Aruba Networks (ARUN) has named former Avaya channel exec Karl Soderlund to its Worldwide Channels position. The announcement was made at Aruba Atmosphere, the company’s annual partner conference this week in Las Vegas.

As vice president of Worldwide Channels, Soderlund will be responsible for all things channel-related, including recruitment, developing global alliances and managing Aruba’s international distribution structure for partner training, enablement, and pre-sales support, according to the company. He reports to John DiLullo, executive vice president of Worldwide Sales.

Soderlund is a fixture in the channel space, having most recently led Americas channel sales at Avaya. He’s also held channel-related positions at Cisco Systems (CSCO), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Fortinet (FTNT) and Extreme Networks—all similar in the fact they all are networking companies (or, in the case of HP and Fortinet, have a networking bent). To that end, Soderlund should be an excellent fit at Aruba.

DiLullo noted as such in his prepared comments: “[Soderlund’s] broad networking technology experience and proven track record for developing first-rate sales and channel programs, coupled with his passion for motivating teams to deliver best-in-class support and drive sales, will be key assets as we grow our worldwide channel organization.”

It’s unclear whether Jim Harold, Aruba’s vice president of Channels, is still at the company. However, his LinkedIn profile hasn’t changed—a good sign. I’m totally speculating (until I get confirmation) that if he is still at Aruba, he’ll be reporting to Soderlund.

(Update: Jim Harold is still at Aruba, overseeing North American channels. He does, indeed, report to Soderlund.)

Word has it Soderlund is getting his feet wet in the warm Aruba waters (figuratively, of course) here at Atmosphere. I, too, will be wading in and hopefully will get the chance to sit down with Soderlund and talk shop.