DeHaven aims to drive UK vendor jetNEXUS to tenfold growth

Former Cisco bigwig brought in to help load balancing firm kick on as it eyes outside investment

UK load balancing player jetNEXUS wants to expand its sales tenfold after appointing Cisco veteran Jim DeHaven to take the company to the next level.

The Marlow-based outfit currently turns over about £2.5m and works with around 10 UK reseller partners. The incoming chief executive told CRN he would be looking to drive the company's top line up to around the £25m mark. The firm will also be seeking to expand its channel footprint, to which end it intends to double its roster of territory account managers from three to six.

"Now it is about building out a partner sales organisation that will drive demand into our partner base," said DeHaven. "We are looking to recruit another 10 to 15 partners and one or two distributors. For partners that do not have the knowledge or the bandwidth or the resources to take on an F5 or a Citrix, this provides them with a play into the public sector, and into the mid-market, and gives them a price-competitiveness."

DeHaven joins jetNEXUS after nine years at Cisco, whom he joined via the networking giant's buyout of FineGround networks in 2005. Earlier in his career he served employers including Anixter, EMC, Vignette, and Digimine. He takes over his new role from founder Greg Howett, who claimed he wanted to bring in a focus more on the technology side of the business.

"My background has been highly technical, and even the salespeople have come from a technical background," he explained. "The company reached a certain size where we needed to take some decisions about where we are going; I want to focus on being an expert in driving the technology. We have a fantastic opportunity, and I did not want to lose it by maintaining the belief that we can all do everything well."

Howett (pictured, on the right, with DeHaven) claimed that jetNEXUS wants to continue investing in its technical clout, and is in discussions on both sides of the Atlantic with potential investors who could help the company achieve its growth ambitions.

"We are still committed to investing. The next big thing is we have a really cool SDN strategy, accelerating the experience for mobile device users," he added.

The vendor, which also runs offices in St Louis and Kuala Lumpur, launched its first formal channel scheme last summer. The programme included a deal registration initiative offering partners registering a deal a guaranteed 15 per cent payment, even if they ultimately lost the opportunity to a rival jetNEXUS partner. Other benefits include free training and enablement.