IBM has appointed Alison Freeman as new general manager of business partner growth across Australia and New Zealand (A/NZ), replacing the recently departed Nigel Peach.
Effectively immediately, sources close to ARN can confirm that Freeman is now tasked with expanding Big Blue’s partner ecosystem on both sides of the Tasman, while further developing into new technology markets.
Freeman’s appointment - while not officially confirmed by IBM - takes the vendor’s channel leader count to three in 12 months across A/NZ.
Having joined IBM in 1997, Freeman has over 20 years experience within the organisation, having most recently spent six years as a strategy executive.
Prior to this, Freeman held the role of client executive across the business partner organisation for two years until January 2012.
During the mid-2000s, Freeman also set up the first Deal Hub for A/NZ, combining a team of bid managers, proposal writers and project managers to support the sales team to deliver proposals to customers.
Other roles within the vendor include managing a team of sellers across all IBM System Brands for the northern region of Australia in 2001, alongside establishing a new personal computing digital sales team a year previous.
Freeman replaces Peach in the local market, who vacated the role after less than six months in late February.
As revealed by ARN, Peach replaced Rhody Burton in the channel hot-seat in September 2017, taking control of the local partner ecosystem for Big Blue following four years as regional director of Pure Storage.
Freeman’s promotion also follows the appointment of David La Rose as new A/NZ managing director in October 2017, replacing Kerry Purcell, who assumed a senior leadership role within IBM Japan.
As revealed by ARN, La Rose has clocked up 28 years at the vendor in a variety of senior executive roles across Europe and Asia Pacific, and was recently the Asia Pacific vice president for enterprise and commercial.
