Avaya sales leader Mitchell to depart in leadership rejig

Sales, marketing and strategy operations to be united under Pierre-Paul Allard's watch from 1 October

Avaya has announced that its global sales senior vice president Tom Mitchell is to depart the firm.

Mitchell, who joined the New Jersey-based comms vendor in 2010 , is to leave the company on 30 September. His duties will be taken over by SVP of global strategy and development Pierre-Paul Allard, who arrived at Avaya a year ago.

A statement sent out by the vendor today claims that integrating the leadership position for strategy, marketing and sales operations will allow the firm "to better segment the market, understand the needs of the customers and target new buyers and new audiences for Avaya's technology".

Mitchell's exit will coincide with the end of Avaya's FY13, and the note went on to claim that "Pierre-Paul and Tom will be a formidable team driving our field sales and channels to a successful close of our fiscal year".

"Tom Mitchell was a huge help in aligning the channel and our sales force in a single direction," added the statement. "At the same time, Pierre-Paul spent his first year working to improve our strategic focus, key alliance partners and strategic marketing efforts. Now we are able to bring together all go-to-market motions and further align our efforts as we move into new markets and new geographies.

"Pierre-Paul is the perfect executive to help lead this effort as he brings a very successful track record of leading world-class sales teams and has deep experience working with the channel while at IBM and Cisco."