Lexmark bolsters channel team

Gary King: It’s vital that we spend more time with the resellers helping them to develop their marketplaces

Printing vendor Lexmark has created two channel-facing roles to help boost its standing in the copier market and forge ties with more large IT VARs.

Ken Owen joins from rival Ricoh as Lexmark Value Print (LVP) channel development director. He has worked in the copier industry for more than three decades, including 17 years at Infotec, (formerly Danka), where he oversaw operations in Scandinavia, the Netherlands, Ireland and the UK.

Owen has been tasked with increasing channel awareness of Lexmark's managed print services (MPS) portfolio. His chief focus will be augmenting the vendor's position in the copier market.

“Developing effective relationships with partners and resellers is increasingly important in the current economic climate,” he said.

Gary King arrives at Lexmark as senior business manager for the UK SMB sales channel, having spent upwards of 10 years in the B2B leasing industry. He has worked for a number of banks and also spent three years as Siemens Financial Services UK head of sales.

His remit will be to deepen the printing vendor's relationship with large, independently owned IT resellers and develop strategic account plans with key partners.

“With customers feeling the pinch, it’s vital that we spend more time with the resellers helping them to develop their marketplaces and, in turn, gain closer relationships with their end users," he said. "Over the coming months, the focus will be on leading sales from a solutions perspective by highlighting the business benefits of our solutions."

Lexmark's UK channel sales director Marcus Harvey added: “The creation of these two roles will help Lexmark strengthen its relationship with reseller partners and enable them to gain a greater presence in the channel marketplace. Both Ken and Gary have a huge amount of experience that will be invaluable in helping Lexmark to achieve its channel objectives in the UK.”