Cisco Names Sherriff North American Channel Chief

Jim Sherriff is returning from a two-year stint in China to take on the role of head of the Cisco channel in the United States and Canada. During his 30-year IT industry career, Sherriff spent 19 years at HP and two years as CEO of a Cisco partner.

Cisco has named Jim Sherriff as the head of the U.S. and Canada Partner Organization, which the networking and technology giant says is its largest theater of operation. The position was previously held by Wendy Bahr, who was moved to head up Cisco's global and transformational partnerships earlier in July.

Sherriff brings 30 years of IT industry experience to the new role, most recently returning from a two-year assignment in China.  He has spent the last nine years at Cisco, before China serving as senior vice president for Cisco's U.S. Enterprise business, where he was a "vocal advocate for the partner community—identifying 'deep partnering' as one of the four pillars of the U.S. Enterprise sales strategy," writes Keith Goodwin, Cisco's channel chief, in a blog post about the Sherriff appointment.

"Jim's recent global experience and his deep understanding of Cisco's field, customers, and partner needs make him the ideal leader for this key sales role," Goodwin writes.

Sherriff also spent 19 years at Cisco rival HP and two years as CEO for a Cisco partner. His final position at HP was as vice president and general manager of HP Consulting with global responsibility for HP professional services.

In his new role, he will be based in Austin, Texas.

The appointment follows several other moves in Cisco's channel organization, announced earlier this month.