Novell Channel Chief Pat Bernard has left the company, and Tim Wolfe (pictured) is now serving as acting VP of global channel sales. Has Bernard landed a new job elsewhere? The VAR Guy is digging for answers.
Here’s a quick look at the Novell statement:
Novell’s Tim Wolfe to Serve as Acting Vice President of Global Channel Sales
Global Channel Program to Continue Expanding and Serving Global Markets
Waltham, Mass. - August 5, 2008 – Novell today announced that effective immediately, Tim Wolfe, President, General Manager, Novell Americas will serve as acting Vice President of Global Channel Sales. Wolfe replaces Pat Bernard, who joined Novell in 2007 to work with Novell’s geography channel leads and business unit sales executives to drive the design, implementation and management of Novell’s indirect sales channel.
In a statement, Mr. Wolfe re-emphasized Novell’s commitment to driving channel sales, and the critical role that Novell’s channel partners play. “The channel is critical to Novell’s long-term success, and we will move quickly to fill the Global Channel position and continue driving our successful channel strategy.”
Wolfe will still maintain his current responsibilities over Novell business operations across the United States, Canada and Latin America, and will leverage his deep strategic global sales experience to continue driving Novell’s innovative channel sales programs around the world. Wolfe joined Novell in October 2003 as Southeast Area VP/GM, and has most recently served as East Area VP/GM. Prior to joining Novell, Wolfe spent 20 years with IBM holding a variety of senior management positions.
The more The VAR Guy reads this, the more it seems like Novell is in reaction mode — perhaps issuing a statement very quickly because of a surprise change in Bernard’s career commitments. Of course, that’s complete speculation from The VAR Guy — a trait of his that most readers have learned to deal with..
In a follow-up email exchange with The VAR Guy, a Novell spokeswoman said Bernard was no longer with the company. The VAR Guy is poking around to see where Bernard is heading next.
This is a strange time for Novell. On the one hand, the company has made great strides in the past year with its SuSE Linux, security and identity management efforts. Bernard, meanwhile, stabilized and worked to rebuild Novell’s channel organization, which had withered away in the late 1990s.
Still, Novell seems to have two identities: A growing open source company and a shrinking legacy software company that continues to cut costs wherever possible.
Back in July, Novell executive VP of worldwide sales Thomas Francese left the company as part of an “unfortunate but needed step to help boost operating profits,” according to a research note from Jefferies & Co., which Barron’s covered. But Jefferies & Co. also stated that Novell was nearly recession proof.
Um, The VAR Guy scoffs at such statements. No high-tech company is fully — or nearly — recession proof. And no company can afford to go too long with an “acting” channel chief. It sounds like Novell will be working overtime to find a new channel chief in the weeks ahead.
Tags: Novell Acting Channel Chief Tim Wolfe | Novell Channel Chief Pat Bernard | Novell Partner Program | SuSE Linux
Interact: Add a Comment | Trackback Link | Permalink
Share: digg | del.icio.us | Technorati | StumbleUpon
Subscribe: RSS Feed
_3.gif "ManageEngine")
He left in a matter of months. Can anyone please explain why? it’s also covered in http://www.crn.com/it-channel/209903226
He also was a she. Pat, where are you? The VAR Guy would welcome a call when you’re ready to talk.
Oops. I thought it was “Patrick”.
K…here is my 2 cents (not that any body asked…:-). The main area Novell is struggling in is the Identity space. Look back over the past 5 quarters……Linux is growing, Oes/NetWare revenue is flat (better than the 15% loss)and Identity is flat (in a market segment that is growing 16%/yr).
Linux and OES/NetWare are sustained via internal and channel partners (IBM, MS, SAP, HP, Accenture, and many regional ones for the OES business).
Identity business is hurting ‘big-time’ and this is due to the lack of execution. The CEO has provided the leadership but those who need to execute (The ex Sr VP of Sales and the Channel Guy) have not. They do not have the channel developed for the Identity business and without it they cannot sustain the business so heads are being chopped.
Ron is good…you got 6-9 months to prove yourself or you are out!
Dear Informed: Novell needs the rest of its business to embrace the open source model. Identity management from NOVL would have far more buzz if there was an open source community around it and promoting it…
“The channel is critical to Novell’s long-term success, and we will move quickly to fill the Global Channel position and continue driving our successful channel strategy.”
It would be interesting to elaborate more on this. I wonder how he thinks the channel strategy has been successful. Have their sales met some quote? Have they reached a certain level of marketshare? Is the adoption rate increasing to their satifaction?
Whether Pat was a guy, a girl or even possibly a transgender, we wish him, her, or it all the best.
@HurdyGurdy: Please, not cheap shots at Pat Bernard. The VAR Guy will push for answers on your other questions but they may require Novell announcing its new Channel Chief soon.
Var Guy,
I apologize for taking cheap shots at Pat Bernard. I have looked at a number of Novell threads on your site as well as CRN and there seemed to a general unfamiliarity as to who Pat Barnard was. Maybe this is because Pat Bernard did nothing to help the small integrators win business in the field. Maybe it is because we had seen nothing positive during her tenure.
They had a model back in the 2.x and 3.x days where if you invested in training and acquired a Gold Reseller status, one could compete against the online retailers on price and still make a liveable margin. Nowadays the tables have turned and there is no way for us to match the street prices on their products and make a consistently healthy margins, in spite of how much money we spend on training.
In summation, I think Pat must have been an important player for a number of Novell’s large partners, but she didn’t change anything for the better, from my vantage point.
I think your statement (from another thread) that there is no money in selling servers and server O/S’s, is just flat out wrong. Our margins average between 25% and 30% on hardware and software with our value-add component and we have strung together a number of good years doing it and see no end to it. Maybe it is the SMB space that you are not fully up-to-date on.
Once again, I meant no disrespect and I apologize. And I also was untruthful in wishing her all the best as I never knew her, nor did I know who she was until she retired. So I guess I will retract the ‘wish her well’ statement.