On the eve of McAfee’s annual Focus Conference in Las Vegas comes news that the security vendor no longer has a president’s role at its Canadian subsidiary.
Multiple sources both inside McAfee and outside the company have told CDN the McAfee Canada president’s position has been eliminated. The person who hold’s that title, Luc Villeneuve, will still be with the company, but in another capacity. Two internal McAfee Canada sources said Villeneuve accepted the job of director of operations and will no longer be in charge of McAfee Canada. Villeneuve will now report into Brian Gumbel, who is the vice-president of McAfee Americas East. He was just named to that post at the beginning of this year. Gumbel was the long serving vice-president of McAfee’s Northeast region. Another internal source at McAfee said that Villeneuve will be helping Gumbel during a transition phase.
According to sources, Gumbel will be fully responsible for the Canadian operation and is making plans to visit more often. This move to eliminate the Canadian president’s role is permanent, the source added. Two other sources told CDN that one of the main reason for these organizational changes was to cut down on expenses.
One senior executive at McAfee Canada said that U.S. operation has merged with the Canadian operation as part of an overall restructuring. To reduce costs associated with running this new North American region, the Canadian president’s role was eliminated.
McAfee Canada did do well this year, with double digit growth overall. In the commercial segment, which is heavily influenced by channel partners, McAfee Canada grew more than 2o per cent, said one internal source. The consumer business is also growing at a double digit pace. The subsidiary also made significant investments in training and certification under Villeneuve’s leadership, the source added.
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In a statement provided to CDN, McAfee confirmed that Villenueve is taking on a new role as director of operations for Canada, where “he will play an important role in executing the company’s go-to-market strategy for Canada, as well as building the strategic and tactical objectives for the McAfee Canada sales team.”
McAfee confirmed we will report into Gumbel, who will now have the meatier title of vice-president of Americas East and Canada, and responsibility for the consumer, enterprise and channel streams for Canada.
“McAfee is thrilled to have these leaders on board and is confident that these changes will have a positive impact on the company’s long-term plans for continued growth, productivity and operational excellence,” said the statement.
Also, sources tell CDN that McAfee has no plans to hire a full-time channel chief for McAfee Canada. Ned D’Antonio, was the last channel chief for Canada, left in February of this year. His responsibilities were taken on at the time by Villeneuve, and then were dispersed to three other executives.
Villenueve was named McAfee Canada president in August of 2012, replacing Ross Allen. The former president of NCR Canada and Europe, Villeneuve returned to the Canadian market after Allen was named president of McAfee UK & Ireland. A channel veteran, Villeneuve has held executive positions with Sun Microsystems Canada and GE Capital. While at NCR Canada, Villeneuve made growing the NCR’s indirect channel a priority and grew that business from very little to more than 15 per cent of NCR’s overall revenue.