Avaya ANZ gets new chief

Stuart Corner
Thursday, 25 June 2009 11:09

Business IT - Technology

Avaya has named Rob Wells as its new managing director for Australia and New Zealand, reporting to company president for Asia Pacific, John DiLullo. The company has also ditched its PR agency of several years standing.

Wells fills the gap left by Carlton Taya who, along with sales director, Peter Dillon, left the company in April. Reports said they had been made redundant, but Avaya never confirmed this. Avaya's PR Manager, Linda Motherwell, also left the company suddenly at the end of April: she had returned to work form a year's maternity leave only week earlier.

In other recent changes, Avaya has appointed Fleishman-Hillard to handle its public relations in Australia, ditching PPR which has held the account for several years. The change was the result of a decision by head office to have Fleishman's handle its PR worldwide. The move however, was sudden: iTWire had been invited to an Avaya press event set for 10 July only 10 days ago. Fleishman-Hillard told iTWire that a decision had been taken to bring the changeover in Australia forward to enable the new agency to build up a relationship with Wells, rather than have change shortly after his appointment.

Wells is billed as "a seasoned veteran in the information technology industry with 25 years of sales, operations and general management experience in enterprise software, telecommunications and computing." He joins Avaya following four years at SAP/Business Objects where he was the vice president of Australia and New Zealand. Prior to SAP, he spent eight years at PeopleSoft in a variety of roles, including vice president of North Asia and the managing director for ANZ sales operations. He has also held senior leadership roles at both Sequent Systems and Unisys.

"It's a fortunate time to be taking over the ANZ operations. The current economic climate has created a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Avaya to deliver business value to customers when they need it most. Avaya and its business partners are poised to take a quantum leap forward in this market and I'm thrilled to be part of something so exciting" said Wells.