Huawei Enterprise Quietly Intros New Channel Chief

Huawei Enterprise USA has quietly assigned an experienced channel executive to manage the company's Americas channel program.

Cupertino, Calif.-based Huawei Enterprise USA, the part of China-based Huawei focused on building a U.S. business for its storage, server and networking business, last week used its biennual channel partner summit to introduce Sufian Dweik as its new channel chief, a source has told CRN. The move was confirmed by a Huawei source.

Dweik has since August served as senior channel director at Huawei Technologies, the Plano, Texas-based part of Huawei focused on the carrier and mobile technology market. Before that, Dweik managed Huawei's United Arab Emirates strategy after spending several years handling part of the Middle East business of Brocade and Cisco.

[Related: Huawei In The Spotlight: CRN Goes To Shenzhen]

Huawei was unable to provide further information about Dweik by publication time.

Dweik is a "pretty sharp cookie," said Steve Rovarino, president of Red Rover, a Reno, Nev.-based solution provider and Huawei channel partner.

Rovarino, who attended a session at last week's Huawei Enterprise channel partner summit featuring Dweik, told CRN that the new channel chief has the experience needed to succeed in his new role.

"He's been down this road before," he said. "He's already putting new channel plans into play. He didn't provide details yet, but promised he's looking at more incentives for partners. He talked about high-level changes, and about how he wants to get partners to lead Huawei to market."

Despite several years of working in the U.S. market, Huawei has had a difficult time building a market presence because of U.S. government concerns about potential espionage issues given the vendor's close relation to the Chinese government.

Those issues continue to hold back Huawei Enterprise's channel business, Rovarino said.

"Huawei is having pockets of success, but it's also been fighting a lot of uphill battles," he said. "The geopolitical situation is an issue, and there are a lot of stereotypes about Chinese quality and espionage. But I've seen the kind of innovation Huawei does. The company is introducing a lot of new solutions at a rapid pace, giving us pockets of opportunity."