Cisco Systems Canada has confirmed to CDN that Fred Patterson has joined the subsidiary as the director of channel development for the security architecture business.
Patterson spent the last nine years as channel chief for Symantec Canada. This past May CDN learned that Patterson was out as director of channels at Symantec Canada and been replaced by Jim Willis. Symantec promoted from within; Willis was previously director of enterprise sales with the vendor.
Sean Forkan, vice-president and general manager of Symantec Canada, confirmed the departure of Patterson and the appointment of Willis to the channel role hinting that the move may be related to the ongoing restructuring at Symantec.
A source inside Cisco Canada said the networking giant views security as a top priority and Patterson will be responsible for building and enabling a security-centric partner ecosystem in Canada.
A Sir Wilfred Laurier University graduate, Patterson has been a multiple CDN Top 25 Newsmaker. Previous to Symantec/Cisco, Patterson was the country manager for Micrografix and also worked in channel sales roles for Central Point Software and Waterloo Maple before joining Symantec in 2004.
