Cisco Names Insider To Run U.S. Channels

Cisco Systems

Robbins served for the past two years as operations director for Atlantic area channels and federal channels for Cisco. He replaces Bob Bruce, who was named to the newly created post of vice president of worldwide service provider partners in early February.

As vice president of U.S. channels, Robbins will control Cisco's U.S. channel strategy as well as manage day-to-day field operations. He also will work closely with the U.S. enterprise sales organization to ensure a well-aligned field engagement model that will benefit partners, Cisco said.

In his former role, Robbins was responsible for sales, support and operations for Cisco's enterprise channel business from Pennsylvania to Louisiana, as well as its federal channel business worldwide.

Before joining Cisco in 1997, Robbins worked for both Bay Networks and Ascend Communications.

Robbins was not available for comment Wednesday.

Robbins will be a valuable addition to Cisco channels' executive ranks because of his experience in enterprise sales and channels, Bruce told CRN. "Chuck has a strong understanding of the balance between enterprise sales and channels," Bruce said. "He also has a keen sense of where the market is going."

Robbins takes the post of vice president of U.S. channels following Mountford's moves in February to beef up Cisco channels' executive ranks to deal with rising tensions in the evolving networking hardware market.

In February, Bruce, then vice president of U.S. channels, was named to the new post of vice president of worldwide service provider partners. Also in February, Mountford hired Edison Peres, a former channel vice president for Avaya, to fill the new post of vice president of emerging technologies for the worldwide channels group.

Bruce is focusing on building a service provider channel strategy for Cisco. Peres is developing programs to help partners sell emerging technologies profitably.