Brocade appoints Alain Valluy as new EMEA channel leader

Brocade (Nasdaq: BRCD) today announced that it has appointed Alain Valluy as its new EMEA channel sales director, signifying the company's commitment to bolster its EMEA channel and drive business opportunities across the geography. This appointment comes soon after Brocade launched its enhanced channel partner programme, which Valluy will spearhead across EMEA.

In his new role at Brocade, Valluy will be responsible for developing channel strategies and working with the Brocade EMEA sales network to define and accelerate channel recruitment and sales programmes. Valluy has almost 20 years' experience of sales, marketing and business development in the global networking market place, most recently as sales director, EMEA, at HP ProCurve where he was responsible for transforming the European sales organization and go-to-market model to drive penetration across the region.

Valluy's extensive networking industry expertise will help Brocade expand its footprint in the EMEA market, in particular by bolstering relationships with essential channel partners and distributors, and delivering upon the company's Brocade One™ unified network strategy and vision by dramatically simplifying networks and increasing scalability without adding complexity.

"The way modern enterprises are conducting business today, and the huge volumes of data being generated, is impacting channel strategies," stated Valluy. "Businesses are looking to reduce infrastructure complexity and cost, and leverage the evolution of converged infrastructure and cloud computing models to rethink network strategies and cope with today's capacity demands. Brocade's vision for the virtualized data center, epitomized with the launch of the industry's first true Ethernet fabric switching solutions that are purpose-built for highly virtualized and cloud-optimized data centers, provides the channel with a unique opportunity. Successful channel partners will recognize how to cultivate strategic relationships with customers and leverage these to illustrate how technology investments can drive overall business efficiencies. Brocade is ideally positioned to enable channel partners to prosper in today's highly competitive market, and I relish the opportunity in front of us."

Valluy has a long and distinguished career in IT, predominantly at networking companies. Before his role as sales director, EMEA, at HP ProCurve, he held country and channel sales leadership roles at the company in France where he consistently grew market share year-on-year. Before that, Valluy's experience also includes roles at Hewlett-Packard, CompuServe, ECS and Alcatel.