VAR Mainline Information Systems Hires Former NetApp, Fortinet Exec

Solution provider Mainline Information Systems on Wednesday said it this month hired Eric Mann, an experienced storage and security sales professional, as its new executive vice president of sales and marketing.

Mann, who has known Mainline Information Systems President and CEO John McCarthy for about 30 years, started working with the solution provider in July of 2017 on a temporary basis to consult on business development and merger and acquisition but is now full-time at Mainline.

Before joining Mainline, Mann spent over two years between 2015 and 2017 in the security industry as a vice president at Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Fortinet and chief operating officer at New York-based Varonis.

[Related: Solution Provider Red8 Taps Industry Vet As New President]

Before that, he spent 12 years at Sunnyvale, Calif.-based storage vendor NetApp, where he left the company as senior vice president and general manager of the company's Americas sales.

Mann took over at Mainline for Bill Nemesi, the company's former senior vice president of sales. McCarthy told CRN that the departure of Nemesi, who spent the last nine years reporting directly to him, was an amicable one.

While the experience of working with security and storage vendors was important, the sales experience is different on the vendor vs. the solution provider side, Mann told CRN.

"There are some similarities in terms of how you look at where to sell, where the opportunities are, and where you put people," he said. "But on the partner side, the focus on building repeatable practices and services is more valuable. Also, the value proposition of your people and resources is higher than on the manufacturer side."

While Mann was working with Mainline last year on mergers and acquisitions, there were no acquisitions during that time, McCarthy said. "But we are always turning over rocks looking for acquisitions," he said.

Mainline is still owned by a single person, and runs with no debt, had has been approached numerous times by potential suitors, McCarthy said.

"I can't say how many times we have been contacted about getting acquired," he said. But [Chairman and Founder] Rick Kearney sees the opportunity of remaining independent."