Kathy Schneider leaves Dell after 14 years

Global channel exec moves on as worldwide reshuffle begins ahead of shareholder vote

Dell's global channel marketing chief Kathy Schneider is leaving the company she joined in 1999 on the eve of a major global channel exec reshuffle.

It is understood that Schneider (pictured) has taken a job elsewhere.

Yesterday US time saw Dell fold two channel organisations into just one global channel programmes and partner enablement team, according to US reports.

Greg Davis, global commercial channel vice president and general manager at Dell, has confirmed that global certified partner programme executive director Bob Skelley will lead the consolidated group, incorporating Schneider's team with his own.

The change will take effect immediately, Davis said.

"Skelley has been a key leader on our channel team for the past five years," Davis said in an official statement provided to ChannelWeb.

"We believe this is a great opportunity to provide better support to our channel partners and customers and increase our overall capability in the channel organisation."

Schneider has been contacted for comment but had not yet responded at the time of writing.

It has been suggested that it was Schneider's departure that provided an opportunity for the vendor to "tighten up" the organisation.

It may also be an apposite move ahead of the shareholder vote on a private sale of the struggling vendor – coming up next week on 18 July.

Schneider joined Dell US in 1999 as a printer product marketing specialist, after a stint at toy maker Mattel as an MBA intern and in Mexico in several roles at food giant Kraft and development bank Nacional Financiera.

Moving up through a succession of sales and marketing related roles at Round Rock, she became UK and Ireland marketing director in 2005, EMEA channel operations director in 2007.

After a series of further promotions, she eventually became Dell's overall executive director of global channel marketing and programmes in July 2012.