People on the Move: CenturyLink, RingCentral, Verizon Vets Land New Jobs

Fall is almost here, but a number of channel executives are on the rise.

The latest edition of our Channel People on the Move features another 22 channel pros either taking new jobs or getting promoted.

Among the highlights: Telarus not only shook up its commission structure to help partners, it hired three people to run the various units within the division; Broadvoice added a veteran of Birch Communications to support its growing business in the Midwest; and TPx nabbed an AireSpring alum to help partners with service delivery.

Not enough? Nitel promoted a former Windstream and Verizon employee, and a CenturyLink vet landed at Powernet.

Click through the gallery below to see who you know that was movin’ and shakin’ in August.

If you missed last month’s edition, no problem. Just go here.  And remember that you can see who’s on the move anytime – you don’t have to wait for this gallery each month – by visiting our webpage dedicated to the topic.

Follow executive editor @Craig_Galbraith on Twitter.

Broadvoice's Mike Otting

Mike Otting is a new regional channel manager for the Midwest at Broadvoice, the UC provider. He covers the Dakotas, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri and Wisconsin.

Otting most recently led sales efforts at Unified Global Solutions, a business phone system provider. He's also had gigs at Net2Phone and NetStandard, but his longest tenure was at Birch Communications.

He explained why he's very excited to land this new job.

Telarus' Zane Christensen, Michelle Delacasas and Tracy Savage

Master agent Telarus divided its commissions division into three teams – revenue assurance, processing, and inquiries and escalations – and hired three people to lead the respective units.

Michelle Delacasas (middle) and Tracy Savage (right) both come to Telarus from Comcast, where they worked for a combined 25 years. Zane Christensen (left) most recently managed Prime Communications' financial operations. 

Learn why Telarus thinks this will help partners spend less time auditing.

TPx's Nancy Estrada

Nancy Estrada, an AireSpring alum, joined TPx, the managed services and connectivity provider, as a service delivery manager of channel partner provisioning. That's a group tasked with processing service orders, installations and escalations for partners and their clients nationwide.

The provisioning team consists of 30 employees with an average of 15 years of experience. Learn why Estrada is "already convinced" this team is the best in the business.

Zoom's Ryan Azus

Ryan Azus is Zoom Video Communnications' new chief revenue officer. The RingCentral vet is responsible for Zoom's direct sales force, channel, sales operations and enablement, sales engineering and customer success teams.

Azus was at RingCentral for nine years, most recently its executive VP of sales and services, helping to build the company's multiproduct, multichannel field sales and channel organizations from the ground up.

Zoom's CEO has glowing praise for Azus.

Powernet's Tyler English

Powernet, the voice and data services provider, named Tyler English as its newest channel manager, responsible for managing partners and customers in the Southwest, mountain states and Texas.

English is an industry vet with years of experience in various technology sales positions. The partner community probably knows him from his jobs at CenturyLink Business and Rhino Networks.

Learn about his approach to the channel.

Nitel's Stacey Clarke

Stacey Clarke, a former Windstream and Verizon sales executive, got a promotion at Nitel.

Clarke now is Nitel's director of partner experience, charged with leading the connectivity and managed service provider's partner advocate team. She'll also oversee Nitel's Elite Partner Program.

Read what Clarke's boss and master agents in the industry are saying about her.

IBM's David La Rose

Channel and tech giant IBM tapped David La Rose as the new general manager for its partner "ecosystem." He replaces John Teltsch, who led the company’s worldwide channel business for the past two years.

La Rose has been with Big Blue for nearly 30 years. Teltsch, who joined IBM in 1994, has shifted to general manager, IBM systems sales.

LaRose most recently was managing director for IBM's efforts in Australia and New Zealand, responsible for leading the business locally and helping IBM employees, clients and business partners. He sat down with us for a Q&A on what the future holds.

Zerto's Eric Barnhart

Zerto's new director of channel sales for the Americas is Eric Barnhart, who comes to the business continuity and disaster recovery provider from Avnet Technology Solutions. His main role will be tying the VAR community into the sales process and organization while working with channel chief Jim Ortbals.

Barnhart has spent the majority of his IT career in distribution, including a stint at Tech Data. Read about his plans at Zerto.

Datto's Robert Petrocelli

Robert Petrocelli, perhaps known best for his job as a senior software architect at Oracle, is the new chief technology officer at Datto. He has 30 years of experience, which includes founding a pair of data storage businesses.

His main focus will be communicating Datto's technology vision, which includes 20 newly released products and enhancements.

Here's why Petrocelli says he's "very fortunate and excited to join Datto right now."

Critical Start's Dwayne Myers

Dwayne Myers is Critical Start's new VP of channels and alliances. He will lead the expansion of the company's list of national distributors and network of VARs and other channel partners, all focused on selling Critical Start's managed detection and response platform.

He comes to the company from Palo Alto Networks, just one stop in his two decades' worth of security experience.

Here's why Myers says managed security services are proving to be a "new growth engine."

APX Net's Scott Minor and Caroline Rogers

Minor and Rogers are new channel managers at APX Net, the communications service provider. Rogers comes from TouchTone Communications, while Minor joins from Easton Telecom Services. They're both tasked with recruiting and supporting partners nationwide in an effort to sell the company's high-speed network services.

Other past employers include Access Point and The Conference Group (Rogers), and Time Warner Cable and Fidelity Voice and Data (Minor).

Read more about their roles and APX Net's services.

VMware's Greg Lavender

At its VMworld event in San Francisco last month, VMware named Greg Lavender its new chief technology officer. It's a promotion from senior vice president and CTO of cloud architecture. He replaces Ray O'Farrell, who is shifting roles to lead the virtualization giant's "cloud-native" effort, dubbed "Tanzu."

Lavender is a veteran of Cisco, Oracle and Sun Microsystems.

Kore

Kore, the wireless network data provider and IoT adviser, has more than doubled its dedicated channel resources in the past six months, and with that has made several new hires to scale its channel program.

Gideon Rogovsky (bottom middle) is the company's new VP of enterprise and alliance sales. He has extensive background in cellular connectivity and IoT, previously serving as executive VP of global services at Telit, the provider of cellular modules, IoT platforms and connectivity.

Chris Whitaker (top right) takes the reins as VP of channel partnerships. A member of the Channel Partners Circle of Excellence, partners know him from his channel-facing roles at Sierra Wireless and Comcast.

Rounding out the new hires are J'Nan McManaman (bottom left), director of channel development in the South; Charlie Rodriguez (top left), director of channel development in the West; and Tom Mooney (bottom right), who holds a similar role in Kore's North Central region.

RapidScale's Eric Anderson

Eric Anderson joined RapidScale, a Cox Business company, as partner experience manager for the Northeast. Tasked with supporting the company's "trusted advisers" in New England and Upstate New York, he will report to Andrew Laughter, director of channel sales in the company's East region.

Anderson has more than 15 years of channel sales and cloud solution selling experience, most recently as a channel sales manager with Navisite.

Ground Labs' Jason Stein

Jason Stein, formerly VP of channel, North America, at Kaspersky, just took on similar role at Ground Labs, the provider of sensitive data discovery tools. His title is head of North America channel and partnerships.

The addition of Stein is designed to enhance Ground Labs' partner program and continue its growth on the continent. The company recently announced a new headquarters in Austin, Texas. Ground Labs allows businesses to find, secure and remediate all sensitive data across multiple types and locations, whether stored on premises or in the cloud.

Stein had some insightful things to say about it.