Samsung B2B Chief Kevin Gilroy Steps Aside In Midst Of Massive Channel Push

The head of Samsung's B2B organization, Kevin Gilroy, is departing the company this week amid a broad-scale effort that he spearheaded to ramp up Samsung's channel efforts.

Gilroy has spent two years at Samsung as executive vice president and general manager of the commercial division. He joined the company from SAP, and has set about re-inventing Samsung's channel effort on a variety of fronts -- including recruiting new executive leadership, rolling out new channel programs and adding to the company's partner ranks.

[Related: CRN Exclusive: Samsung B2B Chief Discusses Channel Opportunities For The New Galaxy Note8]

Earlier this month, Gilroy told CRN that recent channel investments by Samsung have included the hiring of Mike Coleman, a veteran of SAP and HP, to run the company's mobile channel program.

"We doubled the channel team, and we'll continue to make major investments in the channel team," Gilroy said in the interview this month. "We just rolled out our certifications program for partners, we're making major marketing and enablement investments in the channel, so the channel is a big part of our future."

Gilroy disclosed the upcoming departure in a post on LinkedIn, and described the move as "retiring from Samsung." He will depart as of Sept. 1 and plans to focus on part-time consulting and board advising, he said in the post. Gilroy could not immediately be reached Monday.

In a statement to CRN, Samsung said that Gilroy "has requested to move from full time employment and to begin his next career in [part-time] consultancy to the IT sector."

"To that end, Kevin will be moving from the day to day operation of Samsung B2B effective September 1, 2017 to a consultant to Samsung through the end of the year," Samsung said in the statement.

The departure follows a number of big moves by Samsung, including the launch last week of the Galaxy Note8 smartphone, which Gilroy said includes a number of enterprise-friendly features around multitasking, security and durability.

Also this month, Samsung unveiled the initial launch of a certification program for partners in the U.S. along with other channel program enhancements, such as updated training within the Samsung partner portal.

"We have aggressive goals – double- and triple-digit growth goals. We see the channel business growing at strong double digits, aspirationally, with certain products in the triple digits," Gilroy said in the interview with CRN this month. "We'll reveal more on that shortly. Our ecosystem is broad and growing quickly; channel partners should get on board with us."