Mitel Strengthens Channel Program: Reinforces U.S. Channel Executive Team
By Ray Horak, Technology Editor
Mitel (NASDAQ:MITL) announces a series of strategic initiatives that significantly strengthen its North American channel program. The announcement includes the addition of several new U.S.-based channel management executives and the creation of the Authorized Partner Service Program (APSP), which selectively shifts local service support for some of the Mitel product portfolio to its channel partners.
To implement this strategy, Mitel has brought on seasoned channel professionals from Avaya, Alcatel-Lucent, Nortel, NEC, Polycom and other companies that have experience managing billions of dollars in profitable sales in the business communications market. These include:
- Renato Mariani, Vice President, Field Marketing, North America leads all Mitel channel activities for the U.S. and Canada, with specific management responsibility for lead generation, demand creation, channel program development and over-arching channel support. Mr. Mariani was formerly with NEC.
- Stan Holcomb, Vice President, Global Services Solutions leads Mitel’s global services business including developing services strategy, managing the business, offer and program definition, marketing, commercial packaging and market implementation. Mr. Holcomb was formerly with Avaya.
- Dave Hand, Vice President of Sales, Central Region is responsible for growing Mitel’s channel and supporting its partners in the Central Region. Mr. Hand comes to Mitel from Nortel, where he was vice president of sales for their global system integrators.
- Leo Cortjens, Vice President of Sales, Eastern Region, is responsible for supporting channel partners in the Eastern U.S. Mr. Cortjens has decades of experience growing the channel at companies such as Polycom and VideoTran.
“Earlier this year we made it clear that one of our primary goals was to align our channels, to eliminate potential business conflicts and create new opportunities for partners to make money and win business,” said Phil Keenan, executive vice president, Americas for Sales, Service and Field Marketing. “Today’s announcement marks significant progress towards this goal, including shifting our direct service relationships to our channel partners, and bolstering our channel focus with the addition of new channel executives that have an outstanding track record of growing channel programs in this market.”
More at www.mitel.com
