Avaya Poaches VP From Cisco In Latest Round Of Exec Additions

Marc Randall is joining Avaya as senior vice president and general manager, Avaya Networking, which includes Avaya's data networking practice. A well-traveled industry veteran, Randall had been a vice president of engineering at Cisco until 2000, when he became president and CEO of Force10 Networks. He later took a position as senior vice president of products and offerings at Brocade, leaving Brocade in April 2010 and returning to Cisco in early 2011 as the top executive in its core routing business unit.

An Avaya spokesperson also confirmed to CRN that Steve Bandrowczak, vice president and general manager, Avaya Data Solutions, will be moving to a new, customer-facing sales role under Joel Hackney, senior vice president of field sales and marketing and president, field sales.

Elsewhere, Gary Barnett has been promoted to senior vice president and general manager for Avaya Collaboration Infrastructure. Barnett joined Avaya in April 2011 following stints as CEO of Prospect Software and CEO of Aspect Communications, and most recently led its unified communications (UC) applications team.

[Related: 10 Key Events in the Avaya Channel This Year ]

Brett Shockley, who was CEO and co-founder of Cisco-focused VAR Spanlink Communications before joining Avaya in 2008, is as of December Avaya's senior vice president and general manager, Applications and Emerging Technologies. He is responsible for Avaya applications including the company's complete contact center and UC portfolios, and had previously led Avaya's corporate development, strategy and innovation teams.

Finally, Dr. Alan Baratz, Avaya's top technologist, is now senior vice president for corporate development and strategy, and will oversee mergers, acquisitions, strategic alliances, company pricing models, market intelligence and analyst relations. Baratz's most recent title was senior vice president and president, Avaya Global Communications Solutions.

Randall, Barnett, Shockley and Baratz all report to Kevin Kennedy, Avaya's president and CEO.

Avaya has seen frequent executive changes in the past three years, with many VARs questioning the stability of its executive team as Avaya prepares for an IPO and continues to fine-tune its channel strategy.

Among major changes at Avaya last year were the hiring of Karl Soderlund, now Avaya's vice president, U.S. channel sales, the hiring of Phil Graham, a former Cisco telepresence CTO and now Avaya's vice president, product development and engineering for endpoints, and the promotion of Mohamad Ali, who became senior vice president and president, Avaya Global Services.