GEC NEWS WIRENetApp has named Kristian Kerr its new Vice President Partners & Pathways for the EMEA region. He will take responsibility for developing and executing the channel strategies and programs that support partners to deliver innovation with cloud services, build cloud infrastructure to accelerate new services, and modernize IT architectures with cloud-connected all-flash storage. Kerr reports to NetApp Senior Vice President & General Manager EMEA Alexander Wallner and will be based out of the UK office.
Kerr is a veteran of the IT & communications industry with more than 20 years of experience in a variety of direct sales and partner leadership positions with a deep understanding of the EMEA partner landscape. Kerr has extensive knowledge and experience developing indirect partnering models to capture new product and service revenue streams through channel, distribution, alliance, cloud and service provider partners. In his new role at NetApp he will be in control of defining and executing NetApp’s partner go-to-market strategy with the firm goal to deliver growth through this important ecosystem.
“The market is moving with increased velocity with Cloud leading this transformation in the partner eco-system,” said Kerr. “As partners evolve their business, they are looking to NetApp to capture this huge opportunity to modernize infrastructures and take advantage of the seamless path to the cloud that NetApp provides. I firmly believe embracing this change and its pace is a huge opportunity. We are seeing new business and partnering models, new ways of consumption and scale, and new players entering the space daily. NetApp partners are set up exceptionally well for this new world, and I am confident we’ll find great success together.”
“The cloud presents unique challenges that require the right team with the right knowledge,” said Alexander Wallner, Senior Vice President & General Manager EMEA.“ As customers transform their business, they need guidance around the requirements for building the right solutions to extract maximum value from their data. In addition to his flawless business acumen, Kerr is the right person to hone the skills of our channel ecosystem to recommend appropriate portfolios that represent the right mix between traditional IT and cloud to our customers.
