Joergen Jakobsen has vacated his role as regional channel chief of EMC, with the long-standing industry veteran joining security vendor Sophos.
According to sources close to ARN, Jakobsen will start his new role on November 1, with a responsibility for building out the Sophos channel across the Asia Pacific region.
Highly regarded within the channel community, Jakobsen’s departure comes weeks after Dell officially completed its acquisition of EMC, creating the world’s largest privately-controlled tech company in the process.
During his five-year tenure at the storage giant Jakobsen spearheaded EMC’s strategic channel initiatives, building out and accelerating business across both the high-end enterprise and fast-growing mid-market segments.
Jakobsen is a senior leader with a solid track record in channels and distribution, having worked more than 20 years at Hewlett-Packard, including 14 years in leadership roles in Asia Pacific.
With a new-look partner program set to be released in early 2017, Jakobsen’s exit offers the clearest indication yet as to how the combined tech giant might shape it’s channel strategy in the months ahead, with his parting suggesting a Dell centred approach.
According to Dell EMC however, the combined go-to-market strategy for the channel will “bring together the best elements” of the Dell PartnerDirect Program and EMC’s Business Partner Program, providing “true scale while still being agile and responsive”.
“When the combined program comes into effect in 2017, John Byrne will assume his role as President of Global Channel, Dell EMC and Tian Beng Ng, will assume his role as Senior Vice President and General Manager, Channels Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ),” a Dell EMC spokesperson told ARN.
“Until this time the existing teams will continue to work with our partners to deliver an industry-best experience for them, and their customers.”
As reported by ARN, the inclusion of Beng represents a “channel-friendly” move for the vendor, following an “outstanding job” in leading the Dell South Asia & Korea (SAK) Commercial team for more than six years.
As outlined in an internal company memo seen by ARN, the SAK Channel mix is the highest in APJ at 85 per cent, representing a contributing factor to Beng's appointment.
“The depth of his experience in working with our channel partners will enable him to lead the growth of our channel business across the region,” Dell president of Asia Pacific and Japan Commercial, Amit Midha, confirmed to staff last month.
Sophos declined to comment on this article.
