Channel People on the Move: Vonage, Fusion Connect, PlanetOne
We've also got moves at Datto, AireSpring, RapidScale, VMware, Green House Data and more.
![Ensono's Paola Doebel for People on the Move gallery June 2020 Ensono's Paola Doebel for People on the Move gallery June 2020](https://eu-images.contentstack.com/v3/assets/blt10e444bce2d36aa8/bltdb3a33f2de02ca43/6524fc7ecc009121f618d377/Doebel-Paola_Ensono-gallery-June-2020.jpg?width=700&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale)
Vonage's Rory Read
Rory Read takes over the top spot at Vonage, where he now is CEO and a board member. Read comes to Vonage from Dell, replacing Alan Masarek, who is stepping down from the post. Masarek is helping with the transition.
Noting his excitement to take the job, Read said “the need for businesses to accelerate their digital transformation through communications is expanding at an unprecedented pace." His experience also includes stints at Virtustream – which Dell now owns – and Dell Boomi.
Read more about Read's plans at Vonage.
PlanetOne
Master agent PlanetOne named a trio of new hires and promoted another.
Three of the newbies are from Masergy. First, Brendan Strain (right), is director, UC/CC solutions for PlanetOne. He was cloud communications manager for the West at Masergy. Before that, he had gigs at Avaya and XO Communications.
Also from Masergy is Max Schuman (middle), new national alliance manager. In this role, he will support existing sales partners and recruit more, covering the West. Schuman was a global alliance manager for the Cisco Strategic Alliance at Masergy.
Next up is the third Masergy vet, Michael Clayton (bottom left). He's PlanetOne's newest director of sales, Southeast. At Masergy, he was a global account manager. Before that, he was a partner executive with PGi.
And there's more! Riley Safford (top left) is the master's new technology program manager. He spent the last five years at Mobile Mini Solutions in Phoenix as a business systems analyst.
Fusion Connect's Mario DeRiggi
Former Vonage channel chief Mario DeRiggi followed his former boss, Brian Crotty, to Fusion Connect. The pair previously worked together at Broadview Networks, where Crotty was COO and DeRiggi was executive vice president.
DeRiggi most recently was senior VP of channel sales and business development at Vonage, where he spent less than two years. Now he takes the reins as chief revenue officer at Fusion Connect, which this year emerged from chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Get the full scoop on DeRiggi's move. Then listen to Crotty on Channel Partners' Coffee with Craig and Kevin podcast.
VMware
Three women took key executive roles at VMware last month. All are VMware newbies.
That's Sandy Hogan on the left. A 12-year Cisco vet, VMware hired her to oversee its partner and commercial go-to-market strategies. Her title is SVP, worldwide commercial and partner sales.
Then, in the upper right, there's Fidelma Russo, SVP and general manager of VMware's cloud business unit. Russo's last job was chief technical officer and executive VP of global technology and operations at Iron Mountain.
Finally, Carol Carpenter (bottom right) is VMware's new chief marketing officer. She most recently was global VP of marketing at Google Cloud, where she spent three-and-a-half years.
Get the full story on these ladies' rise to the top.
AireSpring
It was another busy month in the human resources department at AireSpring.
First, the company hired Scott Hailey (upper left) as national director of channel programs, a new position at the company. His job is to take master-agent relationships to a new level.
Then, there's Clinton Devereaux (right), who comes to AireSpring after jobs at iCore Networks and Vonage. Devereaux is the new director of solutions engineering. He will work to expand the team to meet changing industry needs.
Last but not least is Chris Breving (lower left), director of access product management. The NetFortris and Cincinnati Bell vet has 32 years of telecom industry experience. AireSpring wants Breving to expand U.C. coverage and improve pricing for the company's connectivity options. That will happen by adding new vendors.
RapidScale's Duane Barnes
Duane Barnes moved up the ladder at RapidScale, a Cox Business company, from senior VP of technology to chief operations officer. The company named him interim COO in January.
Barnes has a long track record in the channel, including leadership roles at Windstream and Intelisys. His experience includes 20 years in cloud computing, virtualization, sales engineering and data center services.
You might know Duane, but we think you could know him better.
Google Cloud's Abdul Razack
Abdul Razack comes to Google Cloud from SAP, where he was chief product officer. In the newly created role of VP, technology solutions, solutions engineering, Razack "will work closely with our partners to ensure we support customers with solutions they need to grow and succeed," a Google Cloud spokesperson said.
Find out more about Razack's new gig and why partners might benefit.
Green House Data's Drew Mellen
Green House Data hired Drew Mellen as its new vice president of Microsoft cloud enablement. In this role, Mellen will drive Microsoft partnerships and guide customers through complex hybrid and multicloud deployments. He also will craft services such as cloud adoption workshops and assessments partners customized to meet clients' needs.
Mellen's last job was director of cloud solutions at Lightstream.
Optiv Security's David Martin
David Martin joined the Optiv team from a consulting firm he founded. He also was a partner at Deloitte.
Now as Optiv's chief services officer, Martin will drive growth and integration of the company's solutions and services capabilities in conjunction with partner technologies. The goal is to help clients build sustainable, risk-centric foundations for implementing proactive and measurable security.
