New Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise leadership team set to grow channel ANZ success

Alcatel-Lucent has announced additions to its Enterprise team across Australia and New Zealand, designed to strengthen its support for partners and keep pace with the growing demand for seamless cloud-based collaboration and broader network and communication solutions in the local market.

As a result, the company has named Chris Downes as Channel Sales Director for its Australia and New Zealand operations.

As part of the new role, Downes will be responsible for driving Alcatel-Lucent’s overall partner strategy, planning and execution for the region, while continuing to enable partner success with Alcatel-Lucent’s portfolio of enterprise solutions.

Downes will also focus on driving the growth of Alcatel-Lucent’s position in the unified communications market, which according to Gartner’s Magic Quardrant will continue to mature over the next several years with increasing end-user adoption

Prior to joining Alcatel-Lucent in 2008, Downes had an impressive track record in sales and management, as the Head of Verizon’s wholesale division in Australia and New Zealand.

"Chris will significantly contribute to our strategic goals with first class relationship management, and deliver our cloud proposition to business partners and their customers,” says Maud Holvast, vice president, Alcatel Lucent Enterprise ANZ.

In addition, Alcatel-Lucent is also strengthening its presence across Australia with Malcombe Rowe the newly appointment State Manager for Queensland and Michael Masal as Account Manager for the Australian Capital Territory (ACT).

These positions aim to create a strong and effective leadership presence across Queensland and ACT to service the company’s customers, particularly in the healthcare and government sectors.

“There is a growing enthusiasm amongst our partners towards both our OpenTouch and broader end-to-end solutions, especially as they are seeing a momentum amongst their customers in the adoption of new technology with the support of cloud and new consumption models," Holvast adds.

"We‘re investing heavily in the best fit-for-purpose team to respond to this rapid growth and enable our partners to help their customers have rich collaborative conversations."

The new additions to the Enterprise team bring with them fresh perspectives and expertise to help accelerate the company’s growth and deliver customised solutions support for Alcatel-Lucent’s partners and customers.

Rowe joins Alcatel-Lucent from previous roles held with Datacom, Telecom New Zealand and Digital equipment Corporation and Masal moves into his new role from the Strategic Industries team from within the company.