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Dell channel boss heads to HDS

Paul Harrison set to take on old paymaster

Dell UK channel boss Paul Harrison is set to leave at the end of the week to join Hitachi Data Systems, The Register can reveal.

In a note sent to resellers today, the Texan titan confirmed that after 11 years on board, including the last two-and-a-half as reseller lead, Harrison is in the process of handing the reins to Bill O'Shea, who has run the channel account team in Dublin.

"Bill is a Dell veteran with intimate knowledge of our UK channel business, and he has personal relationships with many of your organisations already," said Emmanuel Mouquet, Dell veep and GM of channel sales EMEA in the memo.

"Our day-to-day engagements will also remain unchanged through the Channel Development Managers, Channel Solution specialists, and Channel Account Managers. We therefore expect a very smooth transition for our UK partner community," he added.

Harrison was made channel boss in 2009, succeeded well-known industry veteran Andy Dow, who was made redundant by Dell along with a wave of senior channel execs across EMEA, less than a year after Dell formalised engagement with resellers.

Reseller sources say that Harrison did well to manage the situation amid the concern surrounding Dow's departure and the firm's conflicting routes to market.

"Paul did a good job," said one. "Dell gets a lot of grief about its direct sales business but he played a good hand".

Harvey Smith, UK and Ireland channel director at HDS, confirmed to The Register that the channel is preparing to bring Harrison on board to run a sales acquisition team targeting new business alongside resellers.

"He [Harrison] will be working on A3 accounts – corporate and commercial customers – with the existing channel team and partners," he said. ®

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