Cisco Systems has named Oliver Tuszik as its new senior VP of the Global Partner Organization. He succeeds Wendy Bahr, who will work to ensure a smooth transition through Cisco Partner Summit in November, the company says. Bahr announced her retirement plans several weeks ago.
In his new role, Oliver will act as an advocate and represent the voice of Cisco's partner ecosystem, the company said in a prepared statement. He will focus on creating alignment, simplifying tools, processes, programs and offers to help partners be successful and ultimately help Cisco and partners deliver the right customer outcomes together, the company added.
Among the key relationships to watch: Tuszik's interactions with VP Nirav Sheth, who has led the company's revitalized push into the small business channel ecosystem. Much of the effort has involved MSPs and a growing relationship with ConnectWise. More than a network hardware push, the SMB effort promotes the company's software as a service portfolio, as well as the more recent Cisco Meraki Go effort.
Tuszik has extensive experience at the networking giant and in the IT industry. His career highlights, according to a bullet list from the networking company, include:
- As the Country Leader for Germany, Oliver and his team have driven five years of successive growth and earned the honor of Theater of the Year for the past two years.
- Prior to joining Cisco in 2013, he was the CEO and Managing Director of Computacenter Germany, one of the networking firm's largest partners. He spent two additional years there running the networking business.
- Oliver spent many years in international leadership roles for General Electric, where gained a strong background in consulting and in managed services.
Also within the Cisco partner organization, VP of Global Channel Distribution Julie Hens is moving to a new role in sales. Andrew Sage is her interim replacement until a permanent leader for that group is named.
