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Red Hat assigns new Australasian partner director

Red Hat assigns new Australasian partner director

Red Hat Inc. has appointed former IBM software division sales manager, David Ramsay, as its new director of channel and alliances for Australia and New Zealand. The announcement follows the departure of previous partner director, Sandeep Chandiramani.

Red Hat Inc. has appointed former IBM software division sales manager, David Ramsay, as its new director of channel and alliances for Australia and New Zealand. The announcement follows the departure of previous partner director, Sandeep Chandiramani. Ramsay said his immediate task was to expand the company's channel charter and its partner base.

"It is now about getting our partners better at what they are doing, getting our marketing right, recruiting more partners and getting our distributors to be more involved in what we do," he said.

Ramsay said the vendor had set no targets on how many partners it would like to sign up. It was more important it understood the business needs of its resellers. However, he pointed to services-related business as a key growth area.

"There's a lot of business around Linux, Unix migration," he said. "Most of the major integrators - such as Dimension Data, Kaz and Volante - are now looking at setting up Linux strategies because there is a lot of opportunity. We need people that can deliver solutions."

Prior to his appointment at Red Hat, Ramsay spent three years with IBM's software group, most recently as the sales manager for Australia and New Zealand. Previously, he was in charge of small to medium business sales of its Lotus and GMB solutions for the region.

Ramsay said he took on the role as a way of participating in the opportunities surrounding the mass market adoption of Linux.

"It's a few years since we've had such a big wave of evolution," he said. "It is exciting to come back to a smaller company where we can do anything."

Ramsay replaces Chandiramani, who is leaving to take an operations analysis role at Red Hat's US headquarters.

"My job [here] was to set up the channel infrastructure," Chandiramani said. "I feel we have accomplished that. It's now there for another person to build on."

Chandiramani took up the Australian position in April 2003. Prior to that, he oversaw the growth of Red Hat's European operations. He has also held various positions in the financial and IT operations side of the business in the U.S. -- ARNnet, International Data Group

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