Global IT solution provider Zones Inc. arrived in Canada in 2016. Zameer Hussain was hired to be Zones’ first ever country manager for the Canadian operation.
Hussain was formerly with two CDN Top 5 Solution Providers in Compugen and CDW Canada. At CDW Canada, Hussain was one of Mary Ann Yule’s top direct reports. Before that Hussain worked at two other CDN Top 100 Solution Providers in Xwave and Metafore. He got his start in the channel at Ingram Micro Canada.
It was long rumoured that Zones was entering the Canadian space ever since Canadian executive Murray Wright took over Zones as CEO back in 2013. But that never occurred under his leadership. Wright left Zones in late 2015 and now works at wireless solution provider Tessco Technologies Inc. as president and CEO.
Wright was replaced by the co-founder of Zones Firoz Lalji, who is also chairman along with holding the titles of president and CEO.
To say that Zones is big is an understatement. Zones does more than $1 billion in revenue and sells more than 150,000 products.
Hussain’s growth strategy for the Canadian market is to go after the Canadian subsidiaries of U.S. companies that are already Zones customers. This is a similar strategy that was used by other large, foreign-owned solution providers such as Dimension Data and CDW when they entered the Canadian market.