AT&T’s Brooks McCorcle Explains Retirement, Major Channel Realignment

AT&T made a major realignment of its partner programs this week and announced the retirement of one of its top channel leaders.

Brooks McCorcle is retiring as president of AT&T Partner Solutions, and the company is appointing Zee Hussain as division president. Hussain will oversee AT&T’s three indirect sales programs: Partner Exchange, Alliance Channel and ACC Business.

AT&T’s Brooks McCorcle

AT&T named Xavier Williams as president of AT&T Business Operations and Wholesale Markets after placing AT&T Wholesale outside of AT&T Partner Solutions.

McCorcle tells Channel Partners that the changes took effect Oct. 1, but she will attend the upcoming AT&T Partner Exchange and be featured as a main speaker in order to help Hussain transition into his role.

McCorcle joined Hussain and Williams in speaking to Channel Partners this week. We have edited the transcript for length and clarity.

Channel Partners: What has changed as a result of the realignment?

Zee Hussain: The big change here is the fact that we’ve got all three of our indirect channels under one roof now. AT&T Partner Exchange, one of our big innovative brands that’s been under Brooks’ leadership since its inception; AT&T Alliance solutions, which is one of our more storied, more robust brands that’s been in the marketplace for quite some time; and then ACC Business, which is a very well respected brand of solution providers that primarily plays in the transactional space.

AT&T’s Zee Hussain

The big news here is that three indirect channels are all under one umbrella. That organization is called AT&T Partner Solutions, which I’m going to lead. I report to Anne Chow, who is the president of national business. And as you think about our indirect strategy from a distribution standpoint — where do our partners, where do our solution providers sell the most? How do they need to be aligned with some of our strategies around fiber, integrated product rollout, solutioning and tooling? That is the perfect space for the Partner Solutions channel to roll under. The Partner Solutions organization will be under National Business.

I think why this is significant is – if you think about the indirect strategy for most years – you had indirect organizations, you had channel organizations really follow the direct sales model. AT&T Partner Exchange was pretty much under the same roof as wholesale with Brooks. Alliance Channel has been in different organizations, and the same thing with ACC. This is the first time that I know of that we’ve got all three of those brands under one roof. And that’s basically a recognition of the fact that …