Mailprotector's Matt Scully
Matt Scully is the new senior channel development manager at Mailprotector. The company, as you might imagine, offers cloud-based email security services.
Scully comes to Mailprotector from Datto, where he was channel development manager and growth sales rep. There, he helped Datto's MSPs meet their data storage and security needs.
Here is where to learn more about Scully and Mailprotector.
Navisite's Peter Berry
Navisite, the managed cloud service provider, tapped Peter Berry as its CTO of cloud technologies. Berry came aboard via Navisite's acquisition of Clckwrk (can I buy a vowel?) a year ago. Clckwrk specialized in cloud migration.
Berry will lead the company's technical vision and further develop its managed cloud services portfolio. The goal is to speed IT transformation for thousands of "growing and established global brands."
Nutanix's Christian Goffi
Christian Goffi slides into the VP for Americas channel sales role at Nutanix for Christian Alvarez, whom the company promoted in May to SVP of worldwide channels.
Goffi is a former Juniper Networks channel exec. He brings 25 years of IT sales and channel sales experience to his new job at the hyperconverged infrastructure vendor. Other previous employers include Cyan, Avaya and Nortel Networks.
Read about how Goffi plans to focus on partner strategy and go-to-market programs.
Datto's Radhesh Menon
Red Hat and Microsoft veteran Radhesh Menon is Datto's new chief product officer. He will oversee the strategy to develop products and services that support MSPs and the SMBs they serve.
Most recently, Menon was CMO at Robin.io, a self-service app store. Before that, he was general manager at Red Hat, working on the company's OpenStack business. And going back further, Menon held various leadership roles at Microsoft across Azure, Windows Server and more.
Get more details on Menon's history in technology.
Acquia's Peter Ford
Peter Ford is the new global head of channels at Acquia, which offers a cloud platform for building, delivering, and optimizing digital experiences. He has 30 years of channel sales experience at the likes of Adobe, Oracle and more.
Ford's most recent gig was Adobe's head of EMEA alliances and channels.
Boston is home to Acquia.
Ensono's Paola Doebel
Paula Doebel is the new SVP and managing director of North America for Ensono, the large MSP and IT provider. The company cites Doebel's background specializing in hybrid IT and category management at HPE.
She also was in product development at both Dell Technologies and Nike. At Ensono, Doebel will work closely with new and existing clients, strengthening partnerships. She also will lead solutions engineering and go-to-market planning.
GeoLinks' Randy Chapman
Randy Chapman is the new sales director at GeoLinks, known for its ClearFiber fixed wireless internet services. Chapman will oversee channel, wholesale and direct sales for the company.
GeoLinks combines ClearFiber with other key business connectivity and communications services such as fiber, SD-WAN, LTE failover and more.
High Wire Networks' Travis Ray
High Wire Networks tapped Travis Ray as its new director of channel sales. Ray notably worked for AlienVault, now an AT&T company, where he was named channel account manager of the year. He also worked for an MSSP.
High Wire is known for Overwatch Managed Security, security platform as a service.
K2 Cyber Security's Monty Venkersammy
Monty Venkersammy is the new vice president of channel sales at K2 Cyber Security, which bills itself as a next-gen application workload protection provider. He is responsible for building the overall channel strategy at K2.
Venkersammy's background includes "extensive experience" working in enterprise sales and with partners, distributors and strategic alliances. Those include jobs at Trend Micro, Malwarebytes and more.
Metallic's Manoj Nair
Metallic, the SaaS backup and recovery vendor, hired Manoj Nair as its new general manager. Nair is the former CEO of HyperGrid, but you might know him better from his days as an HP cloud executive.
Nair's job is to drive growth and help to expand the company globally. The first order of business is getting off the ground in Canada.
Metallic is a division of Commvault. See what Nair has up his sleeve.
Nerdio's Bas van Kaam
Bas van Kaam is the new field CTO, EMEA, to support Nerdio sales and technical development in the region. His hire comes as Nerdio officially expands in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
van Kaam is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional. He is based in the Netherlands.
Nerdio's Bas van Kaam
Bas van Kaam is the new field CTO, EMEA, to support Nerdio sales and technical development in the region. His hire comes as Nerdio officially expands in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
van Kaam is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional. He is based in the Netherlands.
Sure, they’re not all starting their new gigs in the office. But that isn’t dampening the spirits of the folks featured in this edition of channel people on the move.
Our focus on new channel hires and promotions from June runs the gamut. Since a majority of people in the channel can work from home, the COVID-19 pandemic isn’t slowing them down.
Our latest Channel People on the Move includes a bevy of new channel chiefs; some are very familiar names, while others take on roles at companies you might not know. Some make daily decisions impacting the channel, while others are top execs whose ideas trickle down.
Among the highlights: a new CEO at Vonage and a new CRO at Fusion Connect with some serious channel cred.
AireSpring brought on three newbies, while master agent PlanetOne topped that with four — three from Masergy alone.
Those are just a few of the 27 channel people on the move to tell you about in the gallery below. We are pretty sure you’ll see some familiar faces.
Can’t get enough? Then see last month’s edition featuring TBI, RingCentral and more. Also, remember you can always keep tabs on people on the move by visiting our webpage dedicated to the topic.
Follow executive editor @Craig_Galbraith on Twitter.
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