Credit: Dreamstime
Konica Minolta named a new Australian MD after resignation of David Cooke
By 9 March, Konica Minolta Australia had announced a top level shake-up with chairman and managing director David Cooke resigning from the company.
The outgoing managing director is set to stay with the company until mid-July, the end of the Japanese-based printer vendor's financial year, while his replacement Yohei Konaka will take over from April.
On his resignation, Cooke said he had “very mixed feelings” about leaving Konica Minolta Australia.
“The choice of replacement however, gives me considerable confidence with regards to the future success of the company,” he said.
“I’m confident that Yohei will continue to build on the reputation Konica Minolta Australia has as a leader in areas such as human rights and ethical sourcing in line with the company strategy aimed at creating value for business, customers and society and meeting our commitment to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, and delivering that into the future.”
Credit: Leidos IFS appointed its first A/NZ channel chief
At about the same time, Swedish software vendor IFS said it had appointed its first channel chief for Australia and New Zealand almost two decades after opening in the market.
The company appointed Sydney-based Greg Robinson as head of channels and alliances, tasking him with driving its global partner program.
Robinson was previously chief operating officer at Precise Business Solutions, an Epicor partner. He also spent four years at Telstra Health, and has held roles at INX Software and SAI Global.
“IFS’s ongoing success demonstrates the appetite Australian customers have for a software solution that provides real business value in asset intensive and project intensive domains,” he said at the time.
Leidos Australia boss Christine Zeitz departed
By mid-March, it was revealed that Leidos Australia chief executive Christine Zeitz had stepped down after four years in charge.
Leidos director of security and defence Paul Chase took on the top role, albeit on an interim basis, as acting chief executive for the company's local operation.
“After four and a half years leading Leidos Australia it is time for me to pass the banner on and move to my next challenge,” Zeitz said in a post on LinkedIn.
“It has been a privilege to be CEO at a time of establishing the Leidos brand in Australia and doubling the size of the business over my tenure.”
Prior to taking on the top role, Zeitz spent 25 years at BAE Systems across multiple leadership roles and also spent a year as Australia and Asia Pacific vice president and managing director at Lockheed Martin.
Chase joined Leidos in 2016 following the merger of Lockheed Martin’s information systems and global systems (IS&GS) business unit, which he led for almost 10 years, and now trades under the Leidos brand.
"I am honoured to take on the role of acting chief executive for Leidos Australia," Chase told ARN in a statement. "Our Australian business has a strong foundation and I look forward to continuing to work with our customers to deliver successful services and capabilities.
Rubrik appointed Nutanix's Jamie Humphrey as its new A/NZ boss
Towards the end of March, former Nutanix lead for Australia and New Zealand (A/NZ) Jamie Humphrey was appointed as the new country manager for data control vendor Rubrik.
Credit: Nutanix Humphrey took on the top role following Luke McGoldrick’s move to a new role as account executive for alliances.
Humphrey is now responsible for all aspects of go-to-market activity for driving Rubrik’s expansion in A/NZ and will report directly to Rubrik vice president Asia Pacific and Japan Kamal Brar.
“As we further accelerate our growth and investment in the A/NZ region, Jamie will be focused on expanding our presence to serve our customers on the journey to hybrid cloud,” Brar said at the time.
