Cisco Names Germany GM Oliver Tuszik As Global Channel Chief

Cisco Systems has named Oliver Tuszik – a former solution provider and the current leader of its fast-growing Germany business – as the new senior vice president of its Global Partner Organization.

Tuszik is virtually unknown to Cisco's North American channel partners, but has a solid track record of growth over his five years as vice president and general manager of Cisco Germany.

He joined Cisco in 2013 after nearly 10 years as CEO of Computacenter Germany for U.K.-based Computacenter, one of Cisco's largest channel partners. He headed Computacenter's networking business before becoming CEO. Tuszik spent several years in leadership roles at General Electric before joining Computacenter.

Solution providers Wednesday called Germany a competitive and tech-savvy market and said the expertise Tuszik has honed there will undoubtedly carry over to his tenure as global channel chief.

"It's a very interesting choice, and obviously Chuck and his team have the utmost confidence in him," said Ben Johnson, CEO of Liberty Technology, a Griffin, Ga., solution provider that works with Cisco. "We're excited to see where new channel leadership takes us. We're bullish on Cisco in the 2019 fiscal year."

Kent MacDonald, vice president at Calgary-based solution provider and Cisco partner Long View Systems, said Tuszik fulfills his wish to see an internal candidate take the global channel chief job. "I'm happy to see Chuck move so quickly to fill the role," he said. "I had supported and hoped for an internal, established Cisco team member to be promoted," MacDonald said.

A "known and trusted leader" will provide a measure of stability and continuity to critical channel efforts around Cisco's transition to a business model and channel program that is increasingly focused on software subscriptions, recurring revenue, and cloud and services offerings, MacDonald said.

Tuszik replaces Wendy Bahr, who announced her resignation from the global channel chief role in mid-August

About 85 percent of Cisco's revenue comes through the channel. About a third of its revenue is now realized on a recurring basis, and 85 percent of that also comes through the channel, the company has reported.

Cisco Germany has enjoyed five years of growth, including two years of double-digit growth, under Tuszik's leadership, according to Cisco. Cisco's Germany business has been named the company's "Theater of the Year" for the past two years.

The San Jose, Calif., networking giant announced Tuszik's appointment as the global channel chief internally this morning. The appointment is effective today. Tuszik will report to global sales leader Gerri Elliott, Cisco’s executive vice president and chief sales and marketing officer.

He is currently based in Cologne, Germany and will be moving to San Jose for the new role, a spokesperson said.

Bahr, an 18-year Cisco channel veteran had been channel chief since July 2015 when she announced her resignation last month. She'll stay through the company's massive Partner Summit event in mid-November to help ease Tuszik's transition, said a Cisco spokesperson.

Bahr spent the bulk of her years at Cisco working with solution providers. She worked closely for many years with Robbins when he headed the company's North America channel. When Robbins moved out of Cisco's channel organization to lead its U.S. commercial business, Bahr succeeded him as North America channel chief.