Michelle Du Plessis and Locksley McKay hired to expand focus on the IT channel
Vertiv (NYSE: VRT), a global provider of critical digital infrastructure and continuity solutions, today announced it has appointed two new channel talents as it increases focus on its Australia and New Zealand (A/NZ) channel to meet edge computing demand in the region’s increasingly decentralised business ecosystem.
Michelle Du Plessis has taken the role of Channel Sales Coordinator and brings extensive experience in both the vendor and distributor sides of the IT channel.
She joins Vertiv Australia and New Zealand from Anixter where she held the role Inside Sales Representative, and prior to that was at Ultimate IT Services and AtlasCo.
Du Plessis is a local industry stalwart, and said she joined Vertiv to assist partners to bring customisation and flexibility to edge computing.
“With the maturing of our new partner program, I’m taking full ownership in helping smaller partners compete in the depths of the channel and become more self-sufficient by taking away the complexity at the user level. We are also injecting incentives for the innovative work they do,” said Du Plessis. “Alongside locally reliable, on-the-ground support, it’s the vertical expertise of our partners that will be fundamental to the customisation and flexibility of edge solutions, and we want to be the backbone of that partnership.”
As Vertiv continues to help partners find new ways to meet changing customer expectations, Locksley McKay is tasked with deepening partner relationships in his IT Channel Sales Executive role. He joins from security vendor Sapio and also previously worked with international solutions provider Logicalis.
“As a channel organisation, our partners are the lifeblood of our business,” said McKay. “By expanding our support for local partners, we’re helping companies build resilience into their architecture and handle both long-term growth and business-as-usual workloads.”
Du Plessis and McKay will report to Vertiv A/NZ National IT Manager Chris Denis and work closely with Vertiv’s local partners, including xAmplify, Data 3 , Dell Enterprise, HPE, NTT Global and many others, as well as IT distributor Tech Data.
”As organisations look to capitalise on their changing work environments, edge computing is set to play a critical role in the decentralised ecosystem that paints today’s workforce,” Denis said. “Vertiv’s recent survey found that respondents with edge sites anticipated, on average, a 400 per cent increase in the number of edge sites they will support by 2025. This industry upswing will demand a sophisticated rollout strategy and architecting of edge solutions, and that’s where our partners come in.”
“We’re increasing the depth and scope of the expertise partners can bring to customers, particularly in the education and healthcare sectors. These organisations are grappling with ever-shrinking budgets, while simultaneously under pressure to innovate and find ways to span the technology adoption curve,” Denis said.
“As Vertiv continues to invest in our Channel business, we will continue to improve our Vertiv Partner Program (VPP) and will be launching our Vertiv Incentive Program (VIP) shortly.”
The newly enhanced channel team will take part in an upcoming healthcare and education-focused roundtable alongside Tech Data, xAmplify and Nvidia, hosted by Vertiv. Invitations for this August 11 invite only event will be sent out in the next weeks.
