VMware Channel Leader to Join Lenovo in October

Bill Swales is joining Lenovo, leaving his position as VP and channel chief of VMware’s Americas partner organization. He did not specify his new role, but said he would begin his new job at Lenovo in October. He made the announcement via LinkedIn.

Lenovo’s Bill Swales

“I am beyond proud and truly grateful for all that our VMware Americas partner team has accomplished in conjunction with our partner ecosystem over the past four years,” Swales said. “Helping our customers ‘modernize their applications’, embrace ‘multicloud’ and implement a ‘work from anywhere’ strategy has exceeded all of my expectations. The best part of my job has been working with an amazing leadership team who truly embraces VMware’s ‘EPIC2 values’ of execution, people/passion, integrity, customer and community.”

At VMware, Swales led a multibillion-dollar segment of the company. Approximately 90% of its business is sold by and in conjunction with the partner ecosystem. He was responsible for all indirect go to market with partners across the United States, Latin America and Canada.

Prior to VMware, Swales held leadership positions at Oracle, Seagate Technology and HPE.

The Lenovo Channel and the Next Chapter

Swales didn’t mention how his new role would relate to the Lenovo channel, if at all.

“A special thank you to my direct reports who I consider to be one of the best leadership teams that I have ever had the privilege to work with and our amazing partner ecosystem for the past few years. Our paths will absolutely cross again,” he said.

Of course, Swales is not the only person in a prominent channel position to have left VMware in recent months. Sandy Hogan, former senior vice president, worldwide commercial and partner sales, departed the company in July. She was replaced by Ricky Cooper.