Channel People on the Move: Five9, Nextiva, CDW, ConnectWise, Intelisys, More
We also have moves at TPx, AppDirect, BCM One, Jenne, Mitel, Juniper Networks and more.
![Upstack - Rick Dellar feature Upstack - Rick Dellar feature](https://eu-images.contentstack.com/v3/assets/blt10e444bce2d36aa8/bltde02bd2dfd24d861/6524119e619d14a5ede78632/Upstack-Rick-Dellar-feature.jpg?width=700&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale)
Mark Merritt III (left) moves from Comcast Business, where he spent eight-and-a-half years, most recently as a partner sales manager, to the other cable giant, Spectrum. There, he will serve as regional channel sales manager for Spectrum Enterprise.
Also, Brian Arena (right) just landed the position of director of mobile product management at the cableco. He spent nearly 19 years at Verizon before making the leap.
Security company Trend Micro promoted Brandon Kirkpatrick, adding “senior” to his role of inside sales engineer.
With the company for two years now, Kirkpatrick also spent a year at RSA Security.
Four-year RingCentral veteran Rob Shelby (left) now has “senior” in his title, getting it added to regional VP of partner sales for the Southwest.
His background includes stops at 8×8, NetFortris, Masergy and Thinking Phone (now Fuze).
On the right, that’s Armando Martinez, who also got a promotion. Previously director, partner success — you guessed it, he’s now senior director.
Martinez’s resume also features Lumen, Sprint and Fusion Connect.
Scotty Belazi got promoted from channel manager to national account director at Sangoma, the communications-as-a-service provider.
A two-year vet of the company, Belazi has also worked at Nitel, Windstream, Charter and more.
Congrats to Morgan Martensen, now a cloud solutions consultant for RapidScale, covering New York City, northern New Jersey and Connecticut. Her job is to support tech advisors, brokers and agents in her region.
She most recently was at DataBank, and has previous experience from INAP and SingleHop, which INAP acquired.
Appointed agent channel chief and director of channel sales at Rackspace earlier this year following the departure of a pair of executives, Vicki Patten is now off to Ntirety, the data security and regulatory compliance company, as VP of channel.
Patten spent more than five years at Rackspace. She’s also a Sungard AS and Oracle alum.
Eric Martorano, well-known in the channel for his time at Microsoft, Intermedia and Nextiva, just landed at Simplilearn, the online boot camp and online courses learning platform, as chief revenue officer.
He will be responsible for leading and scaling the company’s global enterprise business.
Michael Kevorkov is the newest channel sales manager for southern California, at Nextiva, the business communications collaboration software company.
It’s a promotion for the eight-month company vet, whose previous title was inside partner manager II – Southwest. He also has eight years with Verizon on his resume.
Longtime Telarus sales leader and channel manager Mike Gottwalt is on the move to Jenne, the cloud services brokerage and value-added distributor.
Gottwalt, who also brings experience from Broadvoice (most recently), landed the title of VP of cloud solutions and enablement.
Networking product and software giant Juniper Networks tapped Chris Kaddaras as its next chief revenue officer. He’ll also hold the title of executive vice president.
Kaddaras last was CRO at Transmit Security and held multiple roles at Nutanix in the five years prior. His longest stint was at EMC for 16 years.
Billy Sue Glover is the new C2C channel director at Mitel, the business communications provider.
You probably know her from eight years at Cogent Communications, and before that, more than five years at Level 3.
It’s a promotion for Ashlee Sharp, now manager, supplier services, at Intelisys, the technology services distributor. Her previous title was supplier business manager II.
Sharp has been with Intelisys for a little more than two years.
Oliver Kersey is a new regional sales manager at Zultys, the unified communications platform.
He joins the company from Broadvoice, where he spent nearly five years, most recently as a regional channel sales manager.
You might also know him from Yiptel.
It’s a quartet of personnel announcements at managed IT services and UCaaS provider TPx Communications.
