November’s Channel People on the Move

You know how this works.

We line up a dozen or so movers and shakers in the channel who either took new jobs or were promoted in the previous month.

Take for instance, in November, masters TBI, Colotraq and MicroCorp all added staff with whom you could be working. MegaPath hired two new regional channel managers. And Electric Lightwave, ahead of its pending acquisition by Zayo, made an important SVP promotion.

As usual, our image gallery includes new sales and channel leaders, VPs, presidents and more. Some have a day-to-day impact on the channel, while others make decisions that affect partners over the long haul.

This list is by no means comprehensive, but it gives you a nice sampling of the new hires and promotions in November. You’re sure to see people you know.

Missed last month’s “people” gallery? Click here to see who was on the move in October.

Follow executive editor @Craig_Galbraith on Twitter.

Before Electric Lightwave said it would be acquired by Zayo, the company promoted Stephen Fisher to senior vice president and CTO, responsible for the overall network strategy that will include continued expansion of network routes in the Southwest in 2017.

Fisher is a longtime Integra veteran, starting as a network-services manager in Portland in 2000. Most recently, he was vice president of network planning and security, where he also handled engineering, architecture, crisis management and cloud operations.

Learn more about Fisher and Electric Lightwave.

Tom Rancel joined MegaPath as channel director for the Southeast. He brings an extensive background in telecommunications and the channel, including a stint at Telesphere and XO Communications. He will lead partner recruitment, enablement and revenue in his region.

Read more about Rancel’s history.

Meantime, MegaPath hired Josh Redick in a similar role in the Northeast. Redick, like Rancel, is an XO vet, where he was a general manager.

Get the full scoop on Redick here.

Lauren Cleffi is the newest channel manager to join the Colotraq team. She will aim to provide its agents better and faster quote response times and full life-cycle support for their deals.

Cleffi will work closely with agents to train them on DCI Traq, its new data-center infrastructure software, which helps partners source and register deals directly with the master agent’s worldwide network of 400-plus providers.

Master agency TBI hired Kathryn Wilkie as a sales trainer responsible for furthering support sales initiatives and providing strategic, technical and business expertise to the company’s channel sales team, agent partners and subagents.

Wilkie has more than five years of experience in industry training, with expertise in the development and execution of technical trainings, certifications and accreditations, and sales events.

Read more about Wilkie’s career.

Colt Technology Services, a multinational network, voice and data center provider, expanded its sales and support teams into North America.

London-based Colt now has two U.S. regional offices — one in Chicago and one in Jersey City, New Jersey. Colt also established a new leadership team in the region, including company veteran Mike Buchner – who spent 10 years at Level 3/Global Crossing – as the new senior vice president of North America and global carriers.

Check out our article about Colt and Buchner.

You could say he’s the “Michael Jordan” of MicroCorp — literally.

The master agent hired cable veteran Michael Jordan to support its 2,000-plus partners. As VP of operations for the Georgia-based company, he will lead strategy for MicroCorp’s provisioning, pricing, IT and commissions teams.

Jordan’s background in the cable industry starts with Charter Communications, where he eventually served as senior director of engineering and operations. His other notable roles include working as director of technical operations for Comcast and Time Warner Cable.

Read what CEO Karin Fields had to say about the hiring.

Druva, the cloud data protection provider, brought on a new channel leader to drive the company’s partner growth.

Timm Hoyt is the company’s new vice president of global channel sales after spending the previous year leading sales at Atlantis Computing.

Read more about Hoyt.

Also new at Druva is Sanjay Katyal, who joined the company to lead worldwide business development. Previously, he helped develop partnerships and alliances for VMware.

Read more about Katyal.

Converged Network Services Group (CNSG) hired David Hopper as its new director of sales engineering.

Hopper will provide support for every aspect of the discovery, design and delivery of the overall service package for customers. His channel background includes selling cloud, SD-WAN expertise and UCaaS.

Read more about Hopper’s history with Windstream and Green Cloud Technologies.

BitTitan, the cloud services and managed services automation provider, appointed Mark Kirstein as vice president of product.

He has nearly two decades of overseeing product strategy, development and go-to-market initiatives. His past companies include Zebra Technologies, Motorola Solutions and Antenna Software.

Read BitTitan’s full announcement.

Cyberbit, a cybersecurity spinoff of Israeli military defense giant Elbit Systems, formally launched its North America channel program.

Stephen Thomas takes the reins of VP of sales for the company, which has been doing business in the United States for about six months.

Read more about Thomas and his plans for the Cyberbit channel.