Heel steps into Avaya services hotseat

Sun veteran Joe Heel is appointed comms player's services chief while Chris Formant moves to government-focused role

Boardroom shake-up: Joe Heel's arrival will see Chris Formant take on a role as president of government solutions

Comms vendor Avaya has appointed Sun Microsytems' executive Joe Heel as president of its 8,000-strong global services team.

Incumbent services top dog Chris Formant has become president of government solutions. Joel Hackney, who joined Avaya as part of the Nortel acquisition, had been overseeing the vendor's government business. He is now free to focus on his day job: president of global sales, marketing and field operations.

New boy Heel spent five years at Sun, serving the firm as senior vice president of both its global storage practice and its industries and partners unit. Most recently, he led the hardware manufacturer's worldwide services efforts.

Avaya chief executive Kevin Kennedy said: "We believe that Joe's extensive enterprise sales and services experience as well as his proven ability to deliver business results will add significant value to Avaya and our customers."

Formant joined Avaya two years ago and the vendor said he has guided the services division to greater operational efficiency and increased profitability. Kennedy characterised him as one of the firm's most capable executives and said his new brief spoke to the importance of government business.

"With the acquisition of Nortel Enterprise Solutions, Avaya has dramatically enhanced our capabilities in several key areas, including channel reach and the government markets in the US," he said.

"The communications capabilities of our government solutions customers are critical, both in the US and around the globe. By putting Chris Formant, one of our strongest executives, in the senior leadership role of an expanded global government business unit, we are affirming our commitment to our government customers."