Channel Change: All the August movements in the Aussie IT channel you may have missed

Cisco makes changes to its partner organisation, and more August movements.

The month of August saw some massive moves within the Aussie IT channel.

Some of these channel changes include long-standing execs stepping down, new leadership within the partner ecosystem and Cisco gets a leadership shakeup.

Here are all the changes you might have missed in the Aussie IT channel for August.

Cisco Australia on the hunt for a new partner lead

Cisco Australia has made some major changes to its partner leadership with Rodney Hamill becoming the Managing Director, South at Cisco. He was previously the managing director, partner and routes to market sales ANZ.

Commenting on his new role, he said on LinkedIn, “This next chapter brings me closer to customers across the region at an extraordinary time for technology and innovation.”

Mary Armstrong, who worked below Hamill has also stepped into a new role, and out of the channel. She is now the Director of Sales; Service, Software and Growth Acceleration.

Commenting on her new role, she said on LinkedIn, “I want to extend a HUGE THANK YOU to my colleagues and amazing partners that I have been lucky enough to work with while in the Partner Organisation.

“I have been part of the partner business or working directly with partners for the better part of my Cisco career – it is definitely part of my DNA.”

CRN Australia understands Cisco is currently looking for Hamill’s replacement to lead the partner organisation.

Chris Hewlett leaves HP

HP stalwart Chris Hewlett has left the organisation after a 26 year journey with the tech giant.

For the past three years, he was the senior director commercial channel at HP.

In a post on LinkedIn, he gushed about working in the Aussie channel.

“A significant part of my journey has been spent in the Australian Channel business. Together we've built strong partnerships, navigated change, celebrated success, won awards and delivered outcomes we're all proud of,” he said.

No word on where his next steps are.

TSP hires Ryan “Fuzzy” Spillane

The TSP Advisory has hired Aussie IT channel local Ryan “Fuzzy” Spillane as its new chief commercial officer.

Fuzzy has years under his belt in the channel and is well known within the community. He has been brought on to expand their advisory capability within mergers and acquisitions.

He will work directly with owners and leadership teams to deliver advisory engagements focused on governance, growth strategy, value creation, and M&A readiness.

In a statement, he said, “The businesses that achieve the strongest outcomes are typically those that focus on governance, leadership capability, operational discipline, and long-term strategy well before any transaction is contemplated.

“I look forward to helping partners strengthen those foundations and create greater opportunities for the future."

Microsoft hires new NZ MD

Microsoft has hired Nick Walton as its new NZ managing director.

He will be responsible for leading the business and supporting customers and partners as they navigate the opportunities presented by AI.

Commenting on his new role, he said, “As a proud Kiwi, I’m looking forward to joining Jane Livesey and the team, and to playing my part in leading Microsoft NZ through this next chapter.”

He begins his role on September 7. Steven Miller has served as interim leader for New Zealand since March 2026.

New marketing engine lead at Tech Data ANZ

Dom Halligan has stepped into a new role at Tech Data ANZ as the marketing engine lead for the region.

In his new role, he will focus on developing scalable, AI-enabled marketing solutions for the channel.

On a LinkedIn post, he said, “It is a cross-functional position, so the work sits close to each partner's day to day: how they run their business, sell, and go to market.

“The priority is turning those realities into practical initiatives that meaningfully accelerate their progress, while building the internal capability to deliver them at scale.”

Ricoh Australia appoints new MD and national sales manager

Ricoh Australia has appointed Tina Economou as its new managing director for the region.

In her role, she will lead the company’s continued growth and evolution as a workplace technology and managed services partner, helping customers simplify and improve the way they manage their technology environments.

She was previously the chief sales and marketing officer. She begins her role on October 1.

In a statement she said, “I look forward to building on that progress as we continue to grow sustainably, strengthen our relationships with customers and partners, and help organisations simplify their workplace technology and respond to changing business needs.”

Economou succeeds Yasu Takahashi, who has been appointed Deputy Head of Global Sales for Ricoh Graphic Communications and will be based in Tokyo.

