William Madison Returns to Masergy Following Avaya Stint: Exclusive

Longtime channel leader William Madison is re-joining Masergy as vice president of alliances, partnerships, distributors and international markets following time at Avaya.

William Madison, Masergy‘s one-time channel leader of more than seven years, is coming back, the company told CRN.

Madison is re-joining Masergy as vice president of alliances, partnerships, distributors and international markets for the Plano, Texas-based company after a short time at unified communications giant Avaya.

Madison, who has a long history with the hybrid networking and cloud communications provider, will be leading the company’s expansion into new routes to market as the COVID-19 pandemic shifts focus back onto the network, he said.

“My focus will be on expanding new channel sales routes for Masergy on a global scale. The great news is that a number of the necessary programs already have the building blocks in place. I plan to execute against these programs to recruit new partners, build new funnel, and exceed bookings expectations,” Madison said.

[Related: Masergy CEO: SD-WAN 'Only In Second Inning’ As Opportunities Peak During COVID-19]

Madison since January has served as vice president of North America cloud sales, channel, for Avaya. He called his experience with Avaya “rewarding” and is proud of his work with Avaya Cloud Office, but called Masergy ”home.”

“I’m super proud of the work we did launching Avaya Cloud Office and I wish Avaya and its team the very best,” he said.

Prior to his appointment at Avaya, Madison served as director of global channels for Masergy for more than seven years, as well as vice president of Masergy‘s global channel development program for two years and before that, vice president of Masergy’s strategic partner program.

Masergy in July announced a new channel leader overseeing its entire global partner team: Jim Glackin, a longtime CenturyLink channel executive. Madison will be reporting to Glackin in his new role.

Masergy last month also launched a brand-new channel program; the Zenith Partner Program, aimed at re-establishing the company‘s commitment to the channel through master agents, telecom agents, MSPs and VARs. Masergy, a channel-first company, does about 80 percent of its business through partners.

Madison said that as businesses accelerate their digital transformation plans as a result or the pandemic, the network is the “foundational” enabler of those plans and a big opportunity for the channel.

“Work from home, mobile access, cloud connectivity and so much more has stretched the enterprise network,” he said. ”This is a perfect climate for Masergy and our partner community to sell more and to deliver desired outcomes to our end users.”