ShoreTel Nabs Nokia Veteran For Top Sales Job

Petts joins ShoreTel following seven years at Nokia, where he held a number of different VP- and SVP-level executive roles covering global sales, marketing, security and business solutions, as well as Nokia's AT&T relationship.

Earlier in his career, Petts was vice president of software, Americas, at Hewlett-Packard and spent 15 years before that at Compaq. He and Blackmore worked together at both Compaq and HP, where Blackmore was executive vice president, customer solutions group, before being ousted in a management shakeup under former HP CEO Carly Fiorina in 2004.

[Related: ShoreTel Sheds Light On New Cloud Division Strategy ]

"David's tremendous success in global sales simply reinforces our sales and customer momentum. He has extensive knowledge of sales leadership and brings with him a wealth of experience in general management plus U.S. and international executive sales," Blackmore said in a statement.

ShoreTel changed up its global sales leadership structure following the April departure of former worldwide sales senior vice president Don Girskis. The executives that took over Girskis' responsibilities -- Tim Gaines, vice president of North America sales, and Mark Arman, vice president, international sales and worldwide distribution -- will now report to Petts, as will Joe Vitalone, who returned to ShoreTel in May as vice president, channel management.

Petts joins ShoreTel at a critical time in its history as it integrates the recent acquisition of hosted UC provider M5 Networks, now ShoreTel's Cloud Division, and looks to keep up momentum for its UC, contact center and mobility products. Earlier this summer, ShoreTel began recruiting cloud services partners in expectation of a broader program rollout later this year.

PUBLISHED JULY 10, 2012