Ricoh has also hired Matthew Taylor as national sales manager for Ricoh Graphic Communications.

Based in Sydney, Taylor will be responsible for accelerating adoption of the Ricoh range of digital production printing solutions among Australian commercial and industrial printers and in-plant facilities in support of delivering customers with cost-effective and sustainable competitive advantage.

Lab3 finds new managed services practice executive

Lab3 has hired John Gavallas to lead its Managed Services practice.

Most recently, he founded an Agentic AI operations startup focused on transforming how Managed Services are delivered.

Gavallas brings more than 20 years' experience building and scaling Managed Services businesses. He established the Azure Managed Services practice at Microsoft Partner of the Year winner Mexia, before expanding the capability into Deloitte Australia's Cloud Operate division following the company's acquisition.

Cloudwerx makes three exec appointments

Data consultancy Cloudwerx has made three executive appointments.

Ashleigh Sword has joined Cloudwerx as Chief Growth Officer; Kylie Willett has been appointed Product Director, Tesseract Design; Supriya Shonnard has been appointed Product Director, Tesseract Delivery.

These appointments are to support company growth and provide dedicated product leadership.

Sword will lead the company’s commercial strategy and go-to-market approach.

Willett will lead the development of new AI Native design systems, services and interfaces, reforming how customer ideas are shaped into practical outcomes that are ready to deliver.

Shonnard, Product Director, Tesseract Delivery, will lead continuous development and innovation the Tesseract system.

Source Technology hires director of innovation

Source Technology has appointed Andrew Nette as the director of innovation.

Nette will also lead the company's AI-readiness and data resilience strategy - with a particular focus on data classification, data governance, and sovereign cloud infrastructure.

Nette brings nearly a decade of enterprise-scale platform engineering experience to the role, including more than nine years at Australia Post, where he led large-scale public cloud operations.

Hosted Network appoints director of sales

Anthony Rosa has been appointed as director of sales at Hosted Network.

Rosa brings more than a decade of channel and MSP-focused sales leadership to the position. He joins from LastPass, where he most recently served as MSP International Sales Manager.

He will lead the company’s sales organisation, with responsibility for team performance, revenue growth and partner engagement across its base of managed service provider (MSP) partners.

Canon Business Services hires new GM sales and marketing

Canon Business Services (CBS) ANZ has hired Matt Clarkin as its new general manager – sales and marketing.

Clarkin joins from Avanade, where he led their Australian financial services and commercial business.

He joins CBS with more than 26 years of experience leading sales and go-to-market functions for enterprise software vendors, system integrators, and founder-led services businesses, with deep expertise in Microsoft-aligned growth strategies.

Commenting on why he joined CBS, he said in a statement, “Having spent my career across the technology ecosystem, I joined CBS because it's in a unique position to be that partner.”

ECI hires first APAC channel manager

ECI Software Solutions has hired Gino Granata as the company’s first APAC channel manager.

Based in Melbourne, Granata will be responsible for continuing to expand the role of ECI’s channel program in supporting its growth trajectory while developing strategic alliances and channel partnerships with manufacturing consultants, system integrators, resellers and industry stakeholders across the Asia Pacific region.

He will oversee localised partner communication, joint marketing campaigns, and regional alliance ecosystem alignment to maximise market impact in support of delivering highly optimised, value-driven business architectures for end user manufacturing customers.

RecordPoint hires new CRO

Global data and AI governance platform RecordPoint has hired Christian Lucarelli as Chief Revenue Officer.

Lucarelli joined RecordPoint in January as Vice President of Global Partner Sales and Strategy, where he designed and launched the company's Global Partner Program, a channel-first model spanning reseller, referral and co-sell tracks across Australia, New Zealand, North America and the United Kingdom.

In the expanded role, Lucarelli takes responsibility for all of RecordPoint's revenue functions, including direct sales, channel, partnerships and revenue operations. He will continue to be based in Melbourne.