Shorten sweet on Avaya UK MD role

Avaya's new UK and Ireland managing director, Lee Shorten

Avaya has appointed Lee Shorten as its new UK and Ireland managing director after announcing that this country and the Southern Africa region will no longer be part of the same sales territory.

Lee Shorten replaces Nick Roullier, who left towards the end of last year. Avaya revealed two weeks ago that UK, Ireland and Southern Africa managing director Buddie Ceronie would be leaving the company.

Speculation at the time suggested this could signal a change in how Avaya divided its sales territories. Channel rumours also picked out Shorten as the vendor's next UK chief.

Avaya has now confirmed that Southern Africa will be incorporated into what was formerly its Middle East and Northern Africa territory, now renamed the Emerging Markets region. This region will continue to be led by area sales leader Nidal Abou-Itaif, who will also oversee operations in Turkey and Greece.

UK and Ireland will revert to being its own sales region under Shorten's leadership. The new UK chief joined the communications vendor from retail technology firm Irisys and was tasked with revamping Avaya's vertical markets programme.

Avaya's EMEA president of field operations, Michael Bayer, claimed the shake-up would benefit his company's UK VARs. “The feedback we have received from customers and partners is that increased and singular focus on the specific needs of UK and Ireland customers will help us gain momentum in these key markets," he said.

"At the same time, it made sense to align the African region with the other rapidly growing emerging markets. We anticipate these changes will be received quite positively by the focus markets, and we wish to thank Buddie Ceronie for his service to the company as he moves on to new opportunities.”