Sources: EMC Close To Naming New Americas Channel Chief

EMC is close to hiring a new North American channel chief to replace Leonard Iventosch, the former vice president of Americas channels who left the company Dec. 31, sources familiar with the matter told CRN on Tuesday.

Bill Taylor, director of vCloud Hybrid Service at VMware, which is majority owned by EMC, is one of the candidates in the running for the position, according to one EMC partner.

Gregg Ambulos, senior vice president of worldwide channel sales at EMC, is currently running North American channels on an interim basis, another EMC partner told CRN. Both sources spoke on condition of anonymity.

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EMC seems to have been cutting back on channel related costs recently after having built up a strong indirect team over the past few years, the second source said.

"EMC has been very generous to the channel in the last three years," the source said. "It's time to buckle up and get profitability in line. It's just sound business practice."

Ambulos is currently traveling and couldn't be reached for comment on Iventosch's departure or who EMC might pick to replace him.

In an email, an EMC spokesperson told CRN the vendor will be providing more information about its next Americas channel chief "soon."

Iventosch, who is currently in Mexico on vacation, told CRN via email that he and EMC mutually agreed on the timing of his departure.

Iventosch said he accomplished much of what Ambulos brought him in to do at EMC, including launching the Virtual DM program, enhancing training and certification programs, driving cultural change in the sales force and building partner loyalty.

As EMC rolls out its new Business Partner Program, Iventosch said he and Ambulos agreed that it would be best to have someone from EMC corporate headquarters run it. That person will likely be based in Massachusetts, he added.

Iventosch was based in Northern California during his tenure at EMC, which started when EMC acquired his former company, Isilon in 2010. Iventosch took over the EMC North American channel reins the following year.

NEXT: EMC Says No Changes To Planned Partner Meetings

Iventosch, who is moving to Seattle, told CRN he'll be looking to work with some of the "young technology companies" in that city.

Rumors that EMC might delay or cancel planned channel meetings as a result of Iventosch's departure appear to be unfounded.

The EMC spokesperson said EMC still plans to go ahead with both its North America Partner Advisory Board meeting, scheduled for early April, and its Global Partner Summit, scheduled to be held in May along with EMC World.

Kent MacDonald, vice president of converged infrastructure and network services for Long View Systems, a Calgary, Alberta-based solution provider and EMC partner, said he received his EMC Global Partner Summit invitation in December, and has heard nothing about changes to the schedule.

MacDonald said he is a big fan of Iventosch. "I really appreciate Leonard's efforts in bringing a warm embrace to the channel," he said. "I give Leonard's support of the channel a lot of credit."

Keith Norbie, director of server, virtualization and storage for the Eastern U.S. at Technology Integration Group (TIG), a San Diego-based solution provider and EMC partner, said he wouldn't have been surprised if EMC had changed its partner conference dates after Iventosch left.

"If you don't have your channel chief in place, what's there to present on?" Norbie said. "Leonard made a lot of changes to the partner conference with new executive tracks. But the last couple of years saw EMC merge its partner meetings with the EMC World conference. So there's nothing Earth-shattering here. EMC will be at EMC World, and will have partner tracks."

EMC has a great channel program, and changing the meetings would present no issues, Norbie said.

"I can applaud EMC for maybe putting some things on hold if needed," he said. "Unless there's something to report, there's no reason to put out an update on a non-update."