Neville James (NetApp)
NetApp’s Neville James has left the storage vendor after leading its Australia and New Zealand (A/NZ) channel for almost 10 years.
Sydney-based James first joined NetApp as head of partners in 2013, heading up its channel during the technology industry’s mass transition from traditional storage to hyperscale public cloud.
"I am really excited to use the transition from NetApp as an opportunity to embark on a consulting and business coaching career," James told ARN.
"Nurturing new talent and ideas has always been the part of my job that I loved the most and I want to really focus on building a portfolio of roles within that area."
Credit: Stephen Persoglia Leading the charge now will be Melbourne-based Stephen Persoglia, who has worked in NetApp’s A/NZ channel team since 2015.
James praised Persoglia as an "outstanding leader", while describing the channel team as "the most creative, hard-working and capable" in Australia.
On his proudest moments, James continued: "I’d point to my role in steering NetApp's leadership in creating genuine outcome-based service provider partnerships, our recent creation of the cloud team and a new breed of cloud focussed partnerships and alliances to lean into this major change for our industry – and perhaps on the personal level the number of genuine friends and colleagues I’ve made."
As for the partner community, he said he was "constantly in awe of their energy and approach to building their businesses".
"They are the real heroes of the IT industry and I hope to be able to work with them in some way for many years to come. If that plays out then that will be my favourite achievement," he said.
James has worked in Australia’s technology industry for the past 25 years. Between 2007 and 2010, he served as channel director for Nortel, before taking over as Citrix channel director until 2013.
In April 2013, he joined NetApp, leading its now 140-strong channel in A/NZ.
Recently, James’s channel team was split in two: half are dedicated to selling NetApp’s traditional hardware solutions, alongside related services, while the other is dedicated to finding new partners.
“NetApp Australia and New Zealand is refining our strategic approach for FY24 to deliver our customers the very best in hybrid, multi-cloud data management solutions and position our company for continued performance and growth well into the future,” NetApp said in a statement.
“As part of the new focus, Neville James is stepping away from the business. We’d like to thank Nev for all his great work and achievements over the past years at NetApp and wish Nev all the best for his future.”
James’s departure follows that of A/NZ leader Paul Crighton, who left after three years in the top role.
Asia Pacific vice president and CTO Matthew Hurford was later appointed as A/NZ managing director.
He will continue to be supported by Dhruv Dhumatkar who is driving local business operations and sales engagements and Wojtek Malewski to support customers in A/NZ.
Originally Jason Daniel was to lead its sales team, but ARN understands he has since left the vendor.
