AvePoint hires Andre Carpenter as first Australian channel chief

Data protection company AvePoint has appointed its first channel chief for Australian and New Zealand.

Andre Carpenter scored the gig after most recently working at Oracle but previously serving as Veeam’s alliances manager for Asia-Pacific and Japan.

Carpenter, whose title is “director of channel and alliances”, said the company currently has an informal partner program in Australia, but that AvePoint’s US headquarters has a more formal program he feels can be adapted for local use.

The company will target managed service providers and Microsoft partners, as Carpenter feels they’ll best appreciate the company’s products that protect data stored in Office 365. Carpenter said he’s definitely open to new partners, but will emphasise quality over quantity.

AvePoint’s Office 365 protection and governance products will be Carpenter’s main thrust, as he feels that they can help Microsoft and partners alike to ensure end-customers get the most out of the suite.

For now, Carpenter has adopted a single-distributor model with Ingram Micro aboard and already adding AvePoint to its Cloud Marketplace. He’s also considering a second distributor and is in early talks with one.

“AvePoint do channel now and we are serious about it,” he told CRN. Over time, he expects to get more serious still, telling CRN he can foresee a time when the vendor is 100 percent channel-focused.