Clockwise from top left: Tricia Martin, a Comcast, Mitel and Avaya alum, now channel development director; Josh Redick, a Vonage and Broadview alum, most recently at Claro Enterprise Solutions, hired as a senior channel manager; longtime TPxer Jared Martin, now chief product officer; and Lauren Wickstead, chief marketing officer, who you probably know from marketing positions at PGi and Windstream.
About the same time it eliminated the AppSmart brand and consolidated everything AppDirect, the company promoted Renee Bergeron to chief operating officer.
Bergeron takes on new responsibilities, noting on LinkedIn that “unifying our organization and our brand under AppDirect is in many ways the final step to connecting technology advisors, technology providers and businesses into a single ecosystem.”
Of course, before joining AppDirect in 2020, she spent nearly 10 years at Tech Data and more than nine at Fujitsu America.
Say hi to Mary Campbell, who is taking on a new role at Amazon Web Services. She’s now a senior partner marketing manager, SI partners — commercial, with the cloud giant.
Campbell has been with the company for nearly three years, most recently as worldwide senior manager/head of partner marketing programs and operations,
Nicole Steele, only with SD-WAN and SASE provider Aryaka for 10 months, is already climbing the ladder.
Steele was just promoted to director of channel marketing and enablement. She previously was only responsible for that position in the Americas.
Rick Dellar, the well-known co-founder of Intelisys, the technology services distributor, joined Upstack‘s board of directors.
Dellar left the Intelisys leadership team two years ago. He will be a senior advisor to Upstack CEO Christopher Trapp.
Upstack has used funding from Berkshire Partners and other investors to acquire 25 agencies in the past two years.
Get the full scoop on why Dellar joined forces with Upstack.
Axcient, which provides business availability software to MSPs, called on Rod Mathews to lead the company as CEO.
The 30-year tech industry veteran most recently led corporate development and allilances at Barracuda Networks, where he also was general manager for the data protection business.
Cloud data protection company Baffle has turned to Joe Dillon as its new executive VP of sales. He will promote Baffle’s platform for both direct and channel sales.
Dillon was previously VP of security solutions sales at Code42, where he played a “significant role in the company’s three consecutive years of triple-digit growth.” Furthermore, he launched the company’s channel and tech alliance partner programs.
But perhaps you know him from Springpath, Seagate Technology or Trustwave.
Nikki Beck is now director of partner sales at Nice CXOne, the customer experience software provider.
Beck joins the team after three years at AT&T. Her other employers have been a who’s who of technology and the channel, including Spectrum Enterprise, Telarus and Talkdesk.
SD-WAN company Bigleaf turned to Greg Davis as its new chief executive officer. He’s been on the company’s board for the past two years. He succeeds Joel Mulkey, who has been CEO since founding the company in 2012.
Davis previously was COO at a hospitality software company. Before that, he spent eight years as executive VP of sales at Alert Logic.
CallTower, the UC, contact center and collaboration provider, added to its channel team.
That’s Jessica Flannery-Ball on the left, the company’s new global director of OEM alliances. She has 20 years of direct and channel sales experience. We’re guessing you know her from her time at RingCentral, Masergy and Paetec.
On the right you see Madison Doner, partner marketing strategist. This is her first channel gig after starting her career as a local TV news journalist.
A long career at CDW keeps on going for Scott Petersen, who just got another promotion.
Petersen, who has been with the company for more than 12 years, is now a contact center distinguished field solution architect. His previous title was contact center technical architect services, R&D.
That’s Andrew Jalbert, who just started a new job as channel sales manager with Palo Alto Networks.
He jumps to the security giant from the traditional telco agent side of the channel, where he has experience from 8×8, CenturyLink, AT&T and more.
After 18 years at Microsoft, Gretchen O’Hara (left) joined the Splunk team as its new VP of worldwide channels and alliances.
She replaces Bill Hustad, who became global channel chief at Okta. O’Hara’s last position at Microsoft was VP of U.S. artificial intelligence and sustainability strategy.
