Riverbed Brings On Former Brocade Sales Boss

Whiting's role will be important to scaling Riverbed's sales channels and outreach within North and South America, Riverbed said Monday. He reports to Dave Peranich, executive vice president, global field operations, who described him as "a true sales professional."

"Ian's leadership and ability to refine and hone execution will be key in our efforts to drive increasing revenue, productivity and profitability for Riverbed and our partners," Peranich said in a statement.

[Related: Riverbed 10 Years In: Can It Maintain Momentum? ]

Whiting left Brocade in June to "pursue other opportunities," according to a Form 8-K filing by Brocade at the time. He spent 11 years at Brocade and helped to oversee its transition toward channel sales from a predominantly OEM- and direct-sales go-to-market model. Earlier in his career, Whiting held sales roles with Compaq, Cognos, Networth and Data Translation Networking.

Whiting joins Riverbed at an interesting time in the company's 10-year history as it dominates the WAN optimization market but also has sought to broaden its appeal into other data center and application performance disciplines as the WAN op space crowds with new and alternative competitors. Riverbed has continued to remake its executive team and last month brought on new Americas and EMEA channel chiefs.

Brocade, meanwhile, has not yet confirmed a replacement for Whiting. Brocade CEO Michael Klayko, who himself plans to depart the company, has overseen Whiting's sales responsibilities since the summer.

PUBLISHED SEPT. 24, 2012