Ex-HP exec jumps to VMware

Moves to similar channel role.

VMware has announced former longtime HP executive Frank Rauch has joined the fold as the virtualisation giant's vice president of American partners organisation. 

Rauch until recently headed up HP US channels division in its ESSN business, but departed in early June as part of a channel executive exodus at the company.

Meaghan Kelly, vice president of channel strategy at HP, joined him in leaving HP, announcing her move to SAP and a role as vice president of global channel marketing.

Rauch's move to a then-unidentified role at VMware was first announced in early JUne.

Rauch's new role appears to be similar to the one he had at HP.

"Given VMware's ongoing strategic partnership with HP and the collaboration between the companies across numerous technologies, routes to market and channel relationships, we think Frank is an excellent fit to lead the VMware team and our partner community to help drive cloud solutions deeper into the marketplace," Casale told CRN.

Rauch takes over for Brandon Sweeney, who is taking on the newly created position of vice president of US midmarket and small business sales.

Already the dominant player in server virtualisation, VMware has been vying to spread its influence into end user computing and cloud infrastructure.

HP is in the process of searching for a new enterprise US channel sales leader to replace Rauch.

This article originally appeared at crn.com