O’Hara told us why Splunk was such an attractive target for her next job.
Also at Splunk, Melissa Murillo (right) joined the company as a sales leader. On LinkedIn, Murillo said she was happy to get back to her “IT roots.” She spent eight years at Tech Data and nearly two at ConnectWise last decade.
Code42, which provides insider risk management services, named Ananth Appathurai its senior VP of channel and alliance partners. He assumes end-to-end responsibility for channel, technology and advisory partnerships.
You probably know him well. Appathurai has been with Code42 for nearly four years. His most recent title was SVP, strategic partners and ecosystem.
Regional channel development manager is Cesar Hidalgo’s new title, taking that position at Nitel, the next-gen tech services provider.
He comes to the company via its Hypercore Networks acquisition, where he most recently was sales director.
Did you know that the leadership team at Cologix, the Denver-based data center and interconnection specialist, is more than 50% female? They are a trendsetter for the tech industry.
So it seems appropriate that Laura Ortman just stepped in as CEO. She moves up to the top spot from president and CRO.
Her vast experience includes stops at VMware and Equinix.
Learn more about Ortman and Cologix’s hiring practices here.
Simon Moor is the new VP of EMEA sales at cybersecurity company Secureworks. He will focus closely on customer-centricity, and expanding the channel and partner business.
He brings 30 years of experience to the company, most recently as VP of EMEA with Trellix. Other stops in his career include FireEye, Check Point and Symantec.
Agiloft, which specializes in contract life cycle management and business process management software, made two key moves.
That’s Steve McKean on the right. He’s the company’s new VP of global alliances. On the left, that’s Joel Moerschel, Agiloft’s East region VP of sales.
McKean most recently spent four years as VP, partner programs, at Icertis. Moerschel was senior VP of sales at Syntrio.
ConnectWise just got a new chief technical officer.
Raghu Ram Bongula’s last gig was senior VP of engineering at Global Payments. Bongula brings 20 years of experience to the company that delivers IT management software to MSPs.
We think you’ll want to learn more about what he’ll do at ConnectWise.
After more than five years at Nextiva, Matthew Grandi switched to Vonage, where he is a senior regional channel manager.
You might also know him from ShoreTel, Mitel or Broadview Networks.
Jay Dosanjh takes the reins as VP of channels and alliances at TrueFort, which delivers real-time workload protection solutions.
He joins the company from Accedian, where he was channel sales director for North America. Before that, Dosanjh was VP, channel sales and alliances, at Galileo, a vendor of IT capacity and performance management technology.
Mike Carpenter, who you know as the former president of global sales and field operations at CrowdStrike, has joined Lightspeed Venture Partners as a venture advisor.
Carpenter’s job will be to help Lightspeed’s scaling enterprise portfolio company teams “learn, understand and implement best practices around process, playbooks and analytics to scale their organizations.”
Esteban Ramirez just stepped in as a new channel sales manager with Comcast Business.
Ramirez has been with the cableco for more than 15 years, spending almost the last seven as an enterprise account executive.
Meet William Hyatt, channel sales manager at Crexendo Business Solutions, the Phoenix-based UCaaS company.
He comes to Crexendo from Hypercore Networks, where he spent two years prior to its acquisition by Nitel. He’s also a TCG alum.
Put your hands together for Timoteo Prietto, the new head of channel sales, U.S. West, at Graphiant, the next-gen edge services provider.
His last job was head of global alliances and partnerships at Prosimio. Before that, he was channel leader at Aviatrix.
Annex Cloud just hired Emily Koehler Skaff as its new senior manager of partner marketing.
Skaff most recently was at Avant, but also brings experience from CNSG and RingCentral.
Annex Cloud offers enterprise-ready loyalty experience platform solutions that integrate with the largest customer experience platforms and marketing clouds.
Tim Puccio is the new senior VP of global channels and alliances for cybersecurity provider Delinea.
