The VAR Guy

Cisco Systems, as The VAR Guy suspected, appears set to announce Jim Sherriff (pictured) as its new U.S. and Canada channel lead sometime today. Translation: Sherriff essentially becomes Cisco’s North American Channel Chief, succeeding Wendy Bahr, who has shifted into a newly designed role. So who is Sherriff? Here are some perspectives — plus an ironic twist involving Hewlett-Packard.

First, some alleged chatter from within the halls of Cisco. After finishing up some birthday cake, Cisco Global Channel Chief Keith Goodwin is set to announce Sherriff’s new position within a blog entry sometime on July 29. Goodwin tweeted a vague teaser about the announcement earlier this week. Then, a few trusted (and loose lipped) channel sources promptly told The VAR Guy that Jim Sherriff was set to become Cisco’s North American Channel Chief.

Note: Cisco has yet to confirm all this Sherriff speculation from The VAR Guy. Updated July 29, 9:53am eastern: Cisco has just confirmed everything.

But let’s keep the speculation going. Who is Sherriff? Most recently, he was chairman of Cisco China, where Sherriff oversaw Cisco’s overall business strategy in China. Earlier, Sherriff was Cisco’s Enterprise Segment Senior Vice President with sales responsibility for 3,200 of Cisco’s largest enterprise customers throughout the U.S., according to a bio tracked down by The VAR Guy.

Leaving the Garage

Oh, and here’s the ironic twist. Before joining Cisco, Sherriff had a 20-year career at a certain hardware company called… um… wait for it… Hewlett-Packard.

Though more than a decade ago, Sherriff’s time at HP included serving as VP and GM of HP Consulting, with responsibility for all of HP’s professional services, according to his bio.

Now that Cisco competes fiercely with HP, you can bet Sherriff will help Cisco partners to counter the HP Services team.

Getting Up to Speed

Still, Sherriff will need to prove himself to Cisco’s channel. Some Cisco observers say Sherriff has a strong enterprise reputation but some say he apparently has no channel experience.

But take a closer look folks: Sherriff may have been a solutions provider during a previous career stop at Stonebridge Technologies.

Either way: Cisco’s North American channel apparently has a new Sherriff in town … you all be cool.

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