Westcon thinks globally

Distributor's COO aims to drive more liquidity into channel and focus on worldwide business

Distributor Westcon’s operations chief is aiming to safeguard resellers’ liquidity by focusing on driving their global business.

Former IBM and Motorola executive Dean Douglas was appointed as chief operating officer in June, becoming the first person to fill the role at Westcon for several years. He told CRN that a key focus of the past six months had been protecting VARs’ cashflow.

“I have been focused on ensuring resellers have sufficient liquidity,” he said.

“We have come up with approaches that allow us to use our balance sheet and our access to cash to drive more liquidity into the channel.”

He indicated that he was hoping to keep the distributor and its VARs in robust shape by concentrating on services and worldwide business.

“I am focusing on services and on driving our global reach and global engagements,” he said. “Modern resellers are seeing that their engagements cross borders.”