The 25-year industry vet most recently was VP of global channels and alliances at Fuze. Other former employers include Carbonite and HP Software.
Learn what he’s doing in his first few weeks on the job.
Abbie DeLozier stepped into her new role as channel marketing specialist at Dialpad, the cloud communication platform.
Her last channel job was marketing specialist at PPT Solutions.
Dani Foy Pickens is on the move to Xcitium, the threat protection vendor. She’s the new regional VP of channel sales for the West.
She brings experience from Dialpad, RingCentral, Windstream and more.
Cloud security company Zscaler named John Tavares VP of partners and alliances.
He has 25 years of experience in software, SaaS and IT. Before Zscaler, he was global channel chief at Commvault. His resume also includes time at Dell EMC.
Tavares thinks highly of the partner community.
Vade hired Mike Pate, formerly with SolarWinds and Barracuda, as its new VP of sales for the Americas.
Pate is tasked with strengthening Vade’s sales channels in North America as the company plans a major expansion in the region.
Vade monitors 1 billion email messages worldwide.
Read why Vade’s CEO is high on Pate.
That there is Jim Bowers, new security solutions architect with the advanced services group at SHI International, the security, productivity, cloud and infrastructure IT services provider.
His last job was security architect at TBI. He also brings experience from Secureworks, Presidio and more.
First Communications just hired Michael Karge as a channel manager for the West.
Karge’s vast channel experience includes stops at Windstream, Cogent, CenturyLink and RingCentral.
Rowan Trollope surprised many when he announced that he’s stepping aside from his chief executive post at Five9, the cloud contact center software provider.
In fact, the company’s stock price fell 22% on Oct. 10, the same day as his announcement. Trollope only said that he was going to be “CEO of a venture-backed, pre-IPO startup.”
Find out who is coming back to take the reins at the company.
A couple of additions to the Zayo channel team.
On the left, that’s Tony Carchide, channel manager. He’s a 16-year industry vet, having worked at Cingular/AT&T, CenturyLink/Lumen and China Telecom Americas.
On the right you see Zeke Tellez, a new senior channel manager with Zayo. He comes to the network and connectivity solution provider from Allstream, where he was a channel manager. He held a similar position before that at Lumen.
A couple of additions to the Zayo channel team.
On the left, that’s Tony Carchide, channel manager. He’s a 16-year industry vet, having worked at Cingular/AT&T, CenturyLink/Lumen and China Telecom Americas.
On the right you see Zeke Tellez, a new senior channel manager with Zayo. He comes to the network and connectivity solution provider from Allstream, where he was a channel manager. He held a similar position before that at Lumen.
The channel partner “want ads” seem to come down almost as soon as they post these days. We’re saying is there’s a thirst for top channel talent. Last month alone, people were on the move at Aryaka, CDW, Intelisys, Five9, Nextiva, Splunk, RapidScale and many more.
For instance, cybersecurity was hot. Zscaler added a a veteran of Commvault and Dell EMC. Moreover, Vade tapped someone who’s experience stems from SolarWinds and Barracuda.
Some were surprised to see an Intelisys co-founder land with the Upstack team. Then there was the Five9 CEO moving on, opening the door for the ex-chief exec to come back.
Splunk appointed a Microsoft vet to lead its global channel strategy. And the human resources department at TPx led the way with four people in our monthly roundup.
All in all, the slideshow above features more than 50 movers and shakers in the channel. These faces have either taken new jobs or received promotions within their companies.
Channel People on the Move is our most popular recurring feature. That’s why we’ve put all of our Channel People on the Move image galleries for 2022 in one place! And if that’s not enough, keep up with Channel People on the Move as they happen..
Once you’ve caught up on moves at Five9, Nextiva, CDW, ConnectWise and more, check out last month’s edition. It included moves at HPE, UJET, AWS, Lenovo, Zayo, Navisite and more.
Want to contact the author directly about this story? Have ideas for a follow-up article? Email Craig Galbraith or connect with him on LinkedIn. |
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