Cisco appoints local GM
Cathy Smith has been appointed as general manager for Cisco’s business operations in South Africa.
Smith is a fellow of the African Leadership Initiative (ALI), and will be bringing her experience and key learnings from the work she does with ALI to share best practice with other Cisco leaders in Africa.
Prior to joining Cisco, Smith had been with IBM for more than 23 years, where she held various leadership roles in IT service delivery, HR and sales. She spent three years in the UK and also worked for several companies in the insurance industry as an application developer.
Jasco appoints new channel sales manager
Mark Stephens has been appointed as the channel sales manager for Jasco Enterprise.
“Stephens brings all of his knowledge and expertise to a competitive environment and his extensive skills will be invaluable in this role. We look forward to working with him in meeting our channel objectives and expectations,” says Cedric Boltman, executive head of channel, Jasco.
Stephens holds a Senior National Diploma in data communication and he has a number of years’ experience within telecommunications and sales environments. He ran his own business for a number of years, and has garnered experience with a range of corporates and managed a large national client contract.
Nkuna joins WestconGroup Southern Africa
Bridget Nkuna is the new marketing director at WestconGroup Southern Africa.
With more than 20 years’ business experience, and 12 of those being served in the capacity of senior management in the media, film, hospitality, and petrochemical industries, Nkuna will spearhead the marketing and communications efforts for the company throughout southern Africa.
“I believe that the creative and technical expertise and skills Bridget has in drawing up effective business and marketing strategies, identifying key stakeholders and audiences, mapping out feasible marketing strategies, and her knowledge of the media, publicity and promotions strategies will prove to be an asset to the Westcon marketing team, as well as our resellers and vendor partners with whom she will be working closely,” states Paul Conradie, CEO at WestconGroup Southern Africa.
Huawei’s new CEO for South Africa
Huawei has appointed Steven Wu as the new South African CEO responsible for the company’s day-today business operations.
He joined Huawei in 1999 and has held a number of senior management positions with the company, including CEO of Huawei Technologies Africa, and board director of Huawei European Subsidiary.
Third GM for First Distribution
Tamzin Burrill has joined First Distribution as one of the distributor’s three GMs, alongside Tony Abrahall and Ludwig Dedekind.
Burrill was previously the business partner organisation executive for IBM, responsible for the strategic management of the overall channel. Prior to that, she held various channel-related positions at IBM.
She has an MBA from Henley Business School in the UK, and an Industry Insights Certification from London Business School. In August 2013, Burrill was announced the winner of the Rising Stars Award for the ICT sector by the Human Capital Institute of South Africa.
New channel manager at WestconGroup
Fozia Martin has been hired by WestconGroup Southern Africa as channel manager for consumer solutions.
Martin joins the company from Mustek, where she fulfilled the role of senior sales product administrator for Lenovo and a global software brand for the last three years. In her previous position Martin exercised her skills in both junior management and in a senior sales administration division.
“I’m thrilled to welcome Fozia to the consumer solutions division and believe that her experience and energy will serve her well in her new position,” says Heinz Stephan, consumer solutions director, WestconGroup Southern Africa.