Sage Expands Channel Management Ranks
The appointments to the newly created posts -- three hires from outside the company and one internal promotion -- were disclosed Wednesday in a note to some 2,600 channel partners from Paul Johnson, executive vice president of sales, Sage Business Solutions.
"They all have a record of success, all three of these leaders have a keen, keen understanding of the partner model," said Tom Miller, Sage vice president, channel management, in an interview Thursday.
All four posts are "channel-facing roles," he emphasized, focused on partner marketing, program development and distribution optimization. "We've got a lot of work to do and this represents our commitment to the partner channel," he said.
Sage has been overhauling up its channel efforts since the company hired Miller in June. The company has been developing new marketing and customer acquisition tools for partners, rewarding partners for acquiring new customers, and creating new awards to recognize successful partner efforts.
Miller, who has been spearheading the changes, came to Sage with 28 years of channel experience, including spending the last eight years at Microsoft.
The new hires began work on Monday. The appointments include:
-- Joe Carroll, senior director of channel marketing for Sage Business Solutions, North America. Carroll has more than 20 years of sales and marketing experience in the business applications industry, joining Sage from Valogix, a Sage ISV, where he built and deployed the company's partner enablement program. Before that he worked at Great Plains and SAP before joining Microsoft in 2001 where he held partner development and partner management posts.
-- Rob Johnson, senior director of partner programs and readiness. Johnson is a 12-year Sage veteran and for the last five years has worked within the company's channel development and management groups, helping to create and deliver training and readiness programs designed to improve partner performance. Before that he was vice president of sales for Sage's Construction and Real Estate business unit.
-- Brent Pieterick, senior director of channel distribution optimization for Sage Business Solutions, North America. Pieterick has some 23 years of software industry and channel experience, coming to Sage from Tectura, a top Microsoft Dynamics partner, where he was vice president of sales. He previously worked at Great Plains, Timberline and Microsoft in partner sales, distribution optimization and partner enablement.
-- Mike Wingrove, senior director of sales for Canadian mid-market enterprise and Sage Accpacc global products. Wingrove joins Sage from Camilion Solutions where he was director of alliance and business development with responsibility for building the company's partner ecosystem. Earlier he held channel sales and development positions at SAP and Epicor.