Citrix channel boss Bland out for a Duck

Kevin Bland rocks up at Black Duck Software

Citrix's long-serving channel boss Kevin Bland has left the company and joined open source firm Black Duck Software.

Until earlier this month, Bland (pictured) held the role of senior sales director of channel and alliances in northern Europe at the virtualisation vendor, which he began a year ago after moving from the role of director of channel and alliances in northern Europe. He joined Citrix in 1999 after a stint at Compaq.

According to his LinkedIn page, Bland is now channel and alliances director for EMEA at Black Duck Software. On his profile, he said he is responsible for creating strategic partnerships, channel programmes and a "sales engine" to boost awareness of the brand and its technology.

Citrix was unavailable to comment at the time of publication.

Last week, the firm announced preliminary financial results it was "disappointed" with – revenue for Q1 is expected to come in between $755m (£507.59) and $760m, below its prior guidance of $780m and $790m.

The firm's chief executive Mark Templeton partly blamed recent channel changes for the results.

"We are disappointed with our Q1 results, but fully committed to the financial, operational and strategic initiatives announced last quarter," he said. "We underestimated the impact caused by our restructuring, organisational evolution, and changes to our field and channel strategies, which were the result of important decisions made to get the business ready for our next phase of growth.

"Additionally, the increase in foreign exchange volatility impacted results and customer-buying behaviour to a larger extent than anticipated in the quarter."