Intermedia Channel Leader Eric Roach Departs; Company Nabs 8x8 Channel Exec To Fill His Spot

Cloud communications provider Intermedia’s global vice president of strategic partner sales, Eric Roach, has exited the company. In his place, Intermedia has brought in former 8x8 executive Chris Atha as senior director of global field channel sales and distribution, CRN has learned.

Atha has nearly 15 years of experience in the channel to draw on in his new role with Intermedia. Atha served as U.S. director of channels for UC provider 8x8 and worked for Advantel Networks for nine years in several positions before it was acquired by ConvergeOne, including as senior vice president of corporate development and vice president of sales and marketing. He also worked in a channel management capacity for Avaya.

In his new role, Atha will help Intermedia empower partners through the MSP model, Intermedia's vice president of UC, Mark Sher, told CRN.

"[Atha] is most excited about the MSP model," Sher said. "That's what got him excited about intermedia because we've had the model for a while, we can execute, and he knows that's the way to go. We're really excited to have him here."

[Related: Intermedia Launches UCaaS Analytics Platform Envision At Xchange 2019 ]

Former Intermedia executive Roach served as the company's global vice president of strategic partner outside sales for nearly two and a half years, where the channel veteran was responsible for leading Intermedia's worldwide field sales, distribution and strategic communities businesses.

Roach told CRN he is in the midst of securing a new position but declined to name the company.

Prior to his position at Mountain View, Calif.-based Intermedia, Roach worked for Microsoft for nine years and served in various roles for the IT giant, including global account director of worldwide channel sales, group manager of U.S. distribution sales, and national partner account manager.

Privately held Intermedia told CRN last March that it wants to double in size in the next three years, and in the process, put distance between itself and UCaaS competitors like 8x8 and Ring Central. On Sunday at XChange 2019, the company unveiled Intermedia Envision, a brand-new analytics offering that lets partners and end customers monitor the performance of Intermedia Unite's UC and collaboration platform in real time. The latest offering, Sher told CRN, will help more MSPs add UC to their repertoires.

"You can own the customer, you can own the relationship and have the top-line revenue, and we are here to support you through every step of the process," he said. "Our message to partners is they need to continually add value and protect your customers. If you're not selling them all core IT services, they are going to buy them from someone else, and that's the last thing partners want."

Roach’s departure comes five months after Eric Martorano left his position in October as Intermedia’s chief revenue officer to become CEO of Accordo Group, an Auckland, New Zealand-based technology life-cycle management company.