CEO shake-up: All the top channel chief exec moves of 2023
A recap of all the top CEO transitions in 2023, from vendor-land to resellers and MSPs, shaping the industry and its strategies
2023 has been a rather eventful year when it comes to household names in the chief exec seat making a change.
While some leaders chose to retire, others embarked on new journeys within the channel, setting the stage for a year of transformations and innovations.
Refresh your memory with this summary of all the top moves of 2023.
Hervé Tessler - Noventiq
Hervé Tessler stepped into the CEO position at Noventiq in March to drive the company's ambitious growth strategy. He said people and leadership capabilities are key differentiators in this journey.
Noventiq rebranded from Softline in October 2022 and outlined a growth strategy focused on geographic, portfolio, channel, and leadership expansion, aiming to double in size every two years.
The company posted 45 per cent revenue growth at the beginning of 2023 and plans to continue growth through acquisitions and investing in multi-cloud, cybersecurity, and AI.
Noventiq aims to list on the NASDAQ this year to gain investor access and accelerate growth, creating value for employees, vendors and shareholders.
CEO shake-up: All the top channel chief exec moves of 2023
A recap of all the top CEO transitions in 2023, from vendor-land to resellers and MSPs, shaping the industry and its strategies
Brian Duffy - SoftwareOne
SoftwareOne named Brian Duffy as its new CEO, effective in May 2023.
Duffy succeeded Dieter Schlosser, who led SoftwareOne for over a decade, overseeing major milestones like the Comparex acquisition and successful 2019 IPO.
Duffy joined from SAP where he served as president of cloud, responsible for leading SAP's RISE with SAP cloud initiative.
With over 18 years at SAP in sales and leadership roles, Duffy brought extensive experience to guide SoftwareOne's next stage of growth.
Outgoing CEO Schlosser credited SoftwareOne's success to its global team across 90 countries.
CEO shake-up: All the top channel chief exec moves of 2023
A recap of all the top CEO transitions in 2023, from vendor-land to resellers and MSPs, shaping the industry and its strategies
David Crawford - North
Networking provider, North, appointed David Crawford as its new CEO, succeeding Glen Williams.
Crawford joined from Cellnex Telecom where he led the UK business.
He has experience in telecoms and outsourcing, leading transformation programmes at Capita and Cable & Wireless.
Crawford said he aims to leverage North's technical expertise to grow by providing end-to-end smart technology solutions.
Among some of his top priorities are cementing customer relationships, developing new capabilities like SD-WAN and 5G, and identifying opportunities to support customers in working smarter and more sustainably.
CEO shake-up: All the top channel chief exec moves of 2023
A recap of all the top CEO transitions in 2023, from vendor-land to resellers and MSPs, shaping the industry and its strategies
Dave Donatelli - Riverbed
Following Vector Capital's takeover of Riverbed Technology, the vendor announced this year a new CEO, Dave Donatelli.
Donatelli joined from Oracle with plenty of experience leading large divisions at HP. He came in with the aim of enhancing Riverbed's market-leading portfolios in unified observability and acceleration through innovation and growth investments.
Vector Capital MD Andy Fishman praised Donatelli's experience driving scaled tech growth and customer-first approach.
Under the new leadership team, which also includes a new CFO, John Theler, it said it was looking to build on Riverbed's customer base and improved capital structure.
CEO shake-up: All the top channel chief exec moves of 2023
A recap of all the top CEO transitions in 2023, from vendor-land to resellers and MSPs, shaping the industry and its strategies
Hanneke Faber - Logitech
Most recently, Logitech named Hanneke Faber as its new CEO, effective 1 December 2023.
Faber joined from Unilever where she led the £14bn nutrition division, bringing over 30 years of global leadership spanning consumer, B2B and e-commerce businesses.
Outgoing CEO Bracken Darrell resigned in June.
Logitech chair Wendy Becker praised Faber's innovation leadership and connection with users across mature and emerging markets, as well as sharing Logitech's values.
CEO shake-up: All the top channel chief exec moves of 2023
A recap of all the top CEO transitions in 2023, from vendor-land to resellers and MSPs, shaping the industry and its strategies
Charles Sansbury - Cloudera
In 2023, former CEO of ASG Technologies, Charles Sansbury, joined Cloudera as its new chief executive.
Sansbury brought over 20 years of leadership experience across the software industry, having led ASG until its 2021 sale to Rocket Software and serving as COO and CFO of The Attachmate Group.
Cloudera chairman Jeff Hawn said Sansbury's track record of driving accelerated growth and said his leadership will advance Cloudera's hybrid data and enterprise AI strategy.
Sansbury's appointment as CEO became effective on 7 August as Cloudera entered its next growth phase.
