Sawkins quits Avaya for mystery post
UK and Eire VP believed to be joining Cisco
Avaya has lost its UK and Eire vice-president Clive Sawkins, who is believed to be joining rival vendor Cisco.
Sawkins was replaced last week by Buddie Ceronie, formerly Avaya's vice-president of partner and channel sales in EMEA. Ceronie joined the company last year.
Sawkins, who resigned on 6 January, refused to comment on rumours that he is to move to Cisco's IP telephony business.
"I can confirm that I have tendered my resignation at Avaya, and that I look forward to continuing to work in the industry in the near future," he said.
A Cisco representative also refused to comment on the speculation.
Cisco dominates the relatively small pure IP telephony market. While vendors such as Avaya, Nortel and Ericsson have profited from selling hybrid systems, Cisco has built its own customer base and persuaded firms to abandon their existing voice kit in favour of new products.
Sandy Fitzpatrick, director at analyst firm Canalys, said a move by Sawkins to Cisco will be worth watching.
"Cisco has a very European focus at the moment, while Clive was working specifically on the UK and Eire markets at Avaya," she said.
Ceronie, who will manage southern Africa as well as the UK and Eire for Avaya, told CRN: "The UK has been a key region for us. It's still key, but we now have real critical mass in western Europe following the Tenovis acquisition."
Avaya bought Tenovis last year and has left the German business to run on its own.
Ceronie said he is not anticipating any changes to the channel in the UK.
"I would not normally look to be making changes in the first 30 to 60 days," he said.
Richard Pitt, channel development manager at Avaya, is understood to be on gardening leave from the company.