EMC hires channel veteran as new EMEA COO

Simon Walsh closes up on McDonald's right shoulder

Exclusive Former Colt Technology Services grand fromage Simon Walsh is set to become one of the top brass at EMC EMEA, according to multiple industry sources.

Walsh, an exec director at Colt, exited the business back in November along with a couple of his lieutenants following nearly three years at the firm.

Sources told us that Walsh will land at EMC Europe as chief operating officer but the storage giant was yet to confirm this at the time of writing.

It is unclear what remit will be handed to Walsh in the new role because country managers in the region do not report to the COO, we are told by folk close to the vendor.

He will report to Adrian McDonald, EMEA president and an EMC veteran, having racked up nearly 26 years service.

Walsh rocked up at Colt Tech Services in February 2011 with the brief to design and implement a managed services strategy. The unit grew 7.1 per cent in the first half year financials to €107m but management may have wanted faster growth.

Other staff that left at the same time included veep of business transformation Jon Bennett and Clarke Turabee, veep of finance. All three previously worked at Computacenter.

It is quite apt that EMC turned to a channel man given its new found love for partnering, having passed across numerous direct sales accounts alongside efforts to be more channel friendly. ®