Leader appoints David Nichols to UniFi partner leadership role

Nichols will help partners provide value and integrated solutions by applying lessons from his years managing education IT.

David Nichols has been appointed UniFi national education and corporate manager within Leader to lead partner success for IT integrators, MSPs and corporate partners.

Nichols’ whose most recent role was ICT operations manager with Central Coast Grammar School where he rolled out UniFi solutions, part of the Ubiquiti business, and advised other schools on wireless networking.

“My role is about partnerships. I want to be able to help resellers grow their business with confidence, whether that's through technical support, guidance or helping them figure out what's possible with the Ubiquiti ecosystem,” Nichols told CRN Australia.

The appointment comes as Leader recently announced it’s the exclusive distributor for the UniFi partner program in Australia. In this newly created role, Nichols will focus on education, government, commercial and industrial applications.

His remit includes full partner support, including deal registration, sales and technical training, marketing support and priority access to new products. In doing so, Nichols will prioritise integrated solutions that deliver more than just hardware for modern IT environments.

“The partners Leader will work with — resellers, MSPs and other channel partners — will focus on more managed solutions for the end-users, as opposed to just dropping gear at their feet,” he explained.

During his time in education, where budget are often constrained and renewal timeframes vary, Nichols developed a strong commitment to reducing IT costs and ensuring that more funds are available for classroom needs.

“I've spent 20 years in education, and for at least the last 15 I've been using UniFi in whatever school I worked in with the intention that it saves money for the classroom,” he said.

He plans to bring that experience to the partner ecosystem to deliver value to businesses for the IT spend.

“Everyone's finding things challenging at the moment, whether that's through end-users not having as much budget as they used to, or companies trying to increase their margins while maintaining clients, and that's where we think UniFi is a good support,” he ended.