Brocade Names Bill Lipsin as Vice President of Worldwide Channel and Global Systems Integrator Sales

Industry veteran tasked with driving growth across Brocade’s go-to-market partners, and help them leverage data center networking opportunities across the globe

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia; September 9, 2013 – Brocade (Nasdaq: BRCD), today announced the appointment of Bill Lipsin to the position of Vice President of Worldwide Channel and Global Systems Integrator Sales.  Mr. Lipsin is responsible for the overall direction and management of all sales, marketing and business development operations for Brocade’s channel organization, and the strategic direction and operational management of the company’s Global Systems Integrator (GSI) team.  Mr. Lipsin will report directly to Brocade’s Senior Vice President of Worldwide Sales, Jeff Lindholm.

In his new role at Brocade, Mr. Lipsin will be responsible for developing go-to-market strategies and working with the company’s global sales and marketing organizations to define and accelerate channel recruitment and sales programs.  Critically, his task will be to enable partners and GSIs to leverage key industry trends such as data center virtualization, cloud computing and software-defined networking to drive revenue.  Within the GSI space, Mr. Lipsin will position Brocade as the de facto networking vendor of choice, and work with partners to ensure that customers benefit from Brocade’s industry-leading portfolio of solutions.

“91 percent of IT decision makers admit that their data center networks need upgrading, and many of these will turn to either GSIs or the channel to fulfill their needs,” said Jeff Lindholm, Senior Vice President of Worldwide Sales at Brocade.  “In order to leverage customer demand for robust and agile data center networks, Brocade’s partner landscape needs to be able to deliver strategic counsel and technical excellence across the board.  Bill’s track record of building robust partner sales organizations is second to none, and I am confident that he has the right mix of industry knowledge, business acumen and leadership skills to drive continued growth across Brocade’s go-to-market ecosystem.”

With more than 30 years of experience in the high-tech industry, Mr. Lipsin has held a number of sales and marketing leadership positions at networking and telecommunications technology companies.  Most recently at Arbor Networks, a provider of network security and management solutions for enterprise and service provider networks, he served as Global Vice President of Channels and Alliances where he was responsible for establishing a new go-to-market strategy for the company, taking a traditionally direct sales model and creating a partner sales strategy from the ground up.

Prior to that Mr. Lipsin ran the Global Channels team at CA Technologies, and has held senior executive roles at a number of leading technology companies such as Bay Networks and IBM.

“With the uptake of fabric-based networking and the drive to cloud-based computing, coupled with the acceptance of new technologies such as software-defined networking and network function virtualization, end users are actively seeking technology partners that can help them drive business transformation through innovation,” commented Bill Lipsin.  “I am excited by Brocade’s market proposition, and feel that we are well-positioned to drive the next wave of data center innovation.  Brocade’s partner ecosystem is one of the best in the industry, and I am committed to leading a talented organization and ensuring that we have the right strategy in place that will enable us to quickly respond to customer (and partner) needs and fully capitalize on market opportunities as they present themselves.”