Novell's channel chief role is looking less
stable than ever these days.
Four months after he took the channel
leadership position at embattled Novell, Javier Colado has been promoted to
president of Novell's EMEA (Europe, the Middle
East and Africa) organization.
Javier
Colado was named in September 2008 to lead the channel organization,
effectively replacing Pat
Bernard, who left Novell eight months after she joined. The previous
channel chief, Steve Erdman, lasted a more reasonable year and nine months on
the job, from February 2006 through November 2007.
The directive for Bernard and Colado was to make Novell a more channel-centric
company. In an interview with Channel Insider in September, Colado said he
would not change any of Bernard's initiatives, which included a deal registration
effort, but rather would simply accelerate the transition to being more
centered on the channel.
With Colado's promotion, however, Novell's partner and channel organization is
slated to transition to reporting to Novell Chief Marketing Officer John
Dragoon. Dragoon reportedly will serve as both CMO
and channel chief, with other channel managers reporting to him.
In his new role as president of Novell EMEA, Colado will report to Novell
President and CEO Ron Hovsepian.
"Javier's leadership in launching Novell's new
channel strategy, as well as his strong sales management experience, will serve
him well in his new role and enhance the execution of our new partner-centric
model in EMEA," Hovsepian said in a statement announcing the promotion.
"Likewise, the work Javier and John have done together on our new partner
and marketing programs will assure their seamless and integrated execution,
upon the transition of the partner responsibilities to John."
Colado began his tenure at Novell in 2006 as area general manager and vice
president for western EMEA, where he was responsible for all operations, sales
and marketing.
Dragoon joined Novell in 2003 as vice president of marketing for the Americas and was appointed senior vice president and CMO in
2006. He is responsible for all aspects of Novell's marketing strategy and
activities worldwide. Prior to Novell, Dragoon held senior executive positions
at Art Technology Group, Internet Capital Group and IBM,
Novell said in a statement.
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Channel News and Analysis 
