Ross Pellizzari’s departure as Cisco Canada’s channel chief is really sad news for me personally, and I believe for the IT industry in Canada.
Pellizzari has the passion you need to be successful in this job. A channel chief has to have passion so they can help channel partners, and the company they work for, achieve success.
He was one of a handful of the channel chiefs I’ve gotten the pleasure to know that could align vendor objectives and priorities with those of the channel, and that’s no easy task.
Indeed, it’s a difficult job because to be a great channel chief you have to, in my view, be a channel advocate first. Sometimes the needs of the channel are not in sync with those of the vendor you work for. Pellizzari managed to maintain that balance, and delivered results for both Cisco Canada and its solution provider community.
Being a channel chief is also a time-consuming job, and it leads to burn out. Not too many channel chiefs keep the same job for a career.
Let’s not forget that Ross took over for Steve Simmons, who was widely considered to be an up and coming channel star. That was a hard act to follow, but Ross made the transition seamless for Cisco and its partner base.
Pellizzari has been a great friend to Computer Dealer News. He was always available for me and the team. He stepped up and gave us the support we needed for the Channel Elite Awards and the Top 100 Solution Provider events.
But the thing that I will miss the most is that Ross made it a fun experience for everyone he dealt with. Business is business, and everyone understands that. However, when someone can turn business tasks into fun it makes that person special. And Ross Pellizzari is special.
I wish him all the best.
Two quick hits before I go. Diane Greene is out as VMWare CEO. One of the founders of a truly revolutionary company in the IT space, Greene was replaced immediately by former Microsoft executive Paul Maritz. While this is a tough way to go for Greene, she did open up the market for the acceptance of virtualization. If you’re wondering why she is gone, well, that is a bit of a head-scratcher, except that sometimes CEOs have a lifecycle and maybe Greene could only bring VMWare to a certain level. VMWare’s board, I guess, believes Maritz can bring VMWare to the next level.
Also, Charles Giancarlo is not wasting any time making Avaya his company. He has hired a new CFO; Canadian Thomas Manley, a former Cognos and IBM executive who cut his teeth in many finance departments in Nortel Networks.
