As reported last week, Buddie Ceronie, current vice president, UK, Ireland and Southern Africa, will leave the company to pursue other professional opportunities. Taking the helm of the new UK and Ireland sales region will be Lee Shorten, who joined Avaya to revamp the vertical markets programme. Before joining Avaya, Lee worked at Irisys, a technology company focused on the retail sector, where he held responsibility for worldwide sales and marketing, reporting directly to the executive board. Prior to his role with Irisys, Lee worked at Symbol Technologies as EMEA industry lead for the manufacturing sector. He became part of the Motorola team following its acquisition of Symbol.
As of 1 April, the Southern Africa region, formerly part of the UK/Ireland sales region for Avaya, will be incorporated into the former Avaya Middle East and Northern Africa (MENA) region, now renamed the Emerging Markets region. This region will remain under the continuing direction of Nidal Abou-Itaif, Area Sales Leader, Avaya Emerging Markets, but will now include the Middle East countries, Turkey, Greece, and the entire African sub-continent.
“The feedback we have received from customers and partners is that increased and singular focus on the specific needs of UK and Ireland customers will help us gain momentum in these key markets; at the same time, it made sense to align the African region with the other rapidly-growing emerging markets,” said Michael Bayer, president of field operations, Avaya EMEA. “We anticipate these changes will be received quite positively by the focus markets, and we wish to thank Buddie Ceronie for his service to the company as he moves on to new opportunities.”