of IBM's global markets, overseeing industries and integrated accounts.

NewCo has 90,000 employees, serving 4,600 enterprise clients across 115 countries. Get the full lowdown on Schroeter's return.

LogMeIn's Jamie Domenici

Domenici, who spent 10 years at Salesforce, now leads marketing efforts at LogMeIn, where she is CMO. At Salesforce, Domenici brought cloud software to SMBs, leading all post-sales adoption and onboarding.

Our Edward Gately sat down with her for this Q&A.

RapidScale's Zack Wojenski

Wojenski comes to RapidScale from CA Technologies, where he was director of global SaaS operations and delivery. At RapidScale, a Cox Business company, his job title is senior director of operations.

Wojenski is responsible for supporting the entire customer life cycle. That includes implementation, service delivery, client support, project management and systems architecture.

“My focus is to ensure the team scales and excels as RapidScale continues to grow and evolve our product portfolio,” said Wojenski.

Intel's Pat Gelsinger

One of the best-known CEOs in the business is changing companies.

Pat Gelsinger, who the tech community knows well from eight years as chief executive at VMware, is now top dog at Intel. He replaces Bob Swan. Gelsinger and his team nearly tripled annual revenue at VMware during his tenure.

Read about his goals.

HPE's Simon Ewington

HPE named Simon Ewington is new VP of worldwide distribution. It's a promotion for Ewington, who was GM of HP's graphics solutions business in EMEA. 

His channel roots run deep, as he was VP of channel sales for HP in EMEA before that.

Ewington replaces George Hope, who recently became HPE's channel chief.

Learn more about the shuffle-up at HPE.

MNJ Technologies' Ben Niernberg

IT services provider MNJ promoted Ben Niernberg to chief operating officer. Niernberg joined MNJ in 2017 after 10 years in management and executive roles at Canon Solutions America.

MNJ touts his efforts that have resulted in a 35% overall revenue increase and a 14% increase in revenue per employee during his three years with MNJ.

Listen to Niernberg on a recent episode of the Channel Partners podcast, Coffee with Craig and James.

Cyberpion's Tracy Hickox

Cyberpion, the security provider based in Israel, tapped Tracy Hickox to lead its first partner program. He previously held leadership roles at Cisco and HP Networking. His last gig was with Check Point Software.

The new program aims to provide partners profitable subscription and services revenue.

Learn more about Hickox and the new partner program.

Commvault's John Tavares

Tavares is the new vice president of global channels and alliances at Commvault, the enterprise data protection provider. As you might expect, his job is to oversee the growth of the company's global partner organization.

Tavares, a Dell EMC alum, also plans to strengthen the company's relationships with existing Commvault partners worldwide.

Read more about his plans for the future.

Cleo's Vipin Mittal

Mittal is the vice president of channel sales at Cleo, which dubs itself an "ecosystem integration" provider. He will focus on defining and implementing revenue-generation models to help the company's partners grow. Additional responsibilities include overseeing the expansion of channels and improving partner onboarding, training and certification programs.

Mittal has more than 20 years of experience at places such as IBM, CoEnterprise and Axway.

INAP's Warren Greenberg

Greenberg is the new vice president of U.S. sales for INAP, the hybrid infrastructure solutions provider. His job is to lead INAP's national field sales organization and field territory development. He is tasked with generating revenue growth from all of the company's products and services.

He comes to INAP from Lumen Technologies, where he was VP/GM for "one of the largest regions in North America."

CloudSphere's Jane Gilson

Jane Gilson joins CloudSphere, the multicloud management provider, from Google, where she was director of emerging markets. The new CEO – the first woman in that post at the company – also led worldwide strategy at Microsoft for 13 years.

CloudSphere just formed last year when iQuate merged with HyberGrid.

Get more detail on the hire.

Alteryx's Dean Darwin

Darwin takes over as chief revenue officer to lead Alteryx's go-to-market plan. Expect him to drive the next phase of growth via the analytic process automation software provider's strategic alliance partners.

Alteryx works with system integrators, technology partners and cloud providers. Darwin's resume includes stops at F5 Networks and Palo Alto Networks.

This is where to get to know him better.

Sage's Aziz Benmalek

Aziz Benmalek is the new executive vice president of Sage's global partner organization. Sage provides cloud business management solutions.

He has more than 20 years of experience, most recently at Splunk, where he was VP of worldwide indirect sales, partners and business development. Before that, he spent 22 years at Microsoft in a variety of roles.