Microsoft APAC Boss Named New Juniper WW Channel Chief

Juniper's new worldwide channel chief is Emilio Umeoka, most recently president of Microsoft Asia Pacific, CRN has learned.

A source with direct knowledge of the situation confirmed that Umeoka is indeed Juniper's new senior vice president of worldwide channels. Reached late Thursday by CRN, representatives from Juniper would neither confirm, nor deny Umeoka's hiring.

According to a biography page on the APAC section of Microsoft's Web site, Umeoka, a Brazilian, became president on Sept. 1, 2006, and was responsible for Microsoft's marketing, sales, services, operational and business development efforts in the region.

Umeoka has not officially confirmed his new position, but wrote that he is an employee of Juniper on his Twitter feed (@eumeoka), where he is listed as "living in Silicon Valley, working for Juniper Networks."

According to tweets from the past month, Umeoka's first day at Juniper was January 5, and he relocated to California from Singapore in late December.

Earlier this week, Umeoka tweeted about attending a Juniper Global Sales Conference, and earlier Thursday, wrote the following:

"..Some great sales & marketing people joining Juniper Networks...I'm really happy...are you ready to join us?!? ;)

Umeoka's hire makes him only the latest in a series of high-profile grabs by Juniper in recent weeks.

This week alone, Juniper confirmed the appointments of Brad Brooks, former vice president of Windows Consumer Marketing and Product Management at Microsoft, as its new vice president of worldwide enterprise marketing and solutions, and Luanne Tierney, former vice president of marketing for the Worldwide Partner Organization at Cisco, as its new vice president, global partner marketing.

The worldwide channel chief role has been vacant since May 2010, when Juniper's Frank Vitagliano took a new role as senior vice president of partners, the Americas, focused on Juniper's partner relationships in the Americas region.