Movers and shakers: February

Acronis A/NZ general manager to lead the APAC region Bill Taylor-Mountford was appointed president of Asia Pacific for storage management and disaster recovery software provider at Acronis.

Dell boosts its SMB team Cath Hodgson-Croker joins Dell as small business marketing director for Australia and New Zealand, while James Arnold returns after seven years with Lenovo and IBM in Australia, Taiwan and New Zealand. Arnold assumes the role of channel manager for New Zealand and will oversee the expansion of partnerships there.

Acronis A/NZ general manager to lead the APAC region Bill Taylor-Mountford was appointed president of Asia Pacific for storage management and disaster recovery software provider at Acronis.

Infor grabs Richardson Software company Infor has named Bruce Richardson as its chief strategy officer. Richardson was at AMR Research where he oversaw aspects of analysis, including reporting of key trends and strategies in areas such as ERP, supply chain management, cloud computing, service-oriented architectures, software-as-a-service, software appliances and visualisation. Richardson is a 30-year veteran of the software marketplace. At Infor, he will serve as a strategic advisor to one of Infor’s largest shareholders, Golden Gate Capital. “As a student of the market for the last 30 years, I understand the dynamics of the business software marketplace - the forces that are driving the industry and shifting the balance of power in favour of customers,” Richardson says.

Avaya gets a new APAC president Provider of business communications software, Avaya, has announced the appointment of Francois Lancon as president for Avaya Asia Pacific. Lancon will take on executive responsibilities in business strategy development and business operations for the region. He replaces John DiLullo who was transferred to an expanded role heading up Canada and Latin America. Lancon will lead the teams responsible for accelerating Avaya’s growth in Asia Pacific. Lancon was the president of EMEA and Asia Pacific for Nortel Enterprise Solutions.

RSA promotes Jarvis RSA has promoted Gavin Jarvis to channel and program operations manager for the Asia Pacific and Japan region. Based in Sydney, Jarvis will be responsible for managing RSA’s SecurWorld Program. He has worked at RSA since 2006, holding a number of positions including regional channel manager, internal sales manager and most recently, Australia and New Zealand distribution manager. “Gavin has been instrumental in defining the channel business in Australia. This is a well-deserved promotion,” says Mark Pullen, country manager, RSA.

Motorola appoints channel leader Motorola has appointed Neale Joseph as its general manager of channel partner sales in Australia and New Zealand. Joseph will be based in Melbourne. Prior to joining Motorola, he was an executive director at David Jones where he gained retail management and sales experience.

Johnston heads NZ push for Simms Simms International, a distributor and supplier of IT products and services, has appointed Paul Johnston to lead its New Zealand branch. Based in Auckland, Simms International New Zealand will be operational by mid-February, under Johnston who started his role on January 4. Johnston is a shareholder and board member of the Simms business in New Zealand and says he is “extremely excited” to be involved in the expansion across the Tasman. Prior to Simms, Johnston worked at the distributor Renaissance.

Lynton flips Cisco's consumer launch into overdrive Based in Sydney, one of Todd Lynton’s priorities in the role as managing director of Cisco's consumer products is to follow up the recent launch of the Flip Video digital camcorder. Lynton counts more than 12 years in various management roles at Polaroid and Olympus Australia and comes to Cisco with over 19 years experience in the consumer industry. Most recently he was director of lights company Special Lights. Asia Pacific, Cisco consumer products vice president, Craig Gledhill says, to continue the company’s successes in the region, it’s imperative the leadership was filled by someone who shared the company’s vision: "to bring Cisco consumer products to the next level”. “With the recent launch of the Flip video camcorders i

Forsyth joins non-profit board Rob Forsyth, managing director of Sophos Asia Pacific, has been appointed to the board of directors of the Internet Society of Australia (ISOC-AU) for this year. Forsyth says he joined the non-profit organisation in the hope of contributing to the positive transformation of the internet as the technology becomes the mainstay of most aspects of both business and personal communications. The non-profit ISOC-AU promotes the development of the internet in Australia’s business, academic, professional and private communities. The organisation provides technical advice on internet public policy for its 40,000-plus members.

Howe earns promotion Simon Howe was promoted to country sales manager for Australia and New Zealand.

Dell boosts its SMB team Dell has recruited three members to its small business channel divisions in Australia and New Zealand. The appointments include the creation of a dedicated small business channel director for A/NZ which will be headed up by Jay Turner, who worked at Dell for eight years.