Ex-Cisco services channel chief lands at Avaya

Running channel operations.

A well-known former Cisco executive has landed at Avaya in a vice president-level role running services partner strategy, CRN has learned.

Karl Meulema, whose last role at Cisco was senior vice president, global strategy and operations, joined Avaya in late August as vice president of global services and partners.

An Avaya spokesperson confirmed Meulema's hire and that he reports to Michael Runda, Avaya senior vice president and president, Avaya Client Services (ACS).

Channel services should be familiar territory for Meulema, who headed channels, then marketing and channels, then global strategy and operations for Avaya arch-nemesis Cisco's sprawling services business over a seven-year period.

Meulema in 2009 became senior vice president, global strategy and operations and then took an early retirement package from Cisco during its corporate restructuring in 2011. Earlier in his career, Meulema spent eight years in sales and marketing roles at HP.

Meulema was part of a slew of major executive departures from Cisco in the past year. Avaya has also seen extensive executive turnover of late, with a number of C-, SVP- and VP-level Avaya executives having left in recent months and several more having joined.

Avaya's previous head of Global Services (later ACS), Mohamad Ali, left the company in March and was succeeded by Runda in May. Another Avaya services executive, Carelyn Monroe, former vice president of global partner support services, left the company in August.

This article originally appeared at crn.com