Microsoft appoints new chief partner officer following departure of Rodney Clark

Dezen said she is 'humbled and thrilled' to take on the new role

Microsoft has announced Nicole Dezen will assume a new role of chief partner officer with the tech giant following the departure of its former channel chief Rodney Clark.

Alongside the newly created title, Dezen will also hold the position of corporate vice president of global partner solutions, formerly held by Nick Parker.

According to Microsoft, Parker has been promoted to president of industry and partner sales.

In a blog post, Parker said Dezen brings a "unique perspective" to Microsoft's efforts and a "complete left to right view" of opportunities and challenges facing partners.

He said: "Nicole's elevation to CPO at Microsoft shows our new, deeper approach to channel and ecosystem leadership and advocacy. Nicole has built two key leadership roles that will report to her. The first one will focus on sales and business growth with our channel partners, and will be led by David Smith, new VP of Channel Sales.

"The second will be accountable for partner programs and GTM engines, led by Julie Sanford, VP of Partner GTM, Programs & Experiences. These new roles and the increased investments we continue to make in our partner business demonstrate the importance of our ecosystem, the needs of our partners and the opportunity we have to serve customers together."

In a LinkedIn post, Dezen said she is "humbled and thrilled" to take on the new role.

She added: "This is a new title, and one that speaks to the enormous opportunity we believe we can unlock in concert with partners around the world.

"The best way for me to describe my commitment is to say that I will be dedicated to doing everything possible to help partners build successful businesses with Microsoft. Working with them to create differentiated solutions; making it easier, more seamless and more profitable to do business on Microsoft Cloud; unlocking hidden potential through co-selling and strategic partnerships; and evolving how we engage with partners, so they can spend more energy with customers.

"I'm honored to be in a position to break new ground in this area, and look forward to sharing more details at next week's annual Microsoft Inspire partner conference."