Nominations Open for Channel Insider 2009 Bull’s Eye Awards
Nominations are now open for the Channel Insider 2009 Bull’s Eye Awards, which recognize excellence in customer service, technology prowess, business acumen, channel leadership, communications and community building, and innovation among vendors, solution providers, distributors and channel services companies.
Channel veteran Lisa Loe leaves the North America channel chief job without explanation. Global channel chief Roger King will take over while a replacement is sought.
After just three months, North America channel chief Lisa Loe has parted company with McAfee, a spokesperson for the security vendor confirmed.
Roger King, executive vice president of worldwide channels, will assume responsibility for Loe’s duties, and McAfee also confirmed that they are considering both internal and external candidates in the search for a replacement for Loe.
Loe had held a high-ranking channel position at Symantec until April. She left Symantec as a result of a restructuring. In September, Loe joined McAfee as vice president of North American channels.
Soon after she took on the role in September, Loe told Channel Insider that her first initiative would focus on the midmarket.
"It's a very diverse market, and the partner set is going to be dramatically different," she said. "How do we bolster our coverage model to ensure that we are successful there? There might be partners that we don't talk to today. First we have to inventory what we have," Loe said.
She said that she first was looking to identified about 100 midmarket McAfee resellers in the U.S. and then established best practices for how to make them "extremely productive."
In a webcast held last week to address McAfee’s 2009 channel strategy, however, McAfee’s executive vice president of worldwide channels Roger King told attendees that McAfee planned to tailor its channel programs and security products to appeal to resellers serving a wide variety of market segments. There was no mention of Loe and she did not participate in the presentation.
Optimizing McAfee’s numerous routes to market will be a key focus in 2009, said King, including enhancing programs that are tailored for solution providers targeting large enterprises, those whose customers are mostly SMBs and also emphasizing the importance of distribution channels, he said.
King also said that Symantec’s recent channel executive shakeup – including Loe’s departure -- provided a great opportunity for McAfee partners.
"Symantec is our main target, so any kind of distraction or disadvantage they have we'll hightlight for our partners," King said.
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