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Nimble gives Mann severe kicking while he's down

Not a nice way to treat your head of sales

Comment Nimble's w-w sales VP Eric Mann resigned abruptly a few days ago and the firm has released an unflattering statement about his departure.

"Eric Mann made the personal decision to leave Nimble acknowledging that he underestimated the level of personal and professional commitment required to build and lead a high-performance sales team for one of the fastest growing storage companies in the industry."

What? It was all down to Mann himself and not to Nimble mis-hiring?

Mann's LinkedIn CV reveals he was:

  • NetApp 2002 - 2014:
    • SVP and GM of Americas Sales 01/2008 – 2014
    • VP East Area, Canada and LATAM 11/2002 – 01/2008
  • Storage Apps startup - sales and marketing head Sep 2000 - Sep 2001 (when HP acquired it for $350m+)
  • EMC 1989 - 2000:
    • VP Americas Sales 09/1997 – 09/2000
    • VP Enterprise Sales – NY Metro 01/1995 – 09/1997
    • Director, NY Sales – NY Metro 01/1992 – 01/1995
    • Sales Executive – NY Metro 03/1989 – 01/1992

This is a guy who has risen through the ranks to the very top of the sales mountain, including working at a startup – and Nimble says "he underestimated the level of personal and professional commitment" needed?

We can only begin to imagine the pressure that must have been involved in the job and offer our sympathies to Mann, who seems to have decided, honourably, to walk the plank. With that kind of send-off he must have potentially been facing termination.

After putting the boot in so massively and unkindly to Mann, Nimble says it "is fortunate to have a very seasoned global sales team with strong regional sales leadership in place in the US, EMEA and Asia Pac. These sales leaders will in the interim report directly to Nimble Storage CEO, Suresh Vasudevan. We are actively engaged in a search to find a new head of global sales and, given the success of the company so far, we are confident that we will have no difficulty in attracting a strong candidate to fill the role in the near future."

Candidates better have the hide of a rhinoceros in case they get kicked too. ®

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