Novell Loses its Channel Chief

Eight months after she joined Novell as global channel chief, Pat Bernard has left the building.  A Novell spokeswoman said Bernard left to "pursue other interests." The company offered no further information about the circumstances surrounding Bernard's departure.

Novell is "actively searching for a permanent replacement" for Bernard, officials said. Meanwhile, Tim Wolfe, president and general manager of Novell Americas, will serve as acting channel chief.

Wolfe reaffirmed Novell's commitment to driving channel sales in a formal statement, saying: "The channel is critical to Novell's long-term success, and we will move quickly to fill the Global Channel position and continue driving our successful channel strategy."

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Bernard, a former Hyperion vice president, joined Novell in November 2007. Oracle announced plans to acquire Hyperion in March 2007.

Bernard spoke with Channel Insider in February 2008 about why she came to Novell and what her goals were for the company.

"I came to Novell because I saw the things in place that you don't normally see in many companies that say they are committed to building a channel," she said in the interview. "I thought this would be a wonderful opportunity to come to a company which has strong roots in partnering and really help them get back to those roots and really do some good business with the partner community."

Bernard said that her job would be to transform Novell back into a partner-led company. With that goal in mind, Novell realigned half of its direct sales representatives in the field and redeployed them against the partner model, Bernard said.

"In my experience and limited exposure I've had to the organization, the sales organization is very committed to making this model work," she said.

Bernard said that about two-thirds of the company's business was partner-led, with variations depending on the geography.

"It's not about changing the indirect-direct ratio. It's about transitioning the company completely to a partner-led model. That means everything we do has to embrace partnering."