Steve Johnson to head up Extreme UK channel

Vendor also appoints Chris Elliott to its channel team as it looks to grow UK VAR numbers

Right man for the job: Steve Johnson has held channel development roles at both 3Com and HP

Extreme Networks has appointed former HP and 3Com man Steve Johnson as UK channel director. The vendor has also named Chris Elliott as channel account manager.

Extreme currently works with 36 UK resellers, eight of which occupy the top two tiers of the networking manufacturer's partner programme – Platinum and Gold. Johnson has been charged with increasing the vendor's overall number of UK VARs, while also swelling the ranks of top-level Platinum partners.

Elliott, who has spent a decade in the IT industry, will focus on Extreme's Silver partners. His remit will be to nurture them into higher-level partners. Both Elliott and Johnson will be based at Extreme's UK headquarters in Bourne End, Buckinghamshire.

Gary Newbold, Extreme's regional director for the UK and Ireland, said: “We boast a large and loyal customer-base as a direct result of the efforts of our partners and resellers. Our expanded UK channel team will work closely with these organisations to help them grow their business with Extreme Networks and increase our market share.”