Polycom Nabs Channel Vet To Lead Global Partner Organization

Polycom's channel just received a shot in the arm with the hiring of channel veteran Nick Tidd as the new vice president of its Global Partner Organization.

Tidd was named one of CRN's 50 Most Influential Channel Chiefs in 2015 and has been a channel leader for more than two decades at companies such as D-Link and 3Com, which was purchased by Hewlett-Packard in 2010.

Tidd joined videoconferencing specialist Polycom this week after leaving software vendor Condusiv Technologies, where he served as senior vice president of global sales for more than three years.

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"I am excited about leading Polycom's worldwide channel partner programs, strategy, enablement and operations," wrote Tidd on his LinkedIn profile. "I will work closely with all of Polycom's constituents to develop, architect, and lead the channel strategy and create a plan to take the company to the next level."

Tidd could not be reached for comment.

Dale Bottcher, senior vice president of sales and operations at AVI-SPL, a Tampa, Fla.-based Polycom partner and No. 46 on CRN's 2015 Solution Provider 500 list, said he's "thrilled" that Tidd has joined the Polycom channel and looks forward to him delivering a clearer go-to-market strategy.

"I'm excited with the moves Polycom is making to try to strengthen their go-to-market with their channel partners and that's the best thing that can come out of hiring [Tidd] -- [getting] somebody that can develop programs that work well to support us but [who] also has a clear go-to-market experience," said Bottcher. "The thing that was really missing is to tie in some programs and that go-to-market piece, so to me, he should help cement that."

In July, San Jose, Calif.-based Polycom also nabbed channel industry veteran Chris Jones as its new channel chief of the Americas. Jones previously served as Avaya's vice president of global midmarket sales as well as Juniper Networks' U.S. channel chief.

The vendor also added Gary Daichendt to its board of directors in August. Daichendt has held titles including executive vice president of worldwide operations at Cisco Systems and president and COO of Nortel Networks.

"I'm exciting where Polycom is heading for sure," said Bottcher. "It looks like Polycom has a clear vision for 2016 with these hires."