Olga Specjalska (VMware)
VMware has found its new Australia and New Zealand channel lead in Olga Specjalska, the virtualisation vendor’s marketing director for the region.
Taking on the role of director of partner business for VMware in A/NZ, Specjalska’s appointment follows the departures of the vendor’s previous regional senior director, head of commercial business and channels, Kerrie-Anne Turner and A/NZ head of channels Neels du Plooy, who left in November 2020 and February 2021, respectively.
In the position, Specjalska will take up all A/NZ partner ecosystem responsibilities for the vendor, which includes distribution, global systems integrators and outsourcing, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), solution providers, services partnerships, partner readiness and business development.
“I look forward to working closely with our partners across Australia and New Zealand to support our customers’ unique needs as they evolve their technology strategies," Specjalska said.
“Our partners play a critical role in delivering strategic value for customers, and I’m excited by the opportunity to deliver on VMware’s commitment to a simplified and consistent partner experience.”
Specjalska comes into the role after nearly 10 years at the vendor, where she held her previous position as its A/NZ marketing director since 2018.
In that position, VMware claimed she was responsible for a "customer-centric marketing strategy" which took the vendor through multiple acquisitions and saw the integration of marketing organisations, as well as the changing of the vendor’s go-to-market strategy to support its move to a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model.
She was also the manager of enterprise marketing in Japan from 2015 to 2018, the marketing manager of Southeast Asia from 2012 to 2015 and had a brief stint as an education and enablement associate between 2011 to 2012.
In addition to making Specjalska the new A/NZ channel lead at VMware, the vendor has also set up a new team to focus on global services partnerships and has promoted A/NZ director of VMware Tanzu Anthony Clarke to director of services-led partnerships.
Credit: VMware In the new role, Clarke will report to Specjalska and will partner with VMware’s services-led partners, such as Accenture and Deloitte, to create cloud strategies and build applications for mutual customers.
“Customers need us to meet them wherever they are in their individual technology journeys and many are currently working out their multi-cloud strategy or dealing with the unique requirements of a newly distributed workforce,” said Brad Anderson, A/NZ vice president and managing director for VMware.
“I’m confident that our new partner organisation under Olga’s leadership will deliver the unique expertise and strategic value to create opportunities which truly benefit our local partner ecosystem and our mutual customers.”
Specjalska and Clarke’s appointments not only follow the departure of Turner and du Plooy, but also several other positions at the vendor, which include distribution manager Karen Delaney and Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ) executive Arun Kumar Parameswaran in early May.
