CDN has learned that Deanna Thomson, national director of channel sales for Dell EMC Canada, has retired, and that Kevin Connolly, president of commercial sale for Canada, is shifting over to a similar role that involves oversight of North America.
A source close to the matter told CDN that Thomson’s retirement took effect Jan. 31, and that as of right now, no replacement has been named. The same goes for Connolly, whose new role, senior vice-president of North America commercial sales for medium business, is effective immediately. CDN was told that John Bryne will remain the company’s president of North America commercial.
Thomson moved into her role at the end of 2016, prior to the mega merger between Dell and EMC. Connolly replaced Kevin Peesker, who stepped down from his role, July 2017. The two have been significant in Dell EMC’s efforts to push further into the Canadian market.
Dell EMC’s head of channel Joyce Mullen and other top channel executives, minus Thomson, took to the virtual stage yesterday and announced a number of refinements to the vendor’s global partner program, including a further simplified market development funds (MDF) process, the addition of more products to the company’s rebate programs, and a reduction in the number of trained employees need to achieve Gold status.
Among her many achievements, one of Thomson’s latest ones involved the roll out of the Dell EMC Preferred Partner Program in Canada. The program, which was already available in the U.S., is an additional incentive for businesses outside of the top tier levels to sell solutions using the entire breadth of the Dell EMC ecosystem.
Stay tuned for more on these developments.
Update: CDN has updated this story with Kevin Connolly’s official new title, senior vice-president of North America commercial sales for medium business. A previous version of this story did not include this as that information was unavailable at the time.