Telecom Lead Asia: Brocade has appointed Johnson Chiu as the channel director, Asia Pacific (APAC).
The new appointment is part of a global strategy to focus on growing revenues through the channel, and building on an established channel business in the region.
Chiu will spearhead partner enablement strategies and programs designed to grow Brocade IP networking revenues through channel partners across key industry segments in APAC.
Canalys says the data center infrastructure market will be worth $152 billion by 2016, with Asia Pacific accounting for a quarter of global data center investment in five years –representing a significant opportunity for Brocade channel partners through innovative technology and financing solutions such as Brocade Ethernet fabric technology and Brocade Network Subscription respectively.
Chiu will drive Brocade channel with distributors, resellers and strategy systems integrators across the region, and driving initiatives that are unique to partners in the region, to help them develop new skills and address major technology trends such as mobility, big data analytics and software-defined networking (SDN).
Chiu will be based in Singapore, and reports to Brocade’s vice president for APAC, Charlie Foo.
“Johnson’s appointment is both a strategic and timely one as we continue to chart new growth across the region in tandem with the expected increase in worldwide IT spending in 2013. Johnson will play an instrumental role in furthering Brocade’s partner business success in APAC,” Foo said.
Chiu was most recently with NetApp where he led the Channel, Alliance and Marketing organization in the Greater China region. He has also held channel leadership roles at Digital Equipment, Oracle, Symantec and Brocade.
“It is vital that the channels have the required capability and agility to move swiftly and adapt to technological changes, and I am looking forward to bolstering our channel partner enablement so as to deliver transformative networking innovations to our regional customers quickly,” said Chiu.