CEO shake-up: All the top channel chief exec moves of 2023
A recap of all the top CEO transitions in 2023, from vendor-land to resellers and MSPs, shaping the industry and its strategies
Allison Kirkby - BT
Another big announcement of 2023, which actually hasn't come into effect yet, is BT's appointment of Allison Kirkby, currently still CEO of Swedish telecom Telia, as its new chief executive.
She'll be taking over from Philip Jansen around the end of January 2024.
Kirkby has telecoms experience, having previously led TDC and Tele2 AB.
She has been a BT board member since 2019. BT chairman Adam Crozier praised Kirkby as a proven, experienced leader who will drive BT's long-term transformation strategy. Kirkby said she is fully supportive of the strategy and excited to lead BT into its next phase of development.
CEO shake-up: All the top channel chief exec moves of 2023
A recap of all the top CEO transitions in 2023, from vendor-land to resellers and MSPs, shaping the industry and its strategies
Tarek Robbiati - RingCentral
Effective since August 2023 was RingCentral's appointment of Tarek Robbiati to the CEO position.
Robbiati joined from HPE, where he served as CFO. He brings nearly 30 years of experience across telecoms, media, technology and financial services. Outgoing founder and CEO Vlad Shmunis transitioned to executive chairman, focusing on strategic product vision and innovation after leading RingCentral to become an industry leader with over $2.2bn in annual revenue.
Shmunis founded RingCentral 20 years ago as a small start-up.
Under new CEO Robbiati, who has been on RingCentral's board since December 2022, the company will aim to deliver differentiated solutions, operational excellence and sustainable growth to customers and stakeholders.
CEO shake-up: All the top channel chief exec moves of 2023
A recap of all the top CEO transitions in 2023, from vendor-land to resellers and MSPs, shaping the industry and its strategies
Graham Charlton - Softcat
The big British reseller Softcat also handed over the reins to a new CEO.
Graham Charlton took over from Graeme Watt in August 2023.
In an interview with CRN, he outlined the challenge of reorganising the company to align with customer needs amid evolving technology.
Charlton explained that customers want holistic conversations about infrastructure solutions, not separate talks with on-premises and cloud teams.
He said this required internal reorganisation, investment, slower sales cycles but still ample opportunity.
Charlton had been on Softcat's succession plan for years, though the one-year handover from former CEO Watt capped his longer 5-year transition.
Charlton said he'd been learning "tonnes" from Watt's leadership to fully take on Softcat's top role.
CEO shake-up: All the top channel chief exec moves of 2023
A recap of all the top CEO transitions in 2023, from vendor-land to resellers and MSPs, shaping the industry and its strategies
Ian Rae - Aptum
MSP Aptum appointed Ian Rae as its new CEO and president, from 1 September, a move stemming from CloudOps - the cloud consulting and managed services firm that Rae founded and later sold to Aptum in January 2023.
Outgoing CEO Susan Bowen led Aptum's transition from a data centre colocation provider to an MSP over the past five years.
Rae praised Bowen's work building a world-class organisation and looks to continue innovating Aptum's comprehensive hybrid solutions.
With its CloudOps acquisition and new leadership, Aptum said it is positioned to offer full end-to-end hybrid capabilities for global customers.
CEO shake-up: All the top channel chief exec moves of 2023
A recap of all the top CEO transitions in 2023, from vendor-land to resellers and MSPs, shaping the industry and its strategies
Yves Bernaert - Atos
As the French reseller prepared its split, it also appointed a new CEO in former Accenture CEO Yves Bernaert.
Bernaert's first objective at the reseller is therefore to complete the next stages of Atos' transformation plan and accelerate the turnaround.
Once the separation is finalised, he will lead the new Eviden group.
Alongside CFO Paul Saleh, Bernaert will handle exclusive negotiations with EPEI regarding the proposed sale of Atos' Tech Foundations business to strengthen its capital structure.
Bernaert said he recognises Atos' strong assets and capabilities and is confident that with the board's support and employee dedication, Atos can overcome challenges and deliver its ongoing transformation.
CEO shake-up: All the top channel chief exec moves of 2023
A recap of all the top CEO transitions in 2023, from vendor-land to resellers and MSPs, shaping the industry and its strategies
John Hayes-Warren - Agilitas
UK IT solutions provider Agilitas appointed CEO, John Hayes-Warren, following its former CEO Shaun Lynn's departure in February.
Interim CEO Mark Dixon, who took over leadership after Lynn's exit, stayed on as chairman. Hayes-Warren had been Agilitas' CRO for the past year, bringing over 30 years of channel experience from roles at Logicalis, Claranet and VMware.
He said he aims to build on Agilitas' success by placing customer experience transformation at the heart of its growth strategy and helping customers benefit from technology innovation.