Brocade's Software And EMEA Sales Leader Jumps Ship to Juniper Networks
Juniper Networks has nabbed networking sales executive Marcus Jewell from Brocade Communications to lead its Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) business.
Jewell led Brocade's EMEA business for the past four years as vice president of EMEA and was also the global head of the company's software sales. Brocade is planning to divest the majority of its business assets to various vendors once Broadcom acquires Brocade for $5.9 billion, which is expected to occur later this summer.
"Anytime you can bring someone in who has a long operational experience in the market that Juniper competes in is great news for partners," said Mark Robinson, CEO of enfoPoint Solution, a Brentwood, Tenn.-based solution provider and Juniper partner. "[Jewell] seems like he's a great fit for Juniper and will be good for sales."
Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Juniper has hired Jewell as senior vice president and general manager for its EMEA business. He will be responsible for Juniper's sales operations, go-to-market and channel strategies in the region.
"Juniper is a company I have admired for its integrity and quality of technology for many years," said Jewell in a statement. "The current opportunity for growth in EMEA is very strong for the company, given the fundamental importance of innovative, high-performance and secure networking that underpins the drive for digital transformation among enterprises, cloud and service providers alike. I expect us to achieve great things together."
Jewell has more than 20 years in the networking industry, previously holding executive sales positions at Brocade, Mitel and MiTech.
Earlier this year, Juniper announced a new organizational structure to support its innovation transformation strategy.
To increase alignment between strategy and execution, the company said it created a new position for Juniper veteran Kevin Hutchins as senior vice president of strategy and product line management. Additionally, Juniper's engineering organization now reports to chief development officer Andy Athreya, who has been with the company for 13 years.
"There's still a little bit of turnover in recent years, but the executive ranks at Juniper have been consistent the last couple of years, and that's a good thing," said Robinson.
Brocade is currently shedding business units as it prepares to be acquired by Broadcom.
Last week, AT&T unveiled plans to acquire Brocade's Vyatta Software Platform, while cybersecurity vendor Pulse Secure said it would buy Brocade's virtual Application Delivery Controller (vADC) business.
Brocade has also agreed to sell its network-edge portfolio, which includes the Ruckus Wireless and ICX Switch product families, for $800 million to Arris International.
Additionally, the vendor will sell its data center networking business to Extreme Networks for $55 million. Both the Extreme and Arris acquisitions are set to take place this year after Broadcom closes its deal to acquire Brocade.