Gilroy Leaving Channel Executive Post At SAP

Kevin Gilroy, one of SAP's top channel executives and one of the drivers behind the software company's expanded sales to small and medium-size businesses through the channel, is leaving the company, CRN has learned.

An SAP spokesman confirmed that Gilroy will be leaving the company, having decided to pursue other opportunities. The spokesman said SAP would be informing partners of Gilroy's departure over the next couple of days.

Gilroy, in an email, declined to comment until after the partner briefings. Additional information on Gilroy's departure was unavailable.

[Related: SAP Readies Major Upgrade To Its PartnerEdge Channel Program]

Gilroy joined SAP in January 2010 as head of SAP's North American channel operations and in January 2012 was named senior vice president and general manager of the software company's global small and midmarket segment. That put Gilroy in charge of SAP's VAR channel business on a worldwide basis.

Gilroy has reported to Rodolpho Cardenuto since May 2014, when Cardenuto was named president of SAP's Global Partner Operations (GPO) organization. SAP said Cardenuto would take over Gilroy's duties on an interim basis.

Gilroy is a longtime channel veteran. Before joining SAP, he held a number of channel management positions at Hewlett-Packard between 1980 and 2005. Between HP and SAP, Gilroy worked at OnForce and Arrow Electronics.

For many years, SAP was largely known for selling enterprise-class ERP and CRM applications to Fortune 500 companies. But in recent years the company has greatly expanded its sales in SMB markets and built up its channel programs as part of those efforts. During his tenure, Gilroy spearheaded many of those initiatives.

Sundeep Ravande, president and co-founder of Houston-based Innovapptive, an SAP ISV partner, said he doesn't expect Gilroy's departure to hinder the growth of Innovapptive's SAP business.

Ravande praised SAP for providing Innovaptive with a high-ranking dedicated partner manager, which he said has made it easier to align messaging and co-sell together with the vendor. Specifically, Ravande said, SAP's joint marketing efforts have been very helpful, while the vendor's webinars have generated a tremendous number of customer leads.

What Ravande described as excellent product enablement and go-to-market support from SAP's channel team have helped Innovapptive grow from five employees as a startup in 2012 to 110 employees today.

Although Innovaptive did not work extensively with Gilroy, Ravande said his company has been very impressed with Cardenuto's ability to fast-track exception approvals so that Innovaptive wouldn't be priced out of selling SAP's HANA technology to Fortune 500 companies.

"I've seen Rodolpho's channel leadership be extremely effective," said Ravande, praising him for focusing on partners both large and small. "For us, the GPO organization has been a powerful hub."

SAP has scheduled an online "Global Mid-Year Partner Update Event" for July 28 with Cardenuto and other senior GPO executives for the company's 13,000 partners on the state of SAP's partner business and what the invitation calls "upcoming opportunities for all partner types."

Michael Novinson contributed to this story.

PUBLISHED JULY 